It’s playoff time and you’re hunting to find that little bit of extra value to put you over the edge. You watch as Colby Lewis entered the 8th inning with a perfect game and ended with a line of 9.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. Your heart races and you rush to the wire to see that he’s still available. But wait! What’s this? He’s allowed 15 ER total in his previous three starts? He has a 4.61 xFIP this year with a 4.48 xFIP in the second half? His K per 9 is 6.26 and features an unimpressive 34.5% groundball rate? He hasn’t had a game with over 6 strikeouts since July 24th? Rationality seeps down your arm like a cold shower as you slowly move the mouse away from the “add player” button. That was a close one.
Let’s see what every other SP did yesterday:
Chad Bettis – 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 Hits, 3 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. Well, Gray has some value outside of Coors.
Jake Arrieta – 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 7 Ks. Aces gonna ace.
Jake Peavy – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 Hits, 0 BBs, 2 Ks. Don’t care Peavy, I’m putting a One Night Bland label on this. You just aren’t that good.
John Lackey – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 7 Hits, 3 BBs, 10 Ks. There’s a sliiiiight chance that this start is elongated as the game was suspended in the next frame, but after 112 pitches I’m a bit confident Lackey is donezo. It was a decent matchup for Lackey and he took advantage, matching his season high. Lackey can do this, but don’t expect the K train to continue.
Robbie Ray – 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 Hits, 3 BBs, 2 Ks. Ehhhh with Ray I’m hoping he bursts out with a K explosion on a given night, but I guess a 0.00 ERA and 1.00 WHIP are cool.
Jarred Cosart – 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 5 Ks. He’s not this good. But this isn’t that great. Exactly.
Ervin Santana – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. Yeah, this is fine Santana. If you streamed you, you’re happy with this.
Dallas Keuchel – 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 7 Ks. Aces gonna ace.
Jered Weaver – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 7 Ks. So.
Danny Duffy – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 Hits, 3 BBs, 8 Ks. Many.
Charlie Morton – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. Middle.
Gio Gonzalez – 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 4 Ks. Of the.
Kyle Hendricks – 6.2 IP, 3 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 5 Ks. Road.
Wade Miley – 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 5 Ks. Starts. I would hate to trust pretty much any of these guys a ton moving forward, but of course Gio has the best floor, Weaver is being senile again, and there is no way Duffy continues near that 16.00 K/9.
Erik Johnson – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 5 BBs, 6 Ks. So our Call Boy went a bit rogue last night. It’s surprising to see the five walks after a start that featured Johnson tirelessly pounding the strikezone, and to see him strikeout over a batter an inning doesn’t seem right either. I like him next time out against Oakland, though.
David Price – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks. Not amazing from Price but it’ll do.
Matt Wisler – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 7 Hits, 3 BBs, 6 Ks. This is one of the better starts we’ve seen from Wisler lately. Yeah.
Jesse Chavez – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. Not my Chavez not my problem, that’s what I always say.
Chris Archer – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 8 Ks. Cool thing about K pitchers, they always have a bunch of strikeouts to salvage those iffy ratio starts. It’s like the rocking bod of a dumb person.
Steven Matz – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. Matz is better than this – 2 Ks just seems wrong – but he gets the Yankees next which could be a bit tough for the lefty.
Hisashi Iwakuma – 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. This is pretty bleghy Iwakuma, but the one walk helps make this a little easier to swallow.
Mike Wright – 5.0 IP, 4 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. He’s not Mr. Wright, he’s not even Mr. Wright Now. :(
Michael Lorenzen – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 10 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks. Yeah, I would not want to roll the dice with Lorenzen.
Jimmy Nelson – 5.0 IP, 4 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 2 Ks. I’m under the belief that we’ll never see the full upsie of Nelson realized for an extended period of time. He’s forever destined to be chilling in the 50s and 60s.
Adam Morgan – 5.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks. This is your captain speaking…psssh eeerrrr we’re going to be experience turbulence through the end of the season…psshhh errr…
Alec Asher – 5.0 IP, 6 ER, 7 Hits, 3 BBs, 2 Ks. He’s not the young arm that you want.
Andrew Cashner – 4.2 IP, 5 ER, 9 Hits, 5 BBs, 7 Ks. Cashed Out. He’s probably still hanging on some of your rosters and that should not be the case.
Luis Severino – 2.1 IP, 6 ER, 6 Hits, 3 BBs, 4 Ks. He hosted Toronto in the Bronx and got pounded harder than a nail that’s getting pounded by a hammer. Best analogies in the business. I still like Severino moving forward and he should be good to go against the Rays on Friday.
Alex Wood – 1.2 IP, 6 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 1 Ks. Wood you kindly stop making me feel so sad? Haven’t you done enough damage this season?
Today’s Streamers
Rick Porcello vs, Tampa Bay rays – I realllllly don’t like this start but Porcello has done well recently, and his only hiccup was against the Blue Jays. The other options don’t really sit well with me, so I guess I’m going with Ricky.
Tomorrow’s Streamer
James Paxton – Can’t say I’m the biggest fan of this start, as I generally dislike starting pitches are elongated DL stints and Paxton will be on some sort of pitch count, but he faces the Rockies out of Coors and can be very serviceable in his return.
Games of the Day
Jose Fernandez vs. Washington Nationals – JoFer is back on the big stage again after a month long hiatus and hopefully we’ll be able to watch the young kid shine through the rest of the year.
Marcus Stroman vs. New York Yankees – It’s the return of Stroman who was in my Top 25 in the pre-season and while he will in all likelihood be on a pitch count, I am so excited to see him back on the hill.