So this is weird. I won’t be writing another one of these articles until Saturday morning after doing this every day for over three months. Anywho, there’s this guy named Andrew Heaney who has been pretty dominant since being added to the Angels staff at the end of June. After last night’s excellent effort of 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks, he’s now sporting a 1.32 ERA (2.78 FIP/3.26 xFIP) while allowing only 4 walks and collecting 23 Ks across 27.1 IP. The biggest concern for Heaney has been his stickiness inside the Los Angeles staff, but given his performances, I have to imagine someone like Matt Shoemaker would get the hook first. Don’t sell high and ride this one out.
Let’s see what every other SP did yesterday:
Jake Arrieta – 9.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 Hits, 0 BBs, 9 Ks. Aces.
Sonny Gray – 9.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. Gonna.
Max Scherzer – 8.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks. Ace.
Tyson Ross – 6.2 IP, 0 ER, 3 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. This is the only start of the year over 2 IP that he didn’t allow an ER. Whoa.
Kyle Gibson – 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. For allowing 54.0% grounders, you’d think he’d have a better soft contact rate than 18.6%. Nah, he’s just not that good.
Corey Kluber – 8.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. Odd he couldn’t accrue more than 6 Ks over 8 IP, but that WHIP and ERA is freakin’ sweet.
Wei-Yin Chen – 8.0 IP, 2 ER, 8 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks. Dang Chen, that’s seven games with 2 or fewer ER, where’ you’ve had a t least 7 Ks three times. Sure, your FIP is at 4.21 so that 2.78 ERA isn’t totally legit, but a 21.7% soft contact is nice as well.
Chris Heston – 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks. That’s a solid line from Heston. This is what happens often when you don’t walk batters – 7 hits can still make for a good WHIP.
Jose Quintana – 7.1 IP, 3 ER, 8 Hits, 0 BBs, 9 Ks. I’ll take this from Quintana. Sure, the 3 ERs aren’t ideal, but that K/BB and WHIP are what I’m looking for.
Dan Haren – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks. Still think you’re the ace in Miami? Nah, that’s Yordano. Was that a Pet Detective reference? Yuuuuuup.
Kyle Lohse – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 Hits, 0 BBs, 6 Ks. I guess we’ll hold off on the LoKer TOCAL today. Whatevs.
Francisco Liriano – 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 4 BBs, 6 Ks. Nonononono. Liriano, don’t walk people. Seriously. You lead the league in soft contact percentage, let them try to hit the ball!
Jonathon Niese – 6.2 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 3 Ks. No walks makes this a decent stream from Niese. Nothing that excites me, though.
Lance McCullers – 6.0 IP, 4 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 10 Ks. The first two ER cam off a walk –> single that turned into a gap triple –> wild pitch, while his stuff was freaking great. McCullers will always find a little extra trouble given the inconsistent walk rate, but those Ks are so dang tasty.
Yovani Gallardo – 5.2 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 4 BBs, 3 Ks. Ehhhh I miss the days when he didn’t have 10 baserunners in under six innings.
Brett Anderson – 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 8 Hits, 0 BBs, 3 Ks. It wasn’t great, and the Anderson train is slowing down a little. I may give it a rest making him our Call Boy for a little.
Chad Bettis – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 5 BBs, 8 Ks. Bettis has limited upside, pitches his home games at Coors Field, and doesn’t deserve a spot on your team. This should be the blurb for every Colorado starter.
Edinson Volquez – 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 2 Ks. Sure Volquez, that seems like something you can do.
Tim Cooney – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 5 Ks. The Cardinals have no one else to turn to, but fortunately you’re not so deprived.
Nathan Eovaldi – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. This is okay for Eovaldi. Yeah.
Matt Moore – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks. I’m still waiting for Moore to give me a start that makes me seriously considering adding him. I don’t think we’ll get one for a bit.
Johnny Cueto – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 1 BBs, 2 Ks. This is the start that prevented him from pitching in front of his fans one last time before getting traded. Yaaaaaay.
Taijuan Walker – 5.0 IP, 6 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks. So the walks are still low, which is fantastic, but tallying 6 ER, despite some fielding errors, makes me believe he wasn’t commanding the zone like he should be. Maybe the ASB will help him recover, but I’m nervous. Very nervous.
Chad Billingsley – 5.0 IP, 4 ER, 10 Hits, 0 BBs, 2 Ks. If you’re thinking of investing in Billingsley, you probably don’t have much left to invest.
Rubby De La Rosa – 3.2 IP, 4 ER, 8 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. De La Rosa, you’re supposed to be better than this.
Wade Miley – 5.1 IP, 6 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 2 Ks. Miley, you’re not.
Felix Doubront – 5.0 IP, 5 ER, 10 Hits, 0 BBs, 2 Ks. No wonder he’s bounched around like ten teams recently.
Alex Wood – 5.2 IP, 7 ER, 10 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. I threw in the towel with Alex weeks ago, but I’m still sad to see him struggle like this.
Shane Greene – 4.2 IP, 7 ER, 7 Hits, 3 BBs, 2 Ks. Greene, you’re making it real tough to remember how good you were at the start of the season.
Today’s Friday’s Streamers
We don’t really know who will be pitching when later this week as teams reassemble their pitching staffs for the second half. I’ll update this on Thursday when we have a better idea.
Tomorrow’s Saturday’s Streamer
Soooo yeah. This is awkward.
Game of the Day Friday
H’oh boy. Super awkward.