#2xSP (8.28-9.3)

The season numbers aren’t great but we’ve picked up some steam over the last few weeks and hopefully will finish strong. As always, if you have any suggestions or tips, please feel free to mention them in the comments section, and thank you for reading.

Here’s how we’re doing so far this season (through half of Week 19)

34-34 record
4.72 ERA
7.7 K/9
2.3 K/BB
1.43 WHIP
37 quality starts

Here are this week’s recs (with team wRC+ for this season in parentheses):

RHP Jhoulys Chacin – 35.5% ESPN – v. SFG (83), v. LAD (109)

It’s easy to love the Giants matchup and really hard to get on board with the Dodgers one — they’re the second-best offense in the game — but Chacin has been really, really good since an up-and-down start to the season. Since posting a 5.77 ERA through the first two months of the season, he’s gone 3.00, 2.51 and 3.58 in the three months since. On the whole, what does that look like? It’s a 3.02 ERA, .667 OPS against and a K/BB ratio of 72-39 over 89.1 innings/15 starts. Those numbers over what’s basically half a season would certainly garner a higher ownership figure. He’s faced the Dodgers twice in that stretch as well, allowing just one earned run over 10 innings.

RHP Jose Urena – 42.6% ESPN – @WAS (103), v. PHI (86)

We originally thought Urena was going to go twice last week, but we’ll give him some run this time. The Phillies are absolutely abysmal, and Urena diced the Nationals on July 31 for eight innings of one-run ball. Over his last five starts, Urena has a 2.45 ERA and has held opposing batters to just a .640 OPS. It’s hard to get too enthused with the strikeouts (6.2 K/9) and FIP (5.01), but this is a pitcher with double digit whiff rates on each of his pitches other than his four-seam fastball. I think the repertoire is here for a breakout eventually. For now, he’s just skating by on a sub-3.70 ERA, and that’s OK too.

EDIT: We’re going with Mark Leiter Jr. (v. ATL, @MIA) in place of Montgomery, who looks like he’s going to lose out on his second start with the return of Jon Lester.

LHP Mike Montgomery – 8.8% ESPN – v. PIT (88), v. ATL (90)

This is flat out just two wonderful matchups for Montgomery, as these are two of the six-worst offenses in the game. Montgomery has been good in a swingman role for the Cubs this season, posting a 3.43 ERA and 1.27 WHIP despite just 81 strikeouts in 102.1 innings. Opposing batters are hitting just .226/.322/.332 against Monty this year, and a big reason for it is that he’s got a ridiculous 59 percent groundball rate.

Last men out: Antonio Senzatela (v. DET, v. ARI), Jaime Garcia (v. CLE, v. BOS), Asher Wojciechowski (v. NYM, @PIT)