Here is a link to a second half review for hitters.

1 – First/Second half splits are arbitrary.

2 – Don’t read too much into second half success or struggles unless there are reasons beyond the raw numbers to look at. (A) Was the player hurt? (B) Did the player wear down? (C) Were the player’s weaknesses exposed? (D) Were we looking at nothing more than a regression to the mean?

Take all of that into account folks, I implore you, before you just blindly accept second half performances as the “new norm.”

Archie Bradley had a .373 BABIP, the worst in the game in the second half. Rounding out the top-3 were Doug Fister .357 and Jose Fernandez .351 (R.I.P.). On the other end was the .217 BABIP of Jake Arrieta, the best in the game. Notice that Arrieta had a mere 7.48 K/9 rate with a 3.58 BB/9 rate. That’s not good last time I checked. As for Fernandez he led the way with the worst line drive rate in the game (29.0 percent), a shocking level for a pitcher of his talent level. Jon Gray was second at 27.6 percent. Archie Bradley was third at 26.4 percent. Those numbers were crazy high for all three men, and get this, all three men doubled the mark of Chris Archer at 13.2 percent, the best in the game. No other arm in baseball was lower than the 16.7 percent mark of CC Sabathia.

Yu Darvish looked good down the stretch with 12.01 strikeouts per nine and 2.66 walks per nine. He also held batters to a .213 batting average on his way to a 1.11 WHIP. Things are really looking up for 2017.

Kyle Hendricks had a 1.68 ERA with a 9-2 record in the second half. His teammate, John Lester, went 10-1 with a 1.76 ERA. Man did the Cubs get some good pitching this year. Wow.

Felix Hernandez walked a poor 3.89 batters per nine, the 6th worst mark in baseball. That’s not a poor total, it’s a terrible mark given his skills. Is that scarier than the 6.87 per nine strikeout mark he posted? Folks, the once great King Felix had a 1.77 K/BB ratio in the second half, the 7th worst mark in baseball. I will draft him next season at the right price, no question, but he’s days of stardom are gone.

Rick Porcello went 11-2 with a 2.62 ERA. That’s a second half folks. He had one more win, but one more loss, than Max Scherzer. Porcello walked one batter less per nine – 0.90 to 1.97 – though he lost more than three strikeouts per nine – 7.53 to 10.73. Just shows how you can be successful doing different things.

Eduardo Rodriguez continues to let folks down based on expectations being far too high, but over the breadth of the second half he posted an impressive 9.15 strikeouts per nine. What was more surprising, that mark or the 9.04 rate of Collin McHugh? Think of it this way. McHugh and ERod had a higher rate than Jon Lester (8.71).

James Shields allowed a league worst 2.46 homers per nine. No other pitcher had a mark higher than 1.86. That means if we add together the four best at keeping the ball in the yard – Jon Lester 0.49, Noah Syndergaard 0.58, Aaron Sanchez 0.61 and Jon Gray 0.68 – 2.36 which is less than Shields. That’s just shocking.

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Marcus Stroman was the only arm with a ground ball rate over 60 percent at 60.4. He also posted a 3.68 ERA and nearly a strikeout an innings. Alas, he went just 2-6 for the Jays. Stroman also led the way with a 2.91 GB/FB ratio. There were four others over 2.00. The list is going to surprise the heck out of you. Like seriously it’s going to surprise you. Big time. A lot. Luis Perdomo 2.52, Matt Garza 2.12, Kendell Graveman 2.05 and Carlos Martinez 2.02. Perdomo? Garza? Luckily he kept all the balls on the ground, Perdomo that is, since his 2.10 percent HR/F rate was the worst in the game.

Josh Tomlin led baseball with a 71.0 percent first pitch strike rate. At least he knows he needs to get ahead. Max Scherzer was second at 68.9 percent and Collin McHugh was third at 68.2 percent first strike rate percentage. Those guys threw a lot of early strikes and were the polar opposites of the following couple of arms who simply didn’t think that throwing early strikes was the way to get batters out: Gio Gonzalez 50.2 percent was the worst in the game. Drew Smyly was 6th worst. Given all the homers he needs to get ahead and get cheap outs.

Justin Verlander went 8-3 with a 1.96 ERA, 10.96 K/9 and 1.96 BB/9 rate. He was simply tremendous. Period. One note of caution you should heed. Verlander had a 90.6 left on base percentage. Insanely high. Amazingly, that number was only third in baseball behind Dan Straily 93.0 and Kyle Hendricks 90.7. Let’s look at the other end of that spectrum. Oh yeah, for those of you that don’t know, three points (A) The league average is about 70 percent. (B) There are likely a mere handful of folks who hit 80 percent. (C) No one ever gets to 85 percent. The least successful pitcher in the second half was Martin Perez who posted a 5.04 ERA with a 59.9 percent left on base rate. Robbie Ray, who will be a hot name next season because of all the strikeouts (12.04 per nine his last 14 starts), had a 5.03 ERA and 61.8 percent left on base mark. Even the mighty Carlos Carrasco was 9th worst at 65.8 percent. He posted a 4.17 ERA over his final 13 starts by the way despite more than a strikeout per innings and just 1.72 walks per nine.

Please no more questions about Edinson Volquez. He won two games with a 6.12 ERA in the second half. He’s not good. Volquez had the worst K/BB ratio at 1.54, tied with retread Edwin Jackson.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).