Roto Riteup: April 18, 2013

Today’s Roto Riteup is a big believer in talking about pitching.

On today’s agenda:
1. Mike Minor and Wade Davis’ pitching duel
2. Chris Capuano and Dodgers pitching
3. Fun early season facts

Mike Minor and Wade Davis’ pitching duel
A vast majority of y’all were at work or otherwise preoccupied and thus unavailable to watch Minor and Davis duke it out on the mound. Minor went six innings whilst allowed a single run while Davis lasted seven without a single runner crossing home plate.

Minor looked like an absolute stud over the second half last year, pitching to a 2.21 ERA with a little over four strikeouts for every walk issued. Granted, a .223 BABIP wasn’t sustainable heading into 2013, but there was a lot to like. Minor has answered the call, as he’s given up just one walk and one run over 19 early innings. Having watched Minor for a majority of those 19 innings through the magic of MLB.tv, I have to say he hasn’t looked as good as his numbers would indicate, but perhaps that is due to my deep-seated issues with pitchers working up in the zone.

Davis looked pretty good himself, and this was the first time I’d seen the right-hander start this year. After getting crunched in his start, Davis has responded nicely against the Twins and Braves. Davis’ cutter looked like an impressive weapon, and he was able to use it on both sides of the plate.

Chris Capuano and Dodgers pitching
If the Los Angeles Dodgers have taught us anything, it’s that you can never have too much starting pitching. Taking the place of the injured Zack Greinke, Capuano couldn’t make it through the third inning in his first start due to general ineffectiveness and an outing-ending calf strain. Having traded away Aaron Harang, the Dodgers are now left with Ted Lilly to fill a rotation spot since Capuano needs to miss a start or tweleve, but Lilly is still rehabbing in the minor leagues. Capuano has been quite good over the past three seasons, so it’s a real shame to see his shot at proving himself worthy of a rotation spot go up in smoke. If Lilly should be recalled to the bigs, he’s not worth much of anything unless you’re looking for a spot starter in San Diego.

Fun early season facts
• Justin Upton is your early HR leader, and he’s doing it outside of Arizona.
• Through Tuesday’s action, A.J. Burnett is tied for second on the strikeout leaderboard, only a single K behind Yu Darvish.
• Through three starts, Jon Lester and Jeff Samardzija have both thrown three wild pitches.
• Kyle Seager has 11 hits (through Tuesday’s action), but seven of those hits have been doubles. Seven of Emilio Bonifacio’s first 10 hits have also been for extra bases.