I brought up Thor the other day as one of my crushes and it’s time to really dive into my most recent one, Dylan Bundy, especially after he went 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 Hits, 1 BBs, 9 Ks today against the White Sox. When I talked about Bundy before it was all about his Fastball command. If that is on point, he has the stuff to dominate lineups, it’s that simple. His Changeup is top notch – seriously, it’s crazy how good it is with a whiff rate over 22% and now he’s throwing around 25% of the time – and his hook looked as amazing as ever today, forcing Gary Throne to emit “Ugh, Mercy“. Now it’s certainly possible that this command can disappear like it did with Skaggs on a given night or stretch or whatever, but what separates the two is the ability to make mistakes and get away with it. It’s the part of having really great stuff that makes you super good. Obviously that doesn’t always happen, but it’s a higher chance and whatever I need to move on to other things. There are whispers that Bundy might get shutdown since he’s never thrown more than 100 innings in a year, but let’s be honest. I can’t see them limiting him that much. He won’t throw 180 until 2019 at that rate. At some point the kid has to log a decent amount of frames and I really don’t see why it won’t be this year. The O’s have the best playoff chance they’ve had in a long time and their biggest weakness is their rotation. Let it ride, let it ride.
Let’s see what every other SP did yesterday:
Anibal Sanchez – 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 0 BBs, 10 Ks. Aces gonna ace. Ahahahahaa just playin’ Anibal. But hey, this is pretty dang impressive! Second 10 K night in four starts. Still too much of a risk to warrant a roster spot, but with these strikeouts flowing I’ll always be a little intrigued.
Madison Bumgarner – 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 Hits, 2 BBs, 7 Ks. Aces gonna ace. Still #2 for now.
James Paxton – 8.1 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. Good news: Paxton was on point with high velocity the entire game. Bad news: He left the game in the ninth when a comebacker struck him in his pitching elbow. No faster way to go from top-of-the-world as an owner to a pit of despair. No word yet if he’ll make his next start against the A’s (OH PLEASE GOD), but at least they found no structural damage in the x-rays after the game.
Yu Darvish – 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 8 Ks. Aces gonna ace. My lord he looks good right now.
Kyle Hendricks – 7.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. That’s Hendricks alright. Crazy with a team that has Arrieta/Lester/Lackey that Hendricks has the lowest ERA by far with a 2.17 mark. Crazy.
Joe Musgrove – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 6 Ks. I’ll have a GIF Breakdown nicely made for y’all hopefully by the afternoon tomorrow on this start. The quickie: his Fastball seems super deceptive despite slowing down to even 89 mph in the later innings. Batters couldn’t hit it with authority, which speaks well to his potential once the velocity can stay up consistently. Changeup needs work – has flashes – and Slider can be good but not devastating. I’m not pining for him like I was in his debut, but I still have a soft spot for the kid and want him in all my 12 teamers and most H2H 10 teamers.
Tanner Roark – 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 5 Ks. That big fat zero is mighty fine, though I hate the walks and his dwindling K rate tells me that he’s not all too exciting of a roster spot.
Carlos Carrasco – 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 9 Ks. Ehhh I’ll take it after his horrendous outing last time out against the Twins. Lovely to see those strikeouts return.
Masahiro Tanaka – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 0 BBs, 8 Ks. Speaking of strikeouts, Tanaka had a season high today with 8 against the Indians and hasn’t looked this good all year. Good timing too since I was ready to give him another demotion tomorrow. Funny how that works.
Dan Straily – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. Okay. I know there are going to be some of you that swear by Straily, and why wouldn’t you? He’s been doing great for your team and you think it’s crazy that I don’t even include him on The List. Here’s how I see this. Owning Straily right now is like you’re playing Blackjack and the dealer keeps busting. To you it seems that this game is super easy and no doubt you should keep playing. I see that he has a 4.61 FIP (5.02 xFIP!) with a poor 3.43 BB/9 as he’s an extreme anti-groundballer (32.2%) with hard contact up the wazoo (32.1%). Still want to keep making that bet?
Yordano Ventura – 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 4 BBs, 4 Ks. He’s a PEAS and will always be a PEAS. Who is he appeasing? Oh lord, you know I thought you moved out? Hadn’t heard from you for a week and it. Was. Heaven.
Mike Foltynewicz – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. I’ll take this from Folty who is a prime example of someone who can have great stuff but such inconsistent command can really burn him.
Jacob DeGrom – 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 7 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. Aces gonna somewhat ace? I don’t like that 1.50 WHIP nor just 3 Ks, but it’s good to see he’s still finding a way to keep that ERA super low at 2.35 for the year.
