We’re beyond the mid-point of the season as Major League Baseball takes some time off for the 2019 All-Star Game (we don’t know about you, but isn’t it fantastic that 127 players, slight exaggeration, get named to the ASG and the surrounding festivities? Participation awards for all!). Obviously though, it’s an easy break point to review what has occurred to date. Ray Flowers takes a look at some of the interesting things he learned in the first half, with pitchers.
Here is his review of hitters.
$89 gets you MLB VIP DFS coverage for the season AND #Free access to every sport on the site from now through July 31st from bit.ly/RayFlowers
Austin Adams has 43 strikeouts in 24.1 innings. That’s a 15.93 K/9 rate.
Archie Bradley and Corbin Burnes are tied for the craziest BABIP in baseball at .398. Both men have K/9 rates over 12.1, but both guys also have crazy walks issues (Burnes 4.00 per nine and Bradley 5.18).
Madison Bumgarner is 17th in baseball in innings pitched (111.2).
Dylan Bundy is one of three men with 10 or more loses. Bundy is the only one with more than a strikeout per inning. He currently owns a 3.00 K/BB ratio, which is two hundredths above his career rate.
Jesse Chavez has a 1.20 WHIP, the same as MadBum and Cole Hamels. His 3.47 K/BB ratio is a hundredth below the rate of Mike Soroka.
Edwin Diaz had a historical effort last season with 57 saves and a 1.96 ERA in 73 games. This season, in just 37 games, he’s saved 19 games with a 5.50 ERA.
Giovanny Gallegos has a 12.84 K/9 rate and an 8.29 K/BB ratio for the Cardinals.
Marco Gonzales has 10 victories. That’s more than Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer.
Zack Greinke has walked 15 batters in 19 starts. After posting WHIPs of 1.07 and 1.08 the last two seasons the mark is currently 0.92.
Josh Hader leads all relievers with 79 punchouts. That’s more strikeouts than Tyler Skaggs, Jordan Lyles, Steven Matz, Matt Straham and Miles Mikolas.
Liam Hendricks is an All-Star. He’s now the Athletics’ closer. He also leads baseball with a 0.18 HR/9 rate. That’s one homer in 42 outings with 63 punchouts over 50.2 frames.
Luke Jackson is up to 14 saves for the Braves. He’s blown six chances, but his overall game is pretty damn strong with a 2.66 ERA, 2.79 FIP, 12.07 K/9 and an uber-impressive 3.55 GB/FB ratio, the best in baseball (minimum 40-innings pitched).
Mike Leake is… Mike Leake. Still, he has a career best 4.88 K/BB ratio as he leads baseball with a 27.00 K/BB ratio the last 30-days. The only negative for him this season is that 1.81 HR/9 rate, which is nearly seven tenths above his career rate. That’s scary.
As a “reliever,” Wade LeBlanc has a 2.97 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and a 3.00 K/BB ratio over 39.1 innings (seven outings).
Joey Lucchesi has a 1.11 WHIP this season which is a hundredth better than Matthew Boyd, two better than Mike Minor and three better than David Price.
Lance Lynn has won 11 games, a seventh season in a row with double-digit wins (Lynn is also 4-0 the last 30-days). He’s struck out 153 or more batters the last six years and he’s well on his way to that mark again with 123 punchouts in 115 innings leading to a career best K/9 rate of 9.63. More interesting is the 2.03 BB/9 rate, less than fifty percent of the 4.37 mark he posted last season.
Tyler Mahle has a 1.24 WHIP and a 9.62 K/9 rate and a rather impressive 3.96 K/BB ratio. Alas, a year after posting a 1.77 HR/9 rate the mark this season is similarly awful at 1.75.
Anyone realize that Tommy Milone, yeah the guy who has been on like six teams, has a 1.00 WHIP with 44 KS in 48 innings this season for the Mariners?
Charlie Morton is 10-2 this season and 25-5 since the start of last season. That’s damn impressive. What is even more amazing is that is that over the 10-years of his career he was 60-78. Further, the first nine year he was 46-71.
James Paxton has a 1.43 WHIP which is worse than Daniel Norris (1.42) and Mike Foltynewicz (1.42). Norris is blah, and Folty is in the minors he’s been so bad.
Michael Pineda is doing… Michael Pineda things. What does that mean? He’s got an elevated ERA at 4.56. His WHIP is sharp at 1.18 as he doesn’t ever beat himself with the walk on his way to a 5.25 K/BB ratio. Tons of homers though, 1.55 per nine, and with a four-year high in the fly ball ratio (42.0) it’s possible that his homer rate goes up given that his 13.9 percent HR/FB ratio is a four-year low.
Clayton Richard is 9th in baseball with a 56 percent ground ball rate (minimum 40-innings). He also has a vomit inducing 1.17 K/BB ratio and 1.87 HR/9 mark.
Trevor Richards has gone 0-5 the last month. Those loses drop him to 3-10 on the year and 7-19 in his young career.
Hyun-Jin Ryu leads baseball with a 9.90 K/BB ratio. He’s walked 10 batters in 17 starts. Over his last 32 starts he’s 17-5 with a 1.83 ERA and a 0.95 WHIP.
Will Smith leads baseball with 23 saves without a blown save. The next highest saves total without a blown save belongs to Cody Allen who has four saves. #Amazing
Dan Straily, before his release, had allowed 22 homers in 47.2 innings. That’s 4.15 homers per nine. I don’t even know what to say.
Stephen Strasburg, yes the oft broken down one, is 10th in baseball with 116.1 innings pitched. Strasburg has a career best 52.4 percent ground ball rate and that has led to a career best 1.83 GB/FB ratio. The K/9 rate of 10.68 is a tenth above his career mark while his 2.24 BB/9 rate is a tenth below his career mark.
Justin Verlander allowed a career worst 30 homers in 2016. He then allowed 27 and 28 the last two seasons. This year, things are out of control with Verlander as he’s already permitted 26 in just 19 outings. He’s easily on pace to eclipse the 40 homer mark this season, and that’s shocking (the pace of slightly more than 45 actually). Keep an eye on that ERA. The mark currently sits at 2.98, but xFIP tells the story more clearly (3.67), as does SIERA (3.36) and FIP (4.19). If he keeps pitching like this, his ERA is in peril.
Zack Wheeler had a poor 4.69 ERA and a 6-6 record. He also has 130 punchouts which is one more than Patrick Corbin.
Brandon Workman has a 12.27 K/9 rate and he’s second in baseball with a 0.22 HR/9 rate. He also has walked a massive 6.25 batters per nine.
Ryan Yarbrough has a 4.82 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 28 innings as a starter. In 35.1 innings in relief, he’s at 4.33 and 1.10.
Kirby Yates has 30 saves. That’s 44 saves for his career.
I LIKE IN THE SECOND HALF
Anthony DeSclafani
Joey Lucchesi
Dallas Keuchel
Brendan McKay
Lance Lynn
Ross Stripling
Mike Leake
Jordan Yamamoto
Dinelson Lamet
I’M CONCERNED ABOUT IN THE SECOND HALF
Mike Soroka
Matt Boyd
Kyle Hendricks
Wade Miley
Mike Fiers
Chris Archer
Zach Eflin
Jake Arrieta
Steven Matz
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday-Friday, 8-10 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). Follow Ray’s work on Twitter (@baseballguys) and be sure to listen to his podcast work too.
