Tuesday, May 31

Daily Roto Pickups: May 31st

Seth Smith COL, OF (31% owned) - Smith may not lead your team in AB's but he has very good power, 200+ ISO, and a bit of speed so if you have a free roster spot and don't mind checking matchups he's a great platoon candidate. There are also some positivve signs that Smith might be taking the next step in his development as he's currently supporting career bests in ISO, BA, SLG, wOBA, and wRC+. Part of that is a result of his career best .345 BABIP but don't expect a huge regression there as his career best LD% of 22.3 likely means that while his BABIP may be a bit high, it's probably not that inflated. The icing on the cake is that he's already stolen three bases this year, just one behind his previous career high so a 20/10 season isn't out of the question, especially if he can play his way into playing time against lefties.

Bartolo Colon NYY, SP (36%)
- I'm very hesitant to recommend this guy but it's hard to argue with the 8.41 K/9, the 2.04 BB/9, or the 2.91 xFIP. While those are all stellar numbers and his fantasy results have been stellar so far keep in mind that the last time he topped 7.0 K/9, let alone 8.0, for an entire season was waaaaaay back in 2001. Another red flag-his swinging strike rate is just 6.0, which is really bad. Given the predictive value of swinging strike rate you would expect Colon to be striking out closer to 5.0/9 that 8.0/9. You know what? Forget it. I'm not going to recommend this guy. You want to try to catch lightning in a bottle, go ahead. But unless you're in a deep league or AL only this guy isn't really worthy of any but the most speculative of grabs. If you can live with an expected K/9 of 6 or so and a BB/9 of 2.5 to 3 then go for it. Just don't be surprised when Colon regresses to his career norms and starts performing like the number five starter that he is.



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