Taking Off The Urquidy Gloves

We had another MLB debut yesterday with Jose Urquidy getting thrust into the gauntlet of Coors out of the gate and returning a mediocre 3.2 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks. I watched this one and I loved and hated it. I loved his mid 90s heat with a solid slider, a changeup he was bold with (that strikeout to Story was gorgeous!) and a decent curveball to surprise batters. I hate the command of his heater and how he struggled to execute. You want the feeling of a young arm being able to do what he wants – it’s what I adore about McKay and Soroka – and Urquidy really fought his command through this start. But when it works…mmmm it’s great. I’m not sure if he gets another start before the ASB (would be against the Angels), but if he sees regular time, I could see us treating this like Framber Valdez. A bit Cherry Bomb-esque, but possibly a good stretch is in there against weak lineups.

Let’s see how every other SP did Tuesday:

Joe Musgrove – 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks.  Musgrove was cruising – 14/34 CSW with 93/94 velocity and 25%+ sliders – when the rain showed up and said Nah, I’m going to stop you right there. Ugh. On the plus side, if you wanted to get Musgrove, his price tag may be slightly lower than before. Go and get him, he’s looking as sharp as ever.

Aaron Nola – 8.0 IP, 0 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 8 Ks. Aces gonna ace. NOLA DAY IS BACK ON THE MENU. 33% CSW and all pitches working. He’s is so back.

Tyler Beede – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. Well well well. I imagine I’ll get some questions about Beede today after this strong line, but sadly I’m not enthused. Just 25% CSW with only 10 strikeouts across his last three starts combined and I’m not seeing enough upside inside his repertoire to suggest a strong pickup. He likely doesn’t start again until post ASB, which means he may not start again for two weeks. Just let him sit out there.

Matt Carasiti – 1.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 Hits, 0 BBs, 1 Ks. Matty was the opener for False Starter Wade LeBlanc who went a pedestrian 4.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 1 Ks. First of all, HAISTFMFWT?! Second, this is so boring and doesn’t do nearly enough to justify a roster spot. Seriously, 90 pitches for this?

Patrick Corbin – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks. Aces gonna ace. It was an emotional start for Corbin, who was incredibly close to Tyler Skaggs and wore #45 in his honor. He stuck through a rain delay that knocked out Gallen and did what the southpaw should do against the Marlins. He’s shifted his approach to purposefully stay away from right-handers these days, though I wonder if he’ll slowly gravitate back to jamming them soon enough. Corbin is simply much more effective living inside.

Charlie Morton – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 1 BBs, 12 Ks. Aces gonna ace. Hot DANG! 15 whiffs for a Gallows Pole and 38% CSW. Mmmmm that’s the quiet ace doing his thing.

James Paxton – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 8 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. On one hand, I’m glad he was able to give you just 1 ER. On the other, it’s a bit of a Dusty Donut as it came with a 1.67 WHIP and just 3 punchouts. His cutter and curveball aren’t commanding chases like they used to and he needed a lot of good fastballs to make this work. We’re not out of the woods yet.

Chase Anderson – 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 2 Ks. We saw a slight bump in velocity last time from Chase, but it fell down under 93 mph here. Womp womp. So does that mean we don’t care about Chase? Yes, that’s exactly what it Johns.

Zac Gallen – 2.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 Hits, 1 BBs, 2 Ks. While Gallen wasn’t performing as well as I liked – not a single changeup in these 37 pitches – I’m a bit sad that he was limited to just two frames due to a rain delay. Keep on rolling with him.

Kyle Hendricks – 3.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks. This is the rain delay that took down Musgrove as well, but this one is okay. It was a DLH anyway and at least he had an expected pitch count anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if he threw 20 more pitches in a bullpen after – he was at 55 for the night – to help him get on track for the next start. He’s Top 35 given the current landscape and you start Hendricks whenever.

Dallas Keuchel – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. The man is a Toby and he’s doing Toby things. This is a good thing.

David Price – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 Hits, 4 BBs, 7 Ks. Aces gonna ace. Sure, a little high on the WHIP side, but this is what you want from Price.

Jose Suarez – 4.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 Hits, 2 BBs, 7 Ks. Suarez has a lovely changeup. Suarez also has pretty much nothing else to save him. Sometimes the breaker will be there, sometimes his heaters will be well placed through the game, and sometimes he’ll go 5-6 strong. But expect a lot of short starts ahead. But seven strikeouts! That is a cool thing, good on you Suarez.

Zack Wheeler – 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 8 Ks. Great to see Wheeler carve up the Yankee lineup, featuring one of the best sliders I’ve seen from him all year. Even his splitter earned 25% whiffs in this one and you got yourself a three-game stretch of 4 ER total. Remember, Wheeler became the man we love in mid-June last season…

Taylor Clarke – 3.2 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 1 Ks. Yep, that’s Clarke alright. The man that you’ll completely forget about in about a month. Who? Oh, or I guess tomorrow.

Mike Minor – 4.1 IP, 3 ER, 2 Hits, 4 BBs, 4 Ks. Honestly, it’s about time Minor took a step back. GASP. Well, we didn’t all think that Minor was truly a Top 15 arm, did we? Still, you keep starting Minor, even if he needed 110 pitches here.

