You Put Your Right Heaney In

It’s not every day that you see a pitcher cruise through six frames with 19 whiffs to his name, but that’s exactly what Andrew Heaney via 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 Hits, 3 BBs, 10 Ks against the Athletics. Now, we know that the A’s are incredibly prone to the strikeout and have been at the receiving end of plenty double-digit strikeout games (enjoy the co-Gallows Pole award tonight!), but I think we should be looking at this a little more carefully. There was a decent amount of hype surrounding Heaney before he returned from the DL and while it may have died down a bit after he allowed 7 HRs in his first two games, I wonder if it’s time to get it back. His velocity was up as well, hovering around 93 with the pitch, despite sitting around 91 pre-TJS, just above 90mph in his first game and around 92mph in his second. I watched a bit of this one and Heaney was legit on. My favorite stat of the night is that he earned 13 whiffs (24.5% whiff rate) with his Sinker. That’s crazy. Seriously. The weird part here is that I’ve considered Heaney not a strikeout guy, but more of a finesse pitcher that could be useful for streams. This most likely was a guy just having one of those nights against a bad team and that’s that. He has to head to Texas next (bummer), but his ROS after that is pretty decent and there’s a chance Heaney can be beneficial down the stretch. Not the perfect fit for everyone, but keep him in mind is all I’m saying.

Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:

Austin Pruitt – 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. This is coming off of starts of 3, 6, and 5 ER, where he tallied 7 Ks total. Blame it on the Royals.

Jeff Samardzija – 9.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 Hits, 0 BBs, 5 Ks. It’s good to see Loose Lips finally get his act together against a bad team and demoralize them like the man he is. I will mention that it’s a bit odd seeing his low strikeout tallies as of late – 29 over his last six games, good for a sub 5 K per start rate…meh – and he sure hadn’t been making up for it in the ratio department until last time out and tonight. Looking ahead, he has a bit of a rocky schedule, and I’d hope to depend on another arm during the stretch save for his start against the ChiSox and rockies in AT&T Park.

Jhoulys Chacin – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 Hits, 4 BBs, 3 Ks. So I’m doing this new version of The List that not only maps out every Top 100 player’s future schedule for the rest of the way, but also adds colors to the opponents so you can see which are tough offenses and which are weak in a quick glance. Chacin has a ton of red in his six games, with the Dodgers twice + Coors + Coors-lite. That’s bad. Very bad.

Mike Montgomery – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. So before Monty last start of 6.0 IP 0 ER, Monty had an appearance in relief where he gave the Cubs 4.1 innings of shutout ball. And now he allows 1 ER over seven frames against the Pirates. Hmmmm. The question here is if Monty gets another go at it as Lester could return as soon as Saturday and kick this southpaw out. Let’s hope not for those non-Lester owners. Streamer Record 68-51-14.

Aaron Nola – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 6 Ks. Aces gonna ace. Easy A is my bae.

Max Scherzer – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 10 Ks. Aces gonna ace. Phew. Oh and congrats on your co-Gallows Pole as you earned 19 whiffs. Just throw it in the bin with the rest of em. Oh…okay.

Marcus Stroman – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. You’re making a mini-Grave Mistake if you’re rolling with Stroman, and this is what you were hoping for. And everyone rejoiced. REJOICE!

Daniel Gossett – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks. Maybe one day I’ll have my Gosse egg. One day…What, a 3.00 ERA and 6 Ks isn’t good enough for you? When I consider it Daniel’s ceiling, yeah it’s not good enough for me. Okay this isn’t totally fair since he had a 7 IP and 1 ER start against the Giants on the 2nd of August and an actual Gosse Egg against the White Sox on June 24th, but I think you get the point. There’s a reason he had a 5.49 ERA entering today. Blegh.

Corey Kluber – 8.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks. Aces gonna ace. Just seven Ks? You’re just letting Sale get his first AL Cy Young award, aren’t you.

Trevor Williams – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 3 BBs, 4 Ks. Is this fantasy relevant? No, right?

Drew Pomeranz – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 5 BBs, 4 Ks. The Dirty Cheerleader wasn’t so dirty. In fact, he was terrible with just 4 Ks to salvage his VVVVPQS. Blegh.

Luis Severino – 6.2 IP, 3 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 9 Ks. Aces gonna aceish. Okay ace. 3 ER isn’t really what we’re here for but the WHIP and 9 Ks are too nice to deny Sevy his label. Here’s to hoping he gets to experience his back half of his ROS via Rays, Twins, and Jays twice. I’m cool with him facing Boston and heading to Texas in the meantime, though.

Jordan Zimmermann – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 9 Hits, 1 BBs, 3 Ks. Yep, that’s Zimmermann alright.

Antonio Senzatela – 3.2 IP, 4 ER, 6 Hits, 3 BBs, 2 Ks. Senz-a, why must I train with you? The wise student questions only when he must. I’m losing terribly. Then you must. You’re a really bad Senz-a.

Lucas Sims – 6.1 IP, 4 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks. Blame it on the Phillies. Which normally doesn’t apply when you allow 4 ER, but Sims earned 7 Ks and I ca your raised eyebrow from here. You gotta put it in its place. I’m still staying away from Sims plenty.

Jose Urena – 4.0 IP, 4 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 4 Ks. The 3 ER Rule lives! I wonder if that’s worthy of its own term. What are you on about? The 3 ER rule is for guys that generally don’t last long enough in games for Quality Starts, nor do they have strikeout upside. That means, they only give you value if they allowed fewer than 3 ER. How much faith do you have that Urena can do in the majority of his starts?

Marco Gonzales – 3.1 IP, 5 ER, 8 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. He’s still a Young Gun and I still confuse him for Miguel out of the corner of my eye.

Chris Tillman – 5.1 IP, 6 ER, 3 Hits, 4 BBs, 1 Ks. You Can’t Spell Win With Tillman. If you hadn’t already guessed, I’m definitely wearing that shirt at the NYC Meetup.

Ian Kennedy – 2.2 IP, 7 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 1 Ks. Can we really say that Kennedy is on over 17% of ESPN leagues with a ghastly ERA above 5.00 because of abandoned leagues? I think it’s more of a name value thing and it blows my mind.

Today’s Streamer

Matt Moore vs. San Diego Padres – It’s weird putting faith in Moore, but he’s been throwing well and he gets the Padres. I can see people going with his opponent in Luis Perdomo or taking gambles with Jake Junis against the Rays and Mark Leiter Jr. as he faces the Braves.

Tomorrow’s Streamer

Jerad Eickhoff vs. Atlanta Braves – How he’s under 20% owned is beyond me after he just cruised through the Cubs.

Day After Tomorrow’s Streamer

Robert Stephenson vs. New York Mets – Not much to choose from here, so I’ll go with the guy fresh off 11 Ks facing one of the saddest lineups around.

Game of the Day

Zack Godley vs. Rich Hill – I’m hoping Godley can still be productive against the Dodgers and I hope Hill can recover from his horrible outing last time. Allowing a game-winning HR? Talk about terrible.