Roto Riteup: April 27, 2018
I’m the King of the World!!!!
No one, not even you, was as excited about Ronald Acuña’s first @MLB homer as this guy.https://t.co/RIuOcqOIRZ pic.twitter.com/gUoNiD9E5Q
— Cut4 (@Cut4) April 26, 2018
I’m the King of the World!!!!
No one, not even you, was as excited about Ronald Acuña’s first @MLB homer as this guy.https://t.co/RIuOcqOIRZ pic.twitter.com/gUoNiD9E5Q
— Cut4 (@Cut4) April 26, 2018
4/26/18
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Mike Clevinger had plenty of proponents coming into the season and they no doubt felt that even if his ERA/WHIP combo exceeded last year’s 3.11/1.25 marks, they would at least have strikeouts to fall back on. He’s currently besting both marks with a 1.75 ERA and 1.05 WHIP, but has just a 17% strikeout rate, down 10 points from last year’s 27% mark that sat 14th among pitchers with at least 120 innings. It’s hard to be too mad at the performance with those ratios, but we also know there’s virtually no way he maintains either because he’s not Pedro Martinez. What happened to his strikeout rate?
• Biggest news from last night has to be in Atlanta where A.J. Minter secured his first save of the year. While many non-closers get a save opportunity from time to time, the Braves manager mentioned “we will see more A.J. Minter in the 9th” which likely places him in a timeshare for saves with Arodys Vizcaino. Minter was damn impressive last year in a small sample, and he was expected to be lurking but with Vizcaino supporting a shiny ERA I didn’t expect any changes to occur any time soon. Obviously that is not the case and one should rush to pick up Minter. We will monitor how the saves are issued moving forward but this looks like a real committee. A.J. Minter is the south paw, so it’s safe to say he will see saves when lefties are expected in the order, but we will have to wait and see how it develops from there.
Happy Thursday. Expect an announcement tomorrow.
AGENDA
A week ago, I discussed the American League starting pitchers who have improved their Z-Contact% (batter contact rate on pitches inside the strike zone) most versus 2017. Today, let’s take a look at the pitchers on the other side — those who have induced fewer in-zone whiffs, meaning their Z-Contact% marks are well above what they posted last season.
This is how I looked celebrating my sobriety birthday yesterday:
.@JoseAltuve27, party of 1. ? pic.twitter.com/iqOmp7360f
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) April 25, 2018
The 26-year-old lefty is straight up dealing with a 10.7 K/9 and only a 1.6 BB/9. No pitcher with a strikeout as high as his has a lower walk rate. His K%-BB% is the 12th best among qualified starters.
Gonzales’s great start is being hidden by a .406 BABIP fueled 4.37 ERA. While he struggled giving up runs in his first three starts, he allows nothing in his last two. Gonzales may finally be living up to some of his prospect status from a few years back.
Each week through the season, I’ll be looking at the collection of starting pitchers owned in under 15% of leagues (consensus Yahoo/ESPN ownership from Fantasy pros) and pointing out the options to consider if you need an extra arm or two at the end of your staff.
It’s been another week of Fantasy Baseball, and the waiver wire has shifted. Let’s highlight my ten favorites, roughly ordered from top to bottom.
Mike Minor (Texas Rangers) – There is a little more under the hood discrediting Minor’s start to 2018 than I would like, though I still believe Minor will improve as we march further into the season – remember, he hadn’t started a game since 2014 prior to this year. Armed with four solid pitches in his arsenal, Minor sports an impressive 11.9% overall whiff rate and a digestible 7.0% walk rate to his name. His a slider that gets strikes on both sides of the plate, a fastball that hints a 10% whiff rate and hits the zone nearly 60% of the time, and he leans on an effective changeup/curveball combination that takes different roles each outing. The tools are there, it’s just a matter of time before he wields them properly.
In addition to regularly checking the leaderboards here, at FanGraphs, I also routinely peruse the leaderboards at Baseball Savant, too. Below are a trio a players who stood out upon examination of their Statcast data. Read the rest of this entry »