Jack Flaherty – 4.2 IP, 4 ER, 7 Hits, 4 BBs, 7 Ks. Ugh. I want more Flaherty, more! I know you’re going to take that step forward at some point, but it’s taking a little longer than I anticipated. He needed 103 pitches to just miss five full frames, working in 17 curveballs to middling success. Something has to click here. Something.

German Marquez – 6.0 IP, 4 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks. A near VPQS with 7 Ks against the Astros in Coors is likely the line many of you predicted for Marquez here. I’m okay with that in this horrid matchup as you have no choice but to keeping rostering Marquez.

Tanner Roark – 6.2 IP, 4 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks. Roark pitched well saved for three homers that did all of the damage. Stupid longballs, they ruin everything. Why do we even let batters hit the ball? I think that’s a great point there, random person. If you own Roark and have few options on the wire, I think you’re best sticking it out.

Ross Stripling – 4.2 IP, 4 ER, 7 Hits, 2 BBs, 7 Ks. He threw 81 pitches here (he did tell me on Friday that he was expecting roughly 75) and returned a solid 33% CSW. He’ll be allowed to go to 90 next time as we should feel great owning Stripling moving forward. He turned to more changeups here and it did burn him a few times and while he did express that he needs that pitch against left-handers, I wonder if that could change over time with a greater emphasis on sliders and cutters inside. We’ll see, either way, hold Strip.

Asher Wojciechowski – 5.1 IP, 4 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. With a name like that, there’s a part of me that wishes he doesn’t do well so I don’t have to take the time to learn how to spell Wojciechowski. I kid – I want all my children starters to succeed – but we’ve been waiting for Woj to drop a bomb of strikeouts and production for a while and I’d be surprised if we get to see that. Just 9 whiffs here as he’s two pitch with fastballs and sliders. 91/92 on the heat, decent break on the slide piece, and that’s it. Yeah.

Jake Odorizzi – 3.0 IP, 5 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 2 Ks. Blegh. It’s been a tough few weeks for Odorizzi, tallying 16 ER in four starts with a pair of 2 strikeout duds to his name. He made a good amount of mistake pitches here – especially with his splitter – while his cutter failed to return a whiff. I think you stay strong, though, and isn’t the regression hitting the fan, but this is an unfortunate rough patch. Update: I completely forgot that Odorizzi left this game with a blister. So there’s that. He’s headed to the IL…which will likely be just one start. I’d hold through it unless your IL spots are full.

Trevor Bauer – 6.0 IP, 5 ER, 11 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. So I wonder if the Skaggs tragedy had an effect on Bauer here. I feel weird suggesting that but these are humans and it hit Bauer pretty hard, understandably so. At the same time, 33/107 CSW ain’t bad, his slider was solid, and I think he got a bit Singled Out here. I remember I was apologetic about the turmoil of Bauer’s season just a few weeks ago and while I’m still there, I think many of you can see that a gorgeous month stretch is just around the corner.

Daniel Mengden – 5.2 IP, 5 ER, 8 Hits, 0 BBs, 5 Ks. With Montas out, the biggest benefactor has been Mengden, especially now with a delay from Jesus Luzardo, who left yesterday’s minor league game with a lat injury. It’ll be a decent amount of blegh, but don’t rule out Mengden as a decent streaming option.

Jake Junis – 4.2 IP, 6 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. Ah yes, Junis. The man who is lost in the purgatory of the wire. Let him stay there.

Matt Strahm – 5.0 IP, 7 ER, 11 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. Well this is weird. I was so ready to be all depressed and sad about Strahm since he looked to be on the rise and returned with a dud against the Giants, but there’s a lot to like. Strahm returned 91.4 mph on his heater – good – was even better with his curveball via 50% CSW – excellent – and returned 42% CSW across 77 pitches. And this is what we got. The man allowed a trio of HRs for five runs and was Singled Out quite a bit and it’s one of the rare cases where I’d be willing to be excited about an arm as his bottom line was one of the worst all year. Go figure. Streaming Record: 53-36.

Trent Thornton – 2.2 IP, 7 ER, 11 Hits, 1 BBs, 1 Ks. Yeaaaaah. If Thornton, a guy who’s value lies in strikeouts, is giving you a HAISTFMFWT?! then you really need to wonder why he’s around your roster, even if he was facing the Sawx.

 

Today’s Streamer

 

For those unaware, I’m forced to make my Streamer picks under the condition of sub 20% owned in Fantasy Pros’ consolidated ownership rates.

 

Danny Duffy vs. Cleveland Indians – I’m tempted to take the chance on Bryse Wilson against the Phils, but this is a little safer.

 

Tomorrow’s Streamer

 

Tommy Milone vs. St. Louis Cardinals – The Cards are struggling with their bats and Milone is a shockingly decent play these days. Obviously Anibal Sanchez against the Marlins over this, but he’s likely gone.

 

Day After Tomorrow’s Streamer

 

Martin Perez vs. Texas Rangers – Blegh. I danced between a few options here and settled on Perez, who showcased improved velocity last time out. Here’s to hoping.

 

Game of the Day 

 

Dylan Cease vs. Detroit Tigers – IT’S TIME. I’m super curious what we get today. Here’s to hoping he gets us pumped like Gallen and McKay.

 

(Photo by Russell Lansford/Icon Sportswire)