We have had a lot of Spice Girls come our way this year and Sal Romano is sure to get thrown into the mix now after going 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks inside Coors. Ray’s brother’s was making his second MLB start and had fantastic velocity on his heater – averaged over 97mph! – with a Slider that earned 8 whiffs over 28 thrown, good for a 28.6% whiff rate. Problem is that that’s it. There isn’t a third pitch and I don’t trust his Fastball command as much as his co-star Luis Castillo, who has three strong pitches. I can see there being more nights of bliss with Romano like Sean Newcomb has had with his two-pitch mix, but I can’t bank on consistent success without a third option as it’s rare to see players succeed with just two offerings. Not to mention, his numbers weren’t all too impressive in Triple-A thus far and I wonder if he’ll be more of a 6-7 K/9 guy with a larger sample. I don’t think you’ll see any awards being handed to Romano anytime soon.
Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:
Paul Blackburn – 7.2 IP, 1 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 0 Ks. Zero strikeouts? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FEED MY FAMILY WITH THIS.
Jacob Faria – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 4 BBs, 2 Ks. Hmmmmm. 4 Walks + a HBP is the worry I’ve had about Faria since his callup…with just two strikeouts as well…but 1 ER against the Red Sox and six frames is clearly a plus. I’m feeling a bit like Larry right now. I imagine he gets the A’s out of the break and as an owner you simply keep throwing out there until the alarm bells go off.
Rich Hill – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 Hits, 0 BBs, 9 Ks. Dude is on point! His Curveball looked great against the Padres last time out and to see him do the same against a much tougher Diamondbacks offense is simply wonderful. Start him without fear and let’s hope he can be healthy as this might be a fun ride.
Robbie Ray – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 4 BBs, 13 Ks. Well hot damn look at that…1.50 WHIP! But seriously, we’d all take that WHIP if it came with 13 strikeouts every evening, but it really shouldn’t and that 1 ER will turn into 3/4 with that consistently high WHIP. Sell high y’all.
Zach Davies – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 3 Ks. Tonight is the night of mediocre pitchers being somewhat decent. Ignore them. Ignore them all. The passive aggressive version of Boudica.
Mike Foltynewicz – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks. So I led with Folty last time saying I didn’t want to start him here against the Nationals and BAM he keeps it going, allowing a total of 6 ER in six of his last seven starts. I’m still not seeing a significant shift here in approach or major belief that this will stick – not to mention a 1.50 WHIP isn’t blowing me away, but yes, the Nats – so I’m cautiously optimistic here.
Chad Kuhl – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks. Kuhl story, bro.
Anibal Sanchez – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 8 Ks. Oh jeez, eight strikeouts and 2 ER from Anibal? No walks?! What deal with Jeremy Hellickson the Devil did you make?!
Jeremy Hellickson – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. Oh, no I didn’t mean to call you. Yeah, I know I know, sorry I’m not negotiating today. Yes I see the WHIP…uh huh…sure sure quality start…what’s that? One soul? Yeah I’m good, thanks.
Josh Tomlin – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 Hits, 0 BBs, 6 Ks. You’re not buying this one either, right? Good.
Michael Wacha – 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 9 Ks. Wait wait wait. That’s two straight games with 9 Ks from Wacha…Was there something different? Nope. He actually had two different approaches in each game, focusing on his Cutter in one and Changeup in the other. Womp womp. Nevertheless, he gets either the Pirates or Mets out of the gate in the 2nd half and you want that.
Jose Berrios – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. Not the dominance we’ve seen from Berrios, but I’m still encouraged here. Yeah, I want a few more Ks but if this is Berrios’ floor, we cool.
Tyler Chatwood – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 8 Hits, 4 BBs, 4 Ks. Chatwood is worth the start only in normal streaming situations. This was not a normal streaming situation.
Gio Gonzalez – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. Another QS from Gio, albeit a VPQS, with a good amount of Ks. He’s still the prime regression candidate for the second half, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be starting him until that banana bread bakes in the oven. And how long is that going to take? Well, have you ever made banana bread? No. Get on that.
Tom Koehler – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 7 Ks. Yep, that’s Koehler alright.
Francisco Liriano – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 9 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks. Very un-Liriano as he totaled just 5 K +BB…okay he’s kinda done that a bit this season, which actually isn’t good. You want the extreme guy as someone you can throw out in there if you need a big game. This is just…blegh.
Chris Sale – 7.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 12 Ks. Surprise, surprise, Sale is our Gallows Pole of the day (in honor of Joey Gallo and his league leading 20% whiff rate) as Sale had the most whiffs last night with 22 missed bats. Dude is really good, just sometimes loses it slightly and gets punished, like the two longballs last night. So it goes.
