Hey, we’re coming at you live from a week prior to the trade deadline. We’re not really dealing with any trade candidates this week, but if these teams were to acquire additional pitchers, it could jumble some rotations and move some guys around. Additionally, if you opt to use Kevin Gausman — who is allegedly on the block — next week, you should keep that in mind. He just missed the cut here due to a tough Detroit matchup on the back end. Good luck, and happy streaming.

Here are the totals halfway through week 14 (with updates from previous listing):

21-36 record (1-2)
4.54 ERA (+0.07)
6.5 K/9 (+0.1)
2.2 K/BB (no change)
1.41 WHIP (no change)

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

LHP Robbie Ray – 17.1% ESPN/13% Y! – @SEA (.299), @HOU (.320)

Ray’s improvement across the board has been marked and impressive, as he’s fanning 7.5 batters per nine and has cut his walks by more than one. His home run rate is flukishly low — especially considering his 35.1 percent groundball rate — but I’m happier to see him throwing at Safeco rather than his home park for the first start, though I think Houston could get a bit dicey. His strand rate has been a not-so-nice 69 percent, so while he isn’t exactly pitching like a guy with a 2.72 ERA, he’s not really evading peripherals like Bonnie and Clyde, either. A big key to Ray’s revival is two added ticks to his fastball, as he’s now pumping heat at an average of 93.3 mph. For a lefty, that’s really something. The slider (13.1%whiff rate this year, 5.3% last) has also improved greatly. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been awhile since we’ve convened in this space, and this week’s edition was pushed back because some teams were slow to post their rotations out of the gates in the second half. Anyway, onto the matchups and recommendations.

As an aside, I’ve decided — at least for now — to stick with team overall wOBA in my citations below. The reason for that is because I could do home/away wOBA, or I could do it by handedness of the opposing pitcher, but I honestly don’t know which is more important. So we’ll just stick to the bigger sampling until someone suggests they prefer otherwise — and for good reason.

Here are the totals through week 13:

20-34 record
4.47 ERA
6.4 K/9
2.2 K/BB
1.41 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @eblack35, whom you should give a follow:

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been banging this drum for weeks, but continued progress is the goal here. I’ve also added a week-to-week change meter on the numbers so you can get a feel of how things are progressing. Similarly, how else can I better justify a collective 4.78 ERA? Ha.

Here are the totals through half of week 11 (with week-to-week change listed):

15-30 record (+ 1-0)
4.78 ERA (-0.31)
6.2 K/9 (no change)
2.2 K/BB (-0.1)
1.43 WHIP (+ 0.02)

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Nate Karns – 19.3% ESPN/20% Y! – v. CLE (.315), @NYY (.331)

Karns doesn’t really have easy matchups this week, but the pickings aren’t great across the board. I also considered Colby Lewis, Mike Pelfrey and Wandy Rodriguez before settling on these three. Karns has had a nice run with the Rays, with a 3.28 ERA and 8.2 K/9, though he oddly leads the league with 10 wild pitches. C.J. Wilson also has 10, and only one other pitcher — Sonny Gray with eight — has more than seven in the AL. Karns’ mix of strikeouts and grounders (45.4 percent) is solid, though his control teeters on the brink of being troublesome (3.6 BB/9), though he has done a fairly good job of not having any games where he comes completely unraveled in that respect. He has three four-walk games, but also importantly has yet to go an entire start without issuing a free pass. Karns’ last three starts have been really good, resulting in a 1.04 ERA and 17-5 K/BB ratio in 17.1 innings. Opponents have hit just .246/.300/.292 off him in that span, which includes team wins over the White Sox and Indians, and a tough 1-0 loss to Toronto. Shutting down the Jays offense for six innings is no small task, but he did just that last time out. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, we’re still making progress. And thanks for the “you suck” comments. I get it. But I’m working hard to try keep moving forward. The last two years were really good. But above all, thank you for reading regardless of if you love or hate the advice. That goes for all of you.

As an aside, do you all think I should start using team wOBAs against that pitcher’s handedness? I never know what’s an adequate sampling for that sort of thing. Your input is welcomed in the comments below!

As for this week, it’s an all-lefty trio of guys who aren’t terribly risky, but should provide decent results.

Here are the totals through half of week 10:

12-30 record
5.09 ERA
6.2 K/9
2.3 K/BB
1.41 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @Jake_in_MN, whom you should give a follow:

Read the rest of this entry »

We continue to make headway in #2xSP with almost 0.30 sliced off the ERA, 0.2 added to the K/9 swiped from the WHIP and another 0.2 added to the K/BB as well. The record made a lateral move, but so far this at least represents progress. This week we’re bringing you three righties that are pretty far off the radar, in hopes that you can actually use them for a competitive advantage. We’ll see, huh?

