Archive for Jerad Eickhoff

I’m going to say something that hasn’t been said enough this off-season.

There is a lot of starting pitcher depth this year.

That may be a bit of a surprise given the constant emphasis on getting aces early or leaving the first seven or eight rounds with three starters, but with every mock and real draft I’ve done, I’ve found myself with quality arms left on my queue in the final rounds.

You’re targeting most of these names already, maybe even all of them. At the very least, these ten arms should serve as a reminder that you do not need to chase elite arms early as there are plenty fewer impact bats left in the late rounds than quality arms.

I’ll be using Fantasy Pros’ aggregate ADP to gather the names past pick #400 and despite their price of “free” in standard leagues, these pitchers deserve heavy consideration in the final rounds.

Merrill Kelly (Arizona Diamondbacks, ADP #409) – This cheap price for Kelly is expecting his floor, while not embracing the possibility of his ceiling – a sub 3.70 ERA with a decent WHIP and a 20%+ strikeout rate. The Diamondbacks are going to let Kelly fly for as many innings as they can, especially when he has a lock on a rotation spot. It’s hard to find an arm with strikeout upside and a strong volume of frames without toxic ratios and I wouldn’t be surprised if the first person who owns Kelly retains him through the full year.

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It can be a struggle in deep leagues to fill out the final arms in your staff. Instead of talking about popular targets to chase in the middle rounds, I’m going to highlight ten starters to consider when searching for the final arms of your 15-teamer staff.

I originally set the ADP threshold at past the 300 mark, but I elected to dive a little deeper, setting the bar at 350 instead. That means guys I’d recommend targetting like Mike Minor, Dan Straily, German Marquez, Mike Leake, and Matt Shoemaker are off the list. This is legit deep, not that weak stuff.
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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 17)

29-32 record
4.75 ERA
7.6 K/9
2.4 K/BB
1.43 WHIP
35 quality starts

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

RHP Jerad Eickhoff – 14.9% ESPN – @SD (85), @SF (82)

Oh man, this is a great week for Eickhoff. The talented righty who has had a bit of a rough season gets two of the bottom-three offenses in the game. Of course, he plays for the fourth-worst, but we can’t get too tied up in that, can we? Since his ERA peaked at 5.22 a couple months ago, Eickhoff has been really, really good, too: 3.10 ERA, 38-17 K/BB ratio in 40.2 innings and a .240/.324/.380 line against. I’ll always bet on talent like this. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, we’re moving ever so slightly back in the right direction as we sliced nearly two-tenths of a run off the ERA — nearly under 5.00! — and are at least trending in the right way rates-wise. As reminder, there’ll be no column next week due to the All-Star Game festivities. Enjoy!

Here’s how we’re doing so far this season (through half of Week 12)

20-21 record
5.04 ERA
7.5 K/9
2.1 K/BB
1.52 WHIP
22 quality starts

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

RHP Aaron Nola – 43.9% ESPN – v. PIT (89), v. SD (81)

I’m just licking my chops over these matchups for Nola, an immensely talented righty who I think is criminally under owned at this point. Sure, his ERA isn’t great (4.13), but his FIP is pretty solid (3.82), he’s fanning nearly a batter per inning and isn’t giving up a ton of homers (1.1 per nine) despite the league having gone crazy in that respect. He was really, really good in June, too: 3.24 ERA, 35-11 K/BB ratio in 33.1 innings and .633 OPS against. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, we’re back for another season of #2xSP! As you may already know, we’ll try gear this article up for Thursday afternoons during the season. It’s a two-way street, so if you see something you’d like to have changed or something that should be altered, let me know and I’m willing to listen!

Here’s how we finished last season:

46-46 record
3.90 ERA
8.2 K/9
2.9 K/BB
1.32 WHIP
61 quality starts

That’s not too bad considering we do below 50 percent ownership, no? If you want us to go lower, we can consider that as well. Pardon the brevity this weekend — we have a baby shower tomorrow and I’m in crazy prep mode!

Here are this week’s recs (usually with team wRC+ for this season in parentheses, but not this week since the season just started):

RHP Jerad Eickhoff – 45.2% ESPN – v. NYM, @WAS

He just sneaks in under the wire in terms of ownership, and is coming off falling on the short side of a duel with our second guy this week. Eickhoff does pretty much everything well but not excellently, though the penchant for allowing home runs is a little concerning. Still, solid strikeout rate, no walks and at least so far this year it looks like he might try keep the ball on the ground a bit. Give him a spin! Read the rest of this entry »

Alright, we’re back for the final edition of #2xSP for this season. Like most years, we’ve had some ups and downs, but it’s been markedly better than last year, and I’m not only pleased with how season four went with regards to season three, but I’m also excited for next year.