Dinelson Lamet – 4.0 IP, 5 ER, 6 Hits, 4 BBs, 5 Ks. Lamet faced a tough team in the Indians and his poor command did him no favors with four walks and a pair of longballs. I went over Lamet a good amount in the podcast this week and how I don’t expect the massive second half breakout a lot of you want. Now, he won’t be this bad of course, but this shouldn’t be such an anomaly that you’ll enjoy owning him in August. This floor is real and it isn’t going away.
Lance McCullers – 4.1 IP, 5 ER, 9 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. But this floor is stupid and needs to die. McCullers was Single Out here but the more unsettling part are the 3 Ks given he faced a hefty amount of batters.
Chris Stratton – 6.2 IP, 5 ER, 6 Hits, 5 BBs, 1 Ks. Cueto was scratched with an illness last minute, having Stratton take his place. It went exactly as you’d expect.
Dylan Bundy – 5.0 IP, 6 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. Yes, he’s droppable. Let’s just get this over with. But it was just one bad inning last night! And still just four Ks. I just don’t want to be waiting for this anymore and he’s not even going to pitch all the way through September!
Sam Gaviglio – 4.2 IP, 7 ER, 9 Hits, 3 BBs, 6 Ks. Gaviglio has been a TEEs and his house is falling down in a blink of an eye. Dude, don’t do straw next time, jeez.
Mike Montgomery – 2.1 IP, 7 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. Super disappointing as I’ve seen Montgomery as a better-floor-than-most-of-the-lesser-owned-pitchers pitcher and he just didn’t have it against the Brewers. Chalk it up to a loss for my books, though I think this doesn’t spell the end of Monty. Streamer Record 45-31-11.
Today’s Streamer
Nick Pivetta vs. San Diego Padres – Pivetta is a guy you want to roll with against weak teams.
Tomorrow’s Streamer
Luis Castillo vs. Arizona Diamondbacks – Okay, here me out. It’s either Castillo, Andrew Moore against the A’s, or Jhoulys Chacin against the Phillies. I hate trusting Chacin ever, so it’s Moore or Castillo and you guys know how much I love Castillo, I would just feel weird banking on Moore over Castillo. But the matchup is much better…I don’t have a problem going Moore instead, I just need to go with my heart here.
Day After Tomorrow’s Streamer
Trevor Cahill vs. Philadelphia Phillies – I’m amazed I can call this a streamer since he should be owned everywhere, but here we are, still sitting under the 25% owned mark.
Game of the Day
Sean Manaea vs. James Paxton – Ohhhhh baby. Jackson! Cancel all my appointments for today!
Is there anywhere I can see your list of Spice Girls? I’m losing track of them.
Huh, never thought about doing that.
Going straight off The List…
JorMont, Godley, Faria, Peacock, Morton, Castillo, Newcomb, Cahill, Lamet. I guess we can add Romano at the end of that now.
Former Spice Girls include Biagini, JC Ramirez, and Matt Strahm.
If Hill can avoid the dirty “b-word” along with his new Kershaw inspired cutter I’m excited for his 2nd half!
*Robbie Ray K’s 13 Dodgers in 6 IP*
Nick – LOL Robbie Ray couldn’t even strike out 14 Dodgers last night. SELL
Psssh yeah, what a loser!
Man if only we could get 1 ER and 13 Ks from Ray all the time. :(
Hi Nick. Jon Gray or Rich Hill ROS? I think Gray has better upside, but also has the tough task of pitching in Coors every home game. How would you weigh the scale taking that into account?
Totally get the fear of Gray, the one thing is that the Rockies have a much easier 2nd half schedule than you’d think, with some Coors series coming against weak teams that I would be happy throwing Gray out there for.
I’m leaning Gray here and while Hill has been solid lately, injuries are a much bigger threat for him and two starts doesn’t mean this is him ROS.
Thanks for the reply, Nick. My current pitching staff is as follows: Lester, Carrasco, DeGrom, Greinke, Paxton, Manaea, Taillon, Nola, Duffy, and Gray; none of which you would drop for Hill, correct?
Nick has said on the podcast that Gray being a Rockies pitcher shouldn’t negatively sway you very much as they have a very favorable schedule in the 2nd half, in and out of Coors. Something like 75% favorable matchups regardless of home/away.
Hill has stopped using his lower arm slot delivery recently that had possibly caused some of his inconsistencies and cleaned up his delivery a bit. Also got help from Kershaw and has been mixing in a cutter recently as a third pitch. Only been a few starts but after last night’s effort vs AZ I’m a believer in his second half if he can stay healthy…
If you can only chose one I’d go with Gray simply because of Hill’s health concerns, but I like both post AS break. Obviously not Nick but that’s my 2 cents.
Traded Ray for McCullers and then McCullers has had two gross starts. I can only assume my karma broke him? Or is there something else?
Everything checks out here, I think it’s just a blip. I’d be happy with that deal!
Danny Salazar getting rocked in AAA. You think he’s got a good 2nd half in him or not worth the headache in shallow 10 teamers?
Not worth the headache in my mind.