I watched a decent amount of the starting debut of Brandon Finnegan last night, where he did well with a line of 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. He primarily threw Sinkers all night, and surprisingly featured his Changeup – a pitch he used under 4% of the time as a reliever – over his Slider as his primary secondary pitch. So should you invest in the young lefty in Cincinnati? I wouldn’t recommend it. Looking at his stuff alone, he didn’t generate too many whiffs with his stuff despite featuring impressive K numbers in the minors, while his 13/20 first-pitch strikes make me believe he’ll be more wild than a polished pitcher with K upside. He also has an unfortunate schedule remaining, facing the Cardinals, Nationals, and Pirates. This was a starting debut and it’s possible he changes his gameplan moving forward – which I’ll be monitoring – but I’m not too impressed for his 2016 outlook.
Let’s see what every other SP did yesterday:
Madison Bumgarner – 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 7 Ks. Aces gonna ace.
Zack Greinke – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. Aces gonna ace but not as much as MadBum.
Max Scherzer – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 6 Ks. Aces gonna somewhat ace.
Justin Verlander – 8.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks. Former ace gonna do his best to relieve those days.
Jeff Locke – 6.1 IP, 4 ER, 8 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. Deuces gonna deuce.
Marcus Stroman – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 3 Ks. The Ks will come people…the Ks will come. Keep believing in Stroman for the rest of the year.
Rubby De La Rosa – 5.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 Hits, 4 BBs, 5 Ks. An impressive outing against a tough Giants offense, but it’s not nearly enough for me to forget everything else he’s done this year.
Cody Anderson – 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 5 BBs, 6 Ks. Some are signing up for a ride on Cody express, but
Chad Bettis – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 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.
Mike Fiers – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. The Ks were there, the WHIP was there, the ERA was fine. That’s the kind of Fiers you like.
Masahiro Tanaka – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. You’ll take it from Tanaka facing the #1 offense in the 2nd half. Yeah, the freakin’ Mets are the #1 offense in the second half. What.
Chris Sale – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 8 Hits, 3 BBs, 9 Ks. You’re probably asking how he had 11 baserunners and only 1 ER. He actually had six unearned runs added, including a Grand-Slam from the bat of Carlos Santana. Just how it goes and those 9 Ks should tell you to keep putting Sale out there.
Williams Perez – 5.2 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. Sir W really isn’t this good guys. I swear.
Steven Matz – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks. He did a fine job against a Yankee lineup that destroys lefties. It’s hard not to love him for the future.
Jose Fernandez – 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 8 Ks. Yup, we love JoFer. He’s just so…dreamy.
Johnny Cueto – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks. Look at that, Cueto is righting the ship…kinda. You’re safe to start him against Seattle.
Adam Morgan – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 0 BBs, 3 Ks. One of the better starts we’ll see from Morgan.
Felix Doubront – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks. The wrong Felix.
Dan Haren – 4.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 Hits, 0 BBs, 2 Ks. The Deuce of Chicago allowed 2 extra unearned runs that led to him pull in the 5th inning. Too bad because this actually is somewhat solid.
Zach Davies – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 4 BBs, 4 Ks. It was actually an okay matchup for Davies against the Reds, but he’s just not that great of a pitcher.
Ian Kennedy – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks. Better than expected now that the K machine has been sent back to the shop for repairs.
James Paxton – 4.1 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 4 BBs, 6 Ks. Paxton has always felt “so close” to dominance, yet he still struggles to limit walks and gets hit around more often than it feels like he should. He gets the Royals next and I’m Paxing up and leaving.
Drew Smyly – 5.2 IP, 5 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 6 Ks. Our Call Boy struck out the first four batters he faced, then allowed a 3 run shot
Yovani Gallardo – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 8 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. YoGa just isn’t that good.
Rick Porcello – 6.0 IP, 5 ER, 8 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. And people actually picked him up expecting K upside. The devil works in mysterious ways.
Lance Lynn – 3.1 IP, 3 ER, 4 Hits, 6 BBs, 2 Ks. Lynn is droppable guys. I know it’s sad, but he’s been droppable for a few starts now.
Tyler Wilson – 4.1 IP, 6 ER, 8 Hits, 2 BBs, 1 Ks. He was recalled for the spot start and boy was it bad. Yes this is A Cup of Schmo.
Today’s Streamers
Wei-Yin Chen vs. Tampa Bay Rays – Chen is your typical streamer who is a solid choice against a poor offense.
Tomorrow’s Streamer
Kevin Gausman vs. Tampa Bay rays – There’s a common theme here…
Game of the Day
Noah Syndergaard vs. Michael Pineda – It’s a fun outing for all.