If you have some ideas to implement for next season, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

Here’s what we’re working with so far this season:

44-45 record
3.93 ERA
8.2 K/9
2.9 K/BB
1.33 WHIP
61 quality starts

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

RHP Chad Kuhl – 12.7% ESPN – v. CHC (106), @STL (104)

I don’t love the matchups, but Kuhl has been pretty solid this season and I didn’t love a lot of the other pitchers going on Monday and Tuesday. This isn’t the first time Kuhl has faced the Cubs and Cardinals in succession, as he did so between two starts on Aug. 30 and Sept. 5. He pitched fine against the Cubs — three earned in five innings — but the Cardinals tousled him up a bit for three earned runs in just two innings. Still, his success this season hasn’t been over that small of a sampling. Over his last nine starts, he’s got a 3.10 ERA, .641 OPS against (.218 BAA) and solid 37-12 K/BB ratio in 49.1 innings. He gets plenty of grounders (46.3 percent), doesn’t walk too many batters (2.4 BB/9) and has a slider with a 17.8 percent whiff rate. Maybe it’s the foundation of something? Read the rest of this entry »

Alright so we’re back here for another edition of #2xSP. There aren’t many left of these this year, so maybe it’s time to reflect, or at least look forward. I think a reasonably fair goal is to keep the ERA under 4.00, strikeouts above 8.0 per nine innings and maybe, just maybe sneak that K/BB up over 3.0. It’s fair to say this year has gone markedly better than last: 4.66 ERA, 7.1 K/9, 2.2 K/BB and 1.41 WHIP, and this year is more consistent with the previous two years in the now four-year (?!?) track record of this column.

Here’s where we stand so far this season:

42-40 record
3.95 ERA
8.2 K/9
2.9 K/BB
1.33 WHIP
59 quality starts
Real-world equivalent: roughly Jake Odorizzi?

Here are this week’s recs (with opponents wRC+ in parentheses):

LHP Tyler Anderson – 20.6% ESPN – v. SFG (101), @SDP (87)

With Anderson it flat out boils down to the fact that I love him. I love a guy who can get strikeouts (8.3 K/9), grounders (53.5%) and doesn’t walk many (2.2 BB/9), and that is even more true at Coors Field. He’s posted a 3.43 ERA that checks out peripherally, and I just don’t see that many red flags with him after 15 MLB starts. I’m cautiously optimistic he can handle Coors long-term, as he’s posted a 3.11 ERA at home versus a 4.21 mark on the road, but his opposing batter splits are flipped in that respect. Batters have hit .266/.318/.409 against him at Coors Field, and just .211/.267/.383 on the road. Even if the answer is somewhere in the middle, I think he’s a really solid guy moving forward. Read the rest of this entry »

Happy week of July 4! This’ll be the last one of these for a couple weeks as we plow through the All Star Break, but so far so good on season four of #2xSP after a bumpy season three.

Here’s what we’re working with so far:

24-23 record
4.05 ERA
8.3 K/9
2.9 K/BB
1.36 WHIP
37 quality starts

There are multiple good options to look at this week, so in addition to the three recommended you can also look at Junior Guerra (20.7% ESPN, @WAS, v. STL) and Matt Moore (17%, v. LAA, @BOS). Here are this week’s recs, with opposing team wRC+ in parentheses:

LHP Sean Manaea – 4% ESPN – @MIN (88), @HOU (100)

Manaea looked solid against a pretty good Giants offense last time out — 5.2 innings, six hits and no runs with four strikeouts and just one walk — and I like his chances for a solid start against a subpar Twins offense. Manaea dominated the Twins to start the month — eight strikeouts and one earned run on June 1 — and has put together a really solid June (3.13 ERA, 23-7 K/BB ratio in 23 innings) after being absolutely obliterated in his first six starts (7.03 ERA). I think he’s settling right in, and there’s no reason not to buy the talent overall. Read the rest of this entry »

After a rough week eight, we’re off to a pretty solid start with week nine — 3.92 ERA, 23-1 K/BB ratio, 10 K/9 and 0.92 WHIP with two quality starts in three opportunities — and hopefully we can parlay that into something solid here in week 10.

Here are the season results so far:

19-15
3.96 ERA
8.2 K/9
3.0 K/BB
1.33 WHIP
30 quality starts

Here are this week’s recommendations, with opposing team’s wRC+ in parentheses:

RHP Jerad Eickhoff – 12.8% ESPN – @TOR (95), v. ARI (98)

I really hate recommending pitchers going up against one another on Monday or Tuesday, and that’s exactly what’s happening here. Still, it is a very sparse week to choose from, and I like how Eickhoff has pitched for the most part recently. Especially last time out, as he held the Cubs to just one earned run in seven innings with eight strikeouts and just four baserunners total (two hits, two walks). That’s a hell of an offense to shut down. Four of Eickhoff’s last five starts have been quality starts, and for the most part he’s been pretty sturdy all season long (4.15 ERA in April, 3.99 in May). I’m a sucker for guys who can get grounders and strikeouts, especially if they don’t walk anyone (1.8 BB/9). Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, Eno Sarris posted what he called a starting pitching omnibus. He chronicled some thoughts on a handful of pitchers with more volatile stocks in the early goings. It covered a couple of the pitchers I’ll discuss today, sort of by coincidence, sort of by not-coincidence because Eno has hyped these guys since who knows when.

The reason why it is, indeed, sort of by coincidence is because two of the pitchers to follow twirled serious gems last week. And, amazingly, the trio of them all pitch in the same seemingly desolate, perceived-to-be-hopeless part of town. And by “part of town,” I mean Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

Vincent Velasquez, Aaron Nola and Jerad Eickhoff comprise three-fifths of a pitching staff that leads the MLB in WAR, with 2.7. Sure, there was some sleeper hype in the rotation (that happens to be fronted, in name only, by Jeremy Hellickson, by the way), but to expect it to lead all of baseball in anything at any time would have been asking a lot. Yet, here we are, watching the Phillies’ dividends on rebuilding occur in real time. It warrants a dig deeper.

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