Starting Pitchers: May 31st

by
May 31, 2010

Updates on three AL rotation spots…

Brett Anderson | Athletics | 76% owned

After missing a total of 35 days with a strained flexor tendon, Oakland’s young lefty made his triumphant return to the mound on Saturday. Limited to 70 pitches, Anderson struck out four Tigers and allowed just three hits (two singles and a double) in 5.2 scoreless innings, throwing 70% of his pitches for strikes. Anderson’s ascent to greatness merely hit a speed bump with the injury, and ZiPS RoS projection sees a 3.54 FIP the rest of the way. He’ll be eased back into things over the next few weeks, but don’t hesitate to start him.

Max Scherzer | Tigers | 29%

One day after Anderson returned from injury, Scherzer returned from a minor league hiatus at the expense of Dontrelle Willis. To say the wake-up call worked would be an understatement. The former D-Back struck out 14 of the 24 men he faced, knocking close to ninth-tenths of a run off his ERA. Scherzer’s next two starts come at the Royals and at the White Sox, two pretty favorable matchups that should get him started on his way towards the 4.01 FIP and 8.47 K/9 ZiPS projects for the rest of the season. In an AL-only or deep mixed league, gimme gimme gimme. He’s a solid pickup in standard 12-team leagues as well.

Tim Wakefield | Red Sox | 4%

Josh Beckett’s back continues to be an issue, so the 43-year-old knuckleballer will stay in the rotation for the foreseeable future. When it comes to fantasy, Wakefield’s only real value comes from wins, though you’ll occasionally luck into a six or seven or eight strikeout game. His next two starts come against the A’s (.310 team wOBA) and at Cleveland (generally awful), so there’s a chance for some cheap wins if you’re willing to live with the ERA and WHIP hits.

Ownership rates are based on Yahoo! leagues.





 

Mike writes about the Yankees at River Ave. Blues and baseball in general at CBS Sports.

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Brett
13 years ago

On Scherzer – I’m not sure how much of his turnaround was a minor league wake up call and how much of it was mechanical.

After his last terrible pre-minors start, he studied film of himself and determined that his arm slow was too low (http://www.freep.com/article/20100515/SPORTS02/5150443/1050/Long-ball-carries-Red-Sox).

I was skeptical of his self-diagnosis because:
1. Isn’t that something that the team pitching coach should have been paying attention to and picked up on?
2. Mechanical problems seem to often be scapegoated when a guy is struggling, and oftentimes “fixing” the mechanical problem does not fix the results.

In Scherzer’s case however, he has simply blown away the hitters in his 3 starts since his diagnosis (2 minors, 1 majors), so color me convinced.

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Joe D.
13 years ago
Reply to  Brett

I agree on quite a few counts and wanted to second this post…

The sharp and quick nature of Scherzer’s turnaround and the sudden hard uptick in velocity, does seems to indicate the arm slot was the problem, and this likely isn’t the standard “mechanical fix” scapegoating.

If that is indeed the case, how was it not noticed earlier? If I’m in the Detroit front office, I really want to know why nobody (particularly the pitching coach) picked up on it. After all, I would have just lost two months of an excellent starter’s production, which could mean the difference between playoffs and golf at the end of the season.

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