Among the peccadilloes and eccentricities that we’re willing to confess to in this forum, perhaps the most embarrassing is our continuing thirst for 80’s synthpop, which we were too old for even the first time around. The sillier and stupider the better, as far as we’re concerned: Human League, Soft Cell, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, Human League, A Flock of Seagulls, Men Without Hats, and of course post-Vince Clarke Depeche Mode, goth-synth titans so dumb they make Ozzy Osbourne look like Harold Bloom. (Come to think of it: Have you seen Oz lately? Even with the makeover, he does look kind of like Harold Bloom, who’s looked pretty much the same for the last 40 years.)

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It was a Monday night just a few weeks ago that I watched the destruction of two high-quality pitchers (one is a bona fide ace) sink my DFS evening yet again and I actually wrote about it at another outlet. Just three weeks later, I saw my DFS night end before it started as another pitcher had his face caved in and this time by baseball’s worst team both by record and wRC+ against righties. Michael Pineda was rocked for eight earned on 11 hits in just 3.3 innings with nary a strikeout to soften the blow.

It’s the second time in three starts that Pineda has been blown up like this and the fourth time this year he’s allowed five or more earned runs. This is the same guy who has a 16-strikeout game on his ledger this year as well as three others of nine strikeouts. This is the same guy who had a 2.72 ERA through his first seven starts of the season.

But the volatility, my god, the volatility.

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Pitching has been kind of weird this year. We are still definitely in a pitcher’s era. There has been a slight decline in strikeout rate for starters from 19.4% to 19.2%, but it’s still historically high. Meanwhile, starter walk rate across the league has held at 7%. ERA is back up over 4.00 (just slightly at 4.03) after last year’s 3.82 mark, something the league hasn’t come close to since 1992’s mark of 3.85 for starters.

The overwhelming pitching depth from recent years finally started to change the valuations in the fantasy game and now the collective fantasy world is feeling kind of burned. After all, there are only 25 pitchers with a sub-3.00 ERA (at least 50 IP). We had 33 such pitchers through this point last year. A total of 77 were at 4.00 or better at this time last year, a figure that is down to 68 so far this year.

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A week ago, I discussed six American League starting pitchers with the largest increases in fastball velocity from April to May. Today, I’ll check in on seven AL starters who have suffered through a decline in fastball velocity. But since we’re 2 1/2 weeks into June, I’m now comparing May velocity to June velocity. Since velocity stabilizes rather quickly, then the three starts or so in June should be enough to analyze the data.

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When I decided to write this post, I already knew I would investigate which pitchers experience the largest platoon splits. I know this kind of information is helpful for daily fantasy sports (DFS), and I had yet to see someone undertake this task, although perhaps I wasn’t looking hard enough. I would take a relatively simply metric, sure to ruffle the feathers of the nitpicky, and compare its magnitude against lefties to its magnitude against righties for all pitchers. The largest differences between the two rates would warrant my attention. So, too, would the smallest. (Indeed, the absolute smallest would.)

However, I got distracted, as I am wont to do. I walk into a grocery store needing bread and milk and leave with paneer, sprouted tortillas, maple bacon Kettle chips and a 32-ounce bottle of sriracha. Really, I get distracted every time I sit down to write, and I rarely write the piece I originally intended to. My point: I get distracted by things.

Things like Chris Archer, who seems to be the Major League Baseball equivalent of the The Most Interesting Man on Earth.

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As Charlie Morton embraced his two-seam fastball and turned into a severe groundball pitcher, he has become a solid, but underrated fantasy asset. In 2013-14, Morton put up a 3.52 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in 273.3 innings of work for the Pirates. He began the season on the DL recovering from hip surgery. It was his eighth trip to the DL in eight seasons, including five in the last three. Health will always be a concern with Morton, but his talent deserves attention.

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Where have Collin McHugh’s strikeouts gone? Only Shane Greene, Jesse Hahn, Alex Wood, and Phil Hughes have seen a sharper decrease in strikeout rate since last year without a change in role. We’ve covered most of those guys in one way or another over the last few weeks at The Change. Now it’s time to focus on McHugh, to see what we can learn.

McHugh is still top 30 in swinging strike rate. He’s 65th in strikeout rate. Something is amiss here.

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Yesterday, I discussed four starting pitchers due for an improved walk rate moving forward, according to my expected walk rate equation. Today, I’ll highlight another four pitchers, this time a group who is at risk of suffering from an increased walk rate over the rest of the season. These pitchers all sport xBB% marks well above their actual marks.

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I don’t discuss it as often as my xK% equation, because the R-squared is significantly lower, but my xBB% formula is still useful to calculate and analyze the results. Even for hitters, strikeout rates have always been easier to predict from an equation than walk rates. Odd. Anyway, let’s take a look at the four starting pitchers whose xBB% marks are most below their actual walk rates. This could signify improvement on the way, which would bring both ERA and WHIP down.

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Every spring training, we make a big to do about fastball velocity. We may even remember to monitor it for the first start of the season. Whose velocity is up, hinting at a breakout? Whose velocity is down, suggesting either a hidden injury or a disappointing year is on the way? Then we totally forget about it and rarely discuss it again. Velocity does rise throughout the year, but some pitchers gain more than others, obviously. Sometimes better health or a slight tweak in mechanics mid-season could increase velocity, aside from just the warmer weather that generally lifts all boats. So here are seven pitchers whose fastball velocity has jumped in May, compared to April.

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