Luis Castillo starting to pitch like Luis Castillo highlights the Week That Was and Will Be.
Player Blurbs
Luis Castillo: Luis was dealing on Saturday tossing 5 and 2/3 innings while striking out 7. Castillo started off the year in disastrous fashion but wait! The true talent is showing through. In the last 30 days, Castillo has tossed 36 innings with a 1.96 ERA and 1.06 WHIP. That will play for sure! The ground ball rate remains over 50% and the swinging strike rate, while not back to pre-2021 levels is still a solid 12%. Buy low if you can!
For the Week That Will Be: I do not love the matchup with San Diego but Castillo is re-emerging as a fantasy front line starter. Roll with it.
Jake Odorizzi: Jake Odorizzi kept his scoreless streak alive Sunday tossing 5 and 2/3 innings of shutout ball – the third start in a row without an earned run. Looking behind these numbers, you find Jake’s best first pitch strike percentage of his career, a solid swinging strike rate, an xFIP/FIP/SIERA that say the ERA will continue to come down, and a chase rate that is the best of his career. I buy it.
For the Week That Will Be: The ERA is still over 4.00 which provides a small window of buying opportunity. With Cleveland next on the schedule, go get some shares!
Jordan Lyles: Jordan Lyles tossed 7 innings of one run ball Sunday on his way to a win. That is the good news. The bad news, his ERA “reduced” to 5.12. So, is he really a 5 ERA pitcher? No. Five of his last six starts have been 3 runs or fewer. Moreover, he does have the best swinging strike rate of his career and of course, missing bats is good!
For the Week That Will Be: Lyles is a consideration in deep leagues only if he is pitching against Seattle. Oh, wait, that is who is on the schedule next. I am in for that.
Matt Olson: Matt Olson is having a great year. Through Sunday, the Oakland slugger is hitting .296, has an OBP of .379 and has swatted 20 dingers. What else could you want? Yep, some bags! Well Olson swiped his third base Sunday and his second in just five games. If Olson can add even 1-2 steals a month, his value will be even higher. Ok, it’s a pipe dream but we can dream right? Of course, even without the speed, Olson is just a roto-stud.
For the Week That Will Be: With the best contact rate of his career and an actually depressed home run per flyball rate despite his 20 dingers, Olson is poised for an even bigger second half. With three against Texas and three against Boston on the schedule, it is looking like another good week for Olson!
Max Kranick: Welcome to the show Max Kranick. In his first big league appearance, all Max did was throw 5 no-hit innings Sunday. Very impressive. While that is just a great story, his minor league numbers do not appear so hot other than the swinging strike rate. Proceed with caution.
For the Week That Will Be: I am not brave enough to start him against Milwaukee in anything other than a deep NL only. Again, proceed with caution!
What to do if your FAAB bids did not go as planned:
If you did not get the pitchers you want, consider these middle relievers on teams with weak or unsettled closing situations or potential openings in the rotation: Drew Rasmussen as the Rays give save chances to everyone; Nestor Cortes as the Yankees continue to need innings out of the pen and he has looked pretty good (maybe some vulture wins in his future).
If you are in the mood to gamble, how about Jason Martin. With Willie Calhoun on the shelf with a broken arm, Martin should get a chance to really prove himself.
And Last But Not Least:
The moment you have been waiting for (just play along) -- Schultz says: “Anybody who knows anything about baseball will tell you that the ideal leadoff hitter is fleet of foot, the owner of a shrewd eye and possessed with power, mighty enough to keep defenses honest. Essentially, this describes Rickey Henderson, the last legitimate threat to hit 30 homers and steal 100 bases in the same season. (Seriously, if there was a Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame for athletes as opposed to Overlords, wouldn’t Henderson be the first inductee!!??!!). For this past week (roughly), anybody who knows anything about baseball is dead freaking wrong. It appears that the ideal leadoff hitter – at least for the 2021 season - may very well be a portly former catcher who strikes out at a prodigious rate. Forget the Trea Turner experiment and simply just forget Victor Robles, this is the Summer of Schwarber.
It seems like it’s been longer since Joe Buck mooned over every step and swing Kyle Schwarber took in the 2016 World Series, gaping like a mawkish buffoon as if the Cubs had spawned a medical miracle. Sadly, up until this week, it may have been the highlight of Schwarber’s career. Well, at least until Buck weeps openly about Schwarber’s miraculous recovery during his induction speech into the Hall of Fame . . . for a different sport!! What appeared to be Dave Martinