We’re doing a follow-up article on pitchers who underperformed their projected value after looking at those who outperformed. Many of these pitchers were injured, including Brandon Woodruff, Cole Ragans, Daniel Palencia, Edward Cabrera, Garrett Crochet, Hunter Brown, and Spencer Strider. Meanwhile, several struggled relative to expectations, like Luis Castillo, Logan Webb, Bryan Woo, George Kirby, and others.

The table below shows pitchers who lost $10 in value compared to their projected dollars within the top 200 picks.

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Last week, we covered hitters who outperformed and underperformed their projected value. We’re doing the same exercise for pitchers, focusing on starters. We won’t discuss all these pitchers below, but here is the list of pitchers who outperformed their expected value by a least $10 this season.

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We’re following up on an earlier article about hitters who are outperforming their projected value this season. But there’s also the other side of that coin: 19 hitters among the top 200 picks who are underperforming their projected value by at least $20. Unsurprisingly, the hitters drafted within the top 50 picks who were injured or struggled have been the biggest busts.

The visual below shows hitters who have lost $20 or more this season.

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In 12-team leagues, 37 hitters earned $20 or more on the Player Rater. Of those 37 hitters, 24 were drafted within the top 100 picks. Meanwhile, four hitters went undrafted or were past pick 400: Jake Bauers, Jake McCarthy, Jordan Walker, and Liam Hicks. We want to hit on these breakout hitters in the draft or acquire them during the season. These are the waiver pickups that turn into regular starters on our fantasy squads.

The 37 hitters who earned $20 or more are seen below.

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At this point in the season, it’s about playing time and finding hitters that can produce in specific categories. Here’s a follow-up to a previous article on surprising starting pitchers who have been performing well since August. Today, it’s the hitter version, with seven players contributing in deeper leagues. We used a roster percentage cutoff of 50% or lower in Online Championships, with the exception of one catcher-eligible player.

We’ll examine seven hitters who have been contributing fantasy value over the past couple of weeks. Is it luck or skill? Or have they been earning more playing time down the stretch? Though these hitters won’t win weeks or leagues, they can be sneaky fantasy contributors for the final few weeks.

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When examining leaderboards over a small sample (say, the last two weeks or maybe a month), you find a mixture of high-end players and surprising ones. If you are looking for late-season adds, those high-end arms aren’t likely available, but what about some of the unexpected names? We’ll look at players rostered in less than 80% in Online Championships to identify and examine pitchers in these deeper, 12-team leagues.

This isn’t intended to be a deep dive into these pitchers because we have limited time for the rest of the season. Success can occur with strong skills, luck, or a mix of both. What have they been doing? Is it sustainable? How do we feel about the upcoming matchups? We’ll examine five starting pitchers who have performed well since August to see if they can be reliable down the stretch.

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Since July, several fantasy-relevant hitters have been barreling the ball less often. Some have been recovering and returning from injuries. With others, the power seems to have just disappeared recently.

The table below shows the hitters with a three-percentage point drop in their barrels per plate appearance since July, minimum 50 PA.

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One way to identify potential pitch mix changes is to compare monthly fastball (four-seamer and sinker) usage splits to season-long averages. That helps identify which pitchers have been increasing or decreasing their fastball usage, typically in favor of other offerings.

The chart below shows the pitchers who averaged a lower fastball usage in July and August compared to their season-long average by 5 or more percentage points.

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Plenty of hitters increased their barrel rate per plate appearance by 3 points or more since July 1, even if we limit ourselves to hitters with 50+ plate appearances. Unsurprisingly, these hitters with higher barrel rates have improved their 90th-percentile exit velocity (EV90) and expected batting average (xBA).

The top barrel rate risers include Andrés Chaparro, Christian Yelich, Coby Mayo, Drew Gilbert, Heriberto Hernández, Lane Thomas, Luis García Jr., Luis Robert Jr., Mike Yastrzemski, Rhys Hoskins, Samuel Basallo, Spencer Jones, Tim Tawa, and Tyrone Taylor.

The chart below the barrel rate difference in the rightmost column. The first three columns are numbers since July 1; the next three are the numbers from before July.

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It’s been around two weeks since the MLB Trade Deadline. That’s a sample of 2-3 starts for these starting pitchers with their new teams. Though we’re dealing with a small sample, it’s enough to look and see if these players could be making pitch mix adjustments with their new teams.

We’ll examine pitch mix changes and whether it’s helpful to their arsenal moving forward. As with anything fantasy baseball-related, we want to rely more heavily on the larger sample than recent changes. However, the pitch mix adjustments with their new teams could be a signal of future changes in their arsenal. Let’s cover five starting pitchers who have been changing their pitch mix with their new teams.

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