Posted by Rob McQuown on Friday, April 10, 2009 at 11:36 am

Out of respect to Nick Adenhart, Roto Lunch yesterday was posted as a comment the previous day’s RL. It was difficult enough making roto moves yesterday while thinking about what had happened, and it didn’t seem right to grab the headlines when the relative importance was so low. Please pardon the inconvenience – Lord willing, it won’t happen again anytime soon.

First thoughts for today:

- Salty has an inner ear infection leading to symptoms of vertigo? Yeesh, this guy can’t buy a break. As I have him on all three redraft teams, I’m obviously hoping it’s nothing. On teams where I have another catcher, I’m playing them today even though he’s facing Galarraga.

- Disappointing to see Billy Butler have such a bad series at Chicago. It’s a good park for hitting when it’s warmer, at least. Keeping him in against Pettitte today; even though Andy gets righties out very well historically, Butler murdered lefties last year. Maybe he’ll make up for his 2 crappy games against them this year by taking it out on Pettitte.

- I’m benching Weeks against Harden. I watched and/or listened to much of the Brewers game, and it sounded like he was hammering the ball despite the results, so I’m still pretty bullish on him.

- I don’t want to cut Hafner. I’m torn, but if the team thinks he’s the #4 hitter, that goes a long way to swaying me that he could rebound significantly.

- For some reason, Jayson Werth was cut in one of my leagues yesterday. While churning is good, cutting the Phillies best RH bat entering a 3-game set at Colorado doesn’t seem like the way to take best advantage of things.

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Possible pick ups?- Brett Gardner at KC against Ponson? Should be good as the team might run more in that park, though his SB success will depend somewhat on whether Olivo or Buck is catching (Olivo has an elite arm).

- Kosuke Fukudome against Braden Looper sounds possible. Cubs lineup is great, and Looper has always been better against RHB. Not time to jump fully on the Fukudome bandwagon, but he’s a guy who could be useful in matchups.

- J.D. Drew against Jered Weaver – same logic as with Kosuke… Weaver’s notorious for being “lopsided”, and hence you want lefty bats in there against him. Boston’s lineup is stout, too.

- Varitek (see Drew note) and Yadier Molina (vs. Mike Hampton) are “okay” 1-day catcher options.

- Mike Fontenot appears to be available in almost all leagues. See Fukudome comment, and pick him up. He’s worth consideration as a season-long keeper, too.

- Aaron Hill is facing a lefty (and a totally unproven one at that!) He’s a great example of a guy you can leverage for those few games when he faces lefties and get stats that are far better than his season stats. If you don’t have a top-tier 2b option, grab him for the day.

- Khalil Greene is facing Mike Hampton, and could homer for you at ss. After his brutal 2008 campaign, I’m less optimistic than Tony LaRussa about his chances to be a significant contributor, but, hey, it’s Mike Hampton!

- The Nats may disagree with me, but I really like Shawn Hill in tonight’s matchup at home against Barry Zito. Yeah, the Giants have a retooled team, and could score some runs, but Hill – at least the last time he was healthy – had #2 stuff, and that park helps a lot.

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For accountability, here was yesterday’s entry from the comments on April 8th’s entry:April 9 Roto Lunch -

Putting this here for now, so as not to replace the Adenhart headline atop the site for a while out of respect. What a tragedy!

- Uehara is a good season-long pickup. I wouldn’t start him against the powerhouse teams, but he seems like the real deal, and the O’s offense is very good. I drafted him in 2 leagues this year, though I cut him already in the churn in one of them.

- Don’t bother with Perkins unless you are really going to be scrambling for wins/K’s this year. LHP against SEA aren’t that great of a matchup, though he’s at home, and Seattle won’t score a LOT against anyone.

- Hafner is a good 1-day pickup at least. Just got sniped on him.

- Daniel Murphy at CIN against Arroyo is good.