Bundy Et Al.

Oh Dylan Bundy. I want to love you so much, but this year has been all kinds of atrocious. Now you go 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 10 Ks against the Angels and we have to open this up for discussion again. Here are my takeaways from this one: 15.2% whiff rate was second highest of the season (17.2% in his first start of the year on April 5th), just a 44.0% First-Strike rate (blegh), and he had the second highest Fastball velocity of the season at 93.3mph (first game…again), which didn’t fall as his pitch count climbed. He got his 16 whiffs, half on his Slider (30.8% whiff rate for the game), and this all very encouraging. I’m not ready to jump on the Bundy train just yet, but I’m certainly intrigued here. Let’s hope he can pair this with proper execution like not throwing back-to-back poor Sliders to Mike Trout that led to a Home Run. That would be swell.

Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:

Max Scherzer – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 9 Ks. Aces gonna ace. I think we can all be happy his injury scare from last time out has been eradicated. Also, congrats on the Gallows Pole, I’m sure you’ll find room in the rest of your pile for this one.

Jake Arrieta – 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 9 Hits, 0 BBs, 5 Ks. Well here’s something interesting. If you’re been reading this frequently, you’ll know that I talk about Arrieta’s pitch selection a ton as it’s his way of working around his off-and-on command. Yesterday was…different. Different in that he threw 21.1% Sliders, a pitch he hasn’t thrown 20% of the time since the end of May. Just 3 whiffs with it and a negative pVal, which makes me think that he might not go back to it again. I have to believe it’s a result of his Sinker not being as effective as it had been in his recent outing since the start of July, forcing him to try something different and get out of jams. Anyway, the conclusion here is that this was an odd start and not as encouraging as you’d think with 0 walks and 2 ERs. Now he heads to Coors-Lite and my gut says that spells trouble. I probably would still start him and I hope my gut is terrible. Well yeah, just look at it. Thanks for showing up bud.

Trevor Williams – 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 Hits, 2 BBs, 5 Ks. Williams lowered his ERA to 4.17 on the year and now sports a 6.47 K/9. To his credit, a 25%+ soft contact rate, 2.64 BB/9, and 50% groundball rate are helping his cause, but man I’d hate to making a Grave Mistake here with any sort of necessity. I think I should have given this stream a little more consideration since the Tigers are ranked 25th in wOBA in the last 14 days (JD Martinez is really good y’all), but still, Williams is far from a guy you want to depend on.

Chris O’Grady – 1.1 IP, 1 ER, 0 Hits, 1 BBs, 2 Ks. Because I’m sure many of you were rostering O’Grady, you can drop him now as he left the game with an oblique injury. Poor fella.

Tim Adleman – 4.2 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks. No injury here, nor a high pitch count (76 pitches), just not a pitcher that you can trust to be good or good for plenty of innings.

Carlos Martinez – 8.0 IP, 2 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks. Beautiful outing from CarMart. He needed a start like this after not having a 7+ K/2- ER start since June 27th. We weren’t anywhere close to abandoning him, but owners will understand that half of his previous six starts came with 5 ER, with four of those tallying just 15 Ks. Now it’s the Braves, Pirates, Padres and we can all feel good again.

Ervin Santana – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. Santana followed his Complete Game with another great outing, this time against the Brewers instead of the Padres. Y’all know I’m not trusting Santana against the top half of offenses (his .225 BABIP is second best among all qualified starters – I’m looking at your .221 Lance Lynn), though that doesn’t mean he doesn’t necessarily deserve a spot on your roster. The aforementioned Tigers are struggling without JD Martinez, and after an easy bench against the Diamondbacks, the ChiSox, Jays, and Royals all suit my fancy.

Brent Suter – 4.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. You were going to get off the Brent train Suter or later. At least it’s happening now instead of in September when it matters a whole lot more. Guess I have to take a loss, I totally should have known to pick Trevor instead. Streamer Record 58-41-14. 

Jordan Zimmermann – 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 2 Ks. Nope, not going to get this new Jay-Z record.

Jhoulys Chacin – 6.0 IP, 5 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 5 Ks. Chacin will do well when Jhoulyst expect it. Back to normal I see.

Matt Moore – 6.0 IP, 5 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks. It’s weird to see Moore actually produce something productive in seven Ks as he’s just been so harmful this entire year.

Ian Kennedy – 6.0 IP, 6 ER, 6 Hits, 4 BBs, 5 Ks. You’d think Kennedy faced a tough team like the Astros, but instead this was the Cardinals and now you’ve lost all trust in Kennedy for the foreseeable future.

J.C. Ramirez – 7.0 IP, 6 ER, 8 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. Poor JC, he actually wasn’t doing too poorly until allowing a Manny Machado four-run HR (there should be a name for that) in the seventh. I wouldn’t say Careful, Icarus since this is JC we’re talking here and he ended with just 90 pitches to his name after completing all seven frames. Fantasy wise, I gave up on Ramirez a long time ago and there just isn’t enough upside for me to reconsider that notion.

Today’s Streamer

Sal Romano vs. San Diego Padres – There’s nothing else to turn to, so I’ll go with a strikeout threat against one of the most strikeout prone teams.

Tomorrow’s Streamer

Jerad Eickhoff vs. Atlanta Braves – I could imagine someone also rolling with his opponent Sean Newcomb, but Eickhoff has the better floor.

Day After Tomorrow’s Streamer

Luis Castillo vs. San Diego Padres – Like last time, if he’s not available go with Dinelson Lamet, who will be in the other dugout in this game. That Reds offense that has been “surprisingly good” this year? Yeah, it’s 24th in wOBA over the last 14 days.

Game of the Day

Zack Godley vs. Kenta Maeda – Godley is a ton of fun to watch and then there’s the mystery of Maeda to enjoy as well.