Less than three weeks ago, Greg Holland owned the ninth inning. On Aug. 4, he notched his 34th save of the season after tossing a perfect frame against the Phillies. He had strung together 13 appearances that produced a 1.42 ERA with plenty of whiffs, particularly on pitches out of the strike zone.

Little has gone right since then, and on Wednesday, Holland blew his third save since that outing against the Phillies. He has allowed 12 runs and gone 0-4 in his last six appearances, covering five innings. The walk-off homer he allowed to Eric Hosmer in Wednesday’s blown save against the Royals was the third he had given up over this brief stretch, and the leadoff walk he issued to Alex Gordon was his sixth over this span. Holland has also mustered just a 9.2 percent swinging strike rate over these appearances.
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Here is my latest starting pitcher rankings update! Keep in mind that this is a narrower focus and that’s why I did monthly updates during the season. I always stressed the narrow focus over “rest of season”, but obviously we’re at a point where those are essentially one in the same. I’m not sure if I’ll do another full update in September or not, but I will be writing about pitching all month including pieces of most favorable schedules and September call-ups as well as the continued Pros & Cons and Pitcher Spotlight (from Nick & myself) pieces.

Please leave your questions and comments below!

Edit: updated Dallas Keuchel since he’s not hurt anymore!

Previous Updates:

• March
• May
• June
• July

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We had a brief glimpse of Lucas Giolito in 2016 as he started four and relieved in two games for the Nationals, accruing 21.1 innings of 6.75 ERA ball. We were looking forward to better times for the 6’6″ right-hander and after a trade to the Chicago White Sox during the 2016 off-season, Giolito held a 9.37 K/9, 4.13 BB/9, and 4.48 ERA in 24 starts in Triple-A. Tuesday night marked the return for 23-year-old Giolito and I for one was excited to see what he had morphed into during his time away from the majors. Let’s jump into the start and talk about what we saw.

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Rhys Hoskins appeared on the main blog and in my chat yesterday. Now he’s visiting the Daily Grind.

AGENDA

1. Hoskins Whambamthankyamam
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. SaberSim Says…
5. TDG Invitational Returns!

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Do you like M&M’s? Of course you do! Here are two hitter M&M’s for your pleasure.

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Tuesday was my first day back at school for the semester and it’s got me feeling like:

Nobody told @Giancarlo818 that planking is no longer cool. pic.twitter.com/4zJgendXwA

— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) August 23, 2017

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• Andrew Miller left last night’s game and his knee tendinitis seems to be acting up again, causing a quick return to the DL. Joe Smith moves up a notch to the next-in-line and Bryan Shaw makes another return to the grid.  As far as saves go, this isn’t a major move as Cody Allen has been receiving most, if not all, of the save opportunities of late. However, there aren’t many setup men better than Andrew Miller so it’s naturally a big loss for those in holds leagues, duh. As we all saw in October, Cleveland used Miller quite a bit in the playoffs and with a five game lead in the division they have no reason to rush him back. There is no real timetable on Miller’s return but I wouldn’t rely on him pitching significant innings the rest of the year as the Indians prepare for him to be at his best in October again.

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8/22/17

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 18, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER18!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer
• @enosarris
• @jasoncollette

Leading Off: New Addition!

• Nick Pollack of PitcherList.com joins the RG team!

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The 2017 season has not been kind to Blake Snell. The 24-year-old southpaw has been demoted to the minors multiple times while putting up ghastly numbers in the majors including a 4.42 ERA, 4.52 BB/9 and averaging just 5.4 innings per start. However, Sunday’s excellent outing of 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 Hits, 2 BBs, and 7 Ks against Seattle has been raising eyebrows, hinting at Snell’s massive upside we saw when he entered the major leagues in 2016. The question is, what did Snell do in this outing to succeed and can we expect this level of production to return in future starts?

Let’s dive into Sunday’s game against the Mariners to determine if Snell can be a dependable pitcher down the stretch. First here’s a quick overview of Snell’s approach for the afternoon.

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Today’s chat was very heavy on the Rhys Hoskins. Here’s the transcript.

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