Here are the totals through half of week seven:

10-28 record
5.14 ERA
6.2 K/9
2.3 K/BB
1.42 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Trevor May – 9.5% ESPN/7% Y! – @STL (.314), v. CHC (.311)

May has quietly been brilliant for the Twins, pitching to a 4.16 ERA backed by a 2.80 FIP and 3.61 XFIP. He’s bumped his groundball rate into the 40s and has absolutely slashed his walks without letting it hurt his bottom line — the strikeout — too terribly much. The purveyor of a pretty good changeup (16.8% whiff rate, .654 OPS against), May has been beaten up a bit by a rough strand rate (69%, not nice) as well as a .335 BABIP, which is especially odd for a guy who is more fly ball-centric, though the Twins outfield defense isn’t exactly adept at chasing ‘em down. That’ll improve in short order — envision an outfield of Byron Buxton, Aaron Hicks and Eddie Rosario — and may in fact help May move even further towards his peripheral ERA marks. Interleague play allows May to see a couple teams he’s never seen before, and it’s my general perception — feel free to differ in the comments — that this usually benefits the pitcher at first. Read the rest of this entry »

Well we’ve made some headway in the ERA department, but the record is going to be a season-long battle and ideally we’d get the rates to about league average. At this moment, that’d be a 7.7 mark in K/9, 2.6 K/BB and a WHIP of 1.28. In short, there’s still a lot of work to do around here. This week’s recommendations each have a really tough start right out of the gate, so here’s to hoping that’ll bring out the best in their competitive spirits.

Here are the totals through half of week seven:

8-26 record
5.42 ERA
6.0 K/9
2.1 K/BB
1.44 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Mike Foltynewicz – 16.2% ESPN/11% Y! – v. SDP (.296), @NYM (.298) Read the rest of this entry »

Well after taking a verbal tongue lashing — deservedly so, don’t get me wrong — in the comments last week, we managed to shave almost a full run off the ERA. So I got that going for me, which is nice. The won-loss record will be an all season thing to try get back to even, but for now we appear to be moving in the right direction….until you get a look at this week’s recs that is. But hey, this’ll be a week where these guys should almost certainly be available and at your disposal (insert trash joke here).

Here are the totals through half of week seven:

6-23 record
5.80 ERA
6.2 K/9
2.1 K/BB
1.47 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Ryan Vogelsong – 14.9% ESPN/11% Y! – v. PIT (.306), @PHI (.284)

Vogelsong gets a pair of really nice matchups this week, which should prolong what amounts to a really solid streak that he’s been on. In fact, it coincides exactly with the calendar flipping to May, as Vogelsong posted a 9.31 ERA in April, and will conclude May with a 1.14 mark. Opposing batters have hit just .184/.244/.281 against the 37-year-old righty this month, as he’s allowed just four earned runs in that five-start span. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time to play with fire. After this brutal of a start, it’s all we’re left with. I mean I think it’s been an especially difficult year to select two-start guys, especially since I think there have been some slumping aces and it has left the secondary tiers beaten down a bit, but I still can’t excuse this horsesh** performance.

Here are the totals through half of week six:

4-20 record
6.61 ERA
6.3 K/9
2.0 K/BB
1.56 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Jesse Hahn – 9% ESPN/26% Y! – v. DET (.336), v. NYY (.315)

Hahn’s numbers have been a bit troubling this year, but he seems to have rebounded a bit from a two-start rough patch earlier in the month. He’s fanned 11 batters over his last two starts, and is hopefully picking up some steam to get back to where he was earlier this season with a sub-3.00 ERA. The one troubling thing about Hahn’s pitch metrics is that his curveball seems to have fallen off the planet this season. Last year he threw 361 curveballs with a whiff rate of 18.3 percent; this year, he’s thrown 147 but is generating a swing and miss just 10.2 percent of the time. It’s been a better pitch outcomes wise (.456 OPS to .667 OPS), but would seem to be a big part of the reason he’s seen a drop in K/9 from last year (8.6) to this (6.2). His fastball has gotten pasted too (.917 OPS after last year’s .540), and it would seem to stand to reason one affects the other. I still believe in the arm — I have to especially this week — but he’ll need to reverse some trends to me anything more than a here and there option. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m gonna be honest with you all: if you want to stop taking my advice for a bit, that might not be a bad idea. Run in the other direction. Use Paul Charchian’s “do the opposite” for I have led you all astray. We’ll get back on track, but holy smokes this has been ugly. Avert your eyes.

Here are the totals through half of week five:

4-17 record
6.34 ERA
6.7 K/9
2.1 K/BB
1.53 WHIP

I mean, at least we’re finally approaching the league-average strikeout rate, right?

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! recs pulled courtesy of twitter pals @PandaPete21/@dontbeakedir, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Drew Hutchison – 26.9% ESPN/43% Y! – v. LAA (.282), v. SEA (.310)

It hasn’t been pretty on the whole for Hutchison, who currently sports a 6.17 ERA thanks to three starts (out of eight) in which he’s allowed at least six earned runs. On the bright side, we’re now two full starts without incident, in which he stymied the Astros and Orioles for a combined line of 11 innings, 15 strikeouts and two walks. He allowed just three earned runs in those starts, and I’m hoping like hell that’s a sign of things to come for the 24-year-old righty that people spent quite a bit on in auctions and in terms of draft value. Most encouraging for me was the 16 swinging strikes on 98 pitches last time out, too. Facing a pair of bottom-half offenses — including the Angels who are No. 29 by team wOBA — won’t hurt, either. Read the rest of this entry »

Another rough week has put us in a hole we need to dig out of fast. I’m confident Trevor May will have a good start to pick up the second half of week three, but so far, no good you guys.

Here are the totals through half of week four:

4-10 record
5.48 ERA
6.3 K/9
2.4 K/BB
1.40 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! recs pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Alex Colome – 9.1% ESPN/14% Y! – v. NYY (.324), @MIN (.302) Read the rest of this entry »