#2xSP: 7.4-7.10

Happy week of July 4! This’ll be the last one of these for a couple weeks as we plow through the All Star Break, but so far so good on season four of #2xSP after a bumpy season three.

Here’s what we’re working with so far:

24-23 record
4.05 ERA
8.3 K/9
2.9 K/BB
1.36 WHIP
37 quality starts

There are multiple good options to look at this week, so in addition to the three recommended you can also look at Junior Guerra (20.7% ESPN, @WAS, v. STL) and Matt Moore (17%, v. LAA, @BOS). Here are this week’s recs, with opposing team wRC+ in parentheses:

LHP Sean Manaea – 4% ESPN – @MIN (88), @HOU (100)

Manaea looked solid against a pretty good Giants offense last time out — 5.2 innings, six hits and no runs with four strikeouts and just one walk — and I like his chances for a solid start against a subpar Twins offense. Manaea dominated the Twins to start the month — eight strikeouts and one earned run on June 1 — and has put together a really solid June (3.13 ERA, 23-7 K/BB ratio in 23 innings) after being absolutely obliterated in his first six starts (7.03 ERA). I think he’s settling right in, and there’s no reason not to buy the talent overall.

RHP Jerad Eickhoff – 31.4% ESPN – v. ATL (71), @COL (97)

It’s not only a strong week with two iffy offenses for Eickhoff, but the righty has put together a really solid June and has quite frankly been solid all season long. Eickhoff has put together month-by-month ERA marks of 4.15 and 3.99 coming into June, and is now at 2.23 this month with a 33-12 K/BB ratio in 36.1 innings. He’s allowed three or fewer earned runs in every start in June, and three or fewer in 11 of his last 12 starts. That doesn’t necessarily make him a safe bet — few are in this concept — but he seems pretty sturdy to me.

LHP Tyler Anderson – 7.5% ESPN – @SFG (104), v. PHI (76)

I’m probably nuts for recommending Anderson, a vet of all of four big league starts, over Moore and Guerra and I get that. But I like how he’s handled himself so far — 24-5 K/BB ratio and 2.66 ERA in 23.2 innings — and for all the worry about pitchers in Coors and how they’ll handle it, he’s made three of his first four starts there with just one home run allowed. He handled a pretty good Toronto offense last time out — two earned in six innings with six whiffs — and beyond that, he’s been solid in walks (1.9 BB/9) in addition to the strikeouts (9.1 K/9). Combine that with a 60-plus percent groundball rate and there might be something here in the 26-year-old lefty.