Sean Manaea – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. It’s pretty boring, but I have to be pleased with Manea doing this against the Cubbies. Too bad he has a rugged schedules until, essentially the rest of the season. Poor fella, I think he might be a sleeper in next year’s drafts because of it.
Matt Shoemaker – 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 3 Ks. This is becoming routine for Shoemaker and I think I’m going to deduct him points in tomorrow’s List because of it. I might uncover something else, but that’s how I’m leaning right now.
Archie Bradley – 4.2 IP, 3 ER, 3 Hits, 3 BBs, 8 Ks. So our Reluctant Call Boy wasn’t so bad as he gave us 8 Ks, but he could only go 14 outs, leaving us in this awkward position of feeling dirty for liking it in the first place. That’s a Dusty Donut for you.
Gerrit Cole – 5.2 IP, 4 ER, 3 Hits, 3 BBs, 6 Ks. The King of Really Good was really disappointing against the Reds. The Reds. They are the equivalent to Sale’s Twins. Anyway, y’all know I’m not so high on Cole, but he’ll still be Top 25 so that’s cool I guess.
Jerad Eickhoff – 6.0 IP, 4 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 5 Ks. Come on Eickhoff, you got the Padres and you can’t give me a QS? Blegh.
Kyle Gibson – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 4 BBs, 2 Ks. This is coming off a 6 ER effort and the WHIP is 2.00. Hope that was a good smelling-salt equivalent to get you out of whatever demented dream that was.
Brandon McCarthy – 3.2 IP, 2 ER, 2 Hits, 5 BBs, 0 Ks. Jeez, I like McCarthy and this was not the guy I know. Command was all over the place and something was out of whack. Regardless of his next opponent, I would take a break from the fella until I see something different.
Matt Andriese – 4.2 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks. I wasn’t a fan of Andriese when he had a CGSHO, I’m sure not a fan now.
Marcus Stroman – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. So Stroman is back to normal now and couldn’t silence the worst offensive team in the bigs. It’s going to take a lot for me to be on his bandwagon again, that’s just how the pendulum swings.
David Price – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 5 BBs, 3 Ks. Price looks really uncomfortable on the hill today and not himself whatsoever. No idea why exactly, but this isn’t the Price that you should expect to stick around. Sometimes these things just happen.
Jarred Cosart – 5.0 IP, 5 ER, 10 Hits, 0 BBs, 5 Ks. Cosart is not someone you want on your team. Ever. Seriously.
Adam Wainwright – 6.0 IP, 6 ER, 9 Hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks. What is in the Cardinals’ water? Waino, Cmart, and Leake have all been super blegh lately – Cmart more expected but whatever – and it’s pretty annoying. Wainwright should be going closer to a complete game against the Braves, not allowing three runs apiece in the first two innings. Not cool dude.
Adam Conley – 5.0 IP, 6 ER, 7 Hits, 4 BBs, 2 Ks. Conley was in Coors, which made this an easy sit. Carry on.
Jimmy Nelson – 4.1 IP, 6 ER, 7 Hits, 3 BBs, 4 Ks. I don’t know why you’d still be rolling with Nelson, but if you are, please stop.
Jon Gray – 3.2 IP, 8 ER, 10 Hits, 1 BBs, 3 Ks. Well now, look at this. Yeah, it contained a good amount of bloop hits and whatnot, but he also allowed a good amount of well struck balls on bad pitches that got demolished in Coors. I tried to warn ya, and I hope you listened. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
James Shields – 1.1 IP, 8 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 1 Ks. Jiminy Cricket we’re back to the old Shields ways. I was actually upset this was happening because I just wanted to watch more Bundy.
Today’s Streamers
Julio Urias vs. Philadelphia Phillies – People keep flip-flopping who’s pitching when so here we are with Urias starting against the Phils tomorrow. All over my face please.
Tomorrow’s Streamer
Mike Leake vs. Cincinnati Reds – I know I know. I’m not feeling great about it either. He’s been so bad in his last three starts…but this is the Reds! It’s totally possible he turns it around, and if you’d rather do Mike Fiers against the Twins or Wade Miley against the A’s then by all means. I have a feel this should be the best of the lot.
Day After Tomorrow’s Streamer
Robbie Ray vs. New York Mets – I know, I know the strikeouts are great but the personality just isn’t there. Well, I think you’ll like him when he’s in his element against the Mets.
Game of the Day
Jose Fernandez vs. Johnny Cueto – Hot damn this sounds fun.