Pitching has been kind of weird this year. We are still definitely in a pitcher’s era. There has been a slight decline in strikeout rate for starters from 19.4% to 19.2%, but it’s still historically high. Meanwhile, starter walk rate across the league has held at 7%. ERA is back up over 4.00 (just slightly at 4.03) after last year’s 3.82 mark, something the league hasn’t come close to since 1992’s mark of 3.85 for starters.

The overwhelming pitching depth from recent years finally started to change the valuations in the fantasy game and now the collective fantasy world is feeling kind of burned. After all, there are only 25 pitchers with a sub-3.00 ERA (at least 50 IP). We had 33 such pitchers through this point last year. A total of 77 were at 4.00 or better at this time last year, a figure that is down to 68 so far this year.

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Agenda

1. Field of Streams
2. Daily DFS
3. GB / FB Splits
4. Tomorrow’s Targets – Lyons, Jungmann, Melky, Eaton
5. Factor Grid

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Episode 54 – That’s Pitching For Ya

The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Brad Johnson discuss helpful feedback on technical difficulties, closer looks at Anthony Ranaudo and Joey Gallo, pitchers that have disappointed this year, hesitating on DFS picks based on a lack of a supporting cast, the weird scheduling of a split series, Paul Goldschmidt’s historic dominance against left-handed pitching, comparing Brad Miller and Jimmy Rollins, and a guest appearance by some background birds.

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The title of the article is an allusion to Schott’s Miscellany, which you should definitely check out if you never have and feel compelled to know that a group of larks is called an exaltation or that a member of the 32nd degree of Freemasonry is known as a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.

–Players Approaching Career Highs–

Bryce Harper hit his 22nd home run of the season on Tuesday, which tied his career high from 2012. But that actually isn’t what inspired this article. Instead, I noticed that Luis Valbuena’s two-homer day from earlier that afternoon increased his 2015 total to 16, which matched his career high from last season. The Astros are the biggest success story in baseball this season, but that total still shocked me. Meanwhile, I discovered that Harper and Valbuena are two of a bunch of players who are already threatening career highs in home runs or stolen bases this season.

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A week ago, I discussed six American League starting pitchers with the largest increases in fastball velocity from April to May. Today, I’ll check in on seven AL starters who have suffered through a decline in fastball velocity. But since we’re 2 1/2 weeks into June, I’m now comparing May velocity to June velocity. Since velocity stabilizes rather quickly, then the three starts or so in June should be enough to analyze the data.

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Both the USWNT and South Korea advance to the knockout stage of the World Cup! I’m sure you’re all as thrilled about this as I am.

On today’s agenda:
1. Let’s talk about Billy Burns
2. Matt Moore continues rehabbing
3. I still like Mike Foltynewicz
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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Dellin Betances doesn’t have Dellin Betances to set him up, except when he does. Joe Girardi was forced to bring him in with one out in the eighth inning against the Marlins when Justin Wilson wasn’t able to take care of his business. He walked Adeiny Hechavarria and gave up a single to Ichiro Suzuki, and that was it for him. Betances got a grounder to first that Garrett Jones used to nab Dee Gordon at home, then got a liner to right to end the inning. It’s great to see a team bring their best reliever out with the game on the line, and not have to feel as though they have to wait for the start of the ninth. Betances hadn’t pitched since Sunday, so 24 pitches tonight are not a big deal. He worked around a hit and a single, striking out two to claim his fourth save on the year.

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When I decided to write this post, I already knew I would investigate which pitchers experience the largest platoon splits. I know this kind of information is helpful for daily fantasy sports (DFS), and I had yet to see someone undertake this task, although perhaps I wasn’t looking hard enough. I would take a relatively simply metric, sure to ruffle the feathers of the nitpicky, and compare its magnitude against lefties to its magnitude against righties for all pitchers. The largest differences between the two rates would warrant my attention. So, too, would the smallest. (Indeed, the absolute smallest would.)

However, I got distracted, as I am wont to do. I walk into a grocery store needing bread and milk and leave with paneer, sprouted tortillas, maple bacon Kettle chips and a 32-ounce bottle of sriracha. Really, I get distracted every time I sit down to write, and I rarely write the piece I originally intended to. My point: I get distracted by things.

Things like Chris Archer, who seems to be the Major League Baseball equivalent of the The Most Interesting Man on Earth.

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Agenda

1. A Farewell to Kershaws
2. Daily DFS – Pineda, CMart, Hutchison
3. GB / FB Splits
4. Tomorrow’s Targets – Graveman, McHugh, Tucker, Burns
5. Factor Grid

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Episode 53 – Rollover Left-Hander

The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss Matt’s fan conflict, officially sponsoring Chase Anderson, failing to remember every historical detail about every player, Josh Donaldson’s prime situation, comparing David DeJesus and Chris Coghlan, the underrated underrated A.J. Pollock, building faith in Ubaldo Jimenez, Bud Norris being eligible for a title he doesn’t want, and Joe Blanton getting a Major League start in 2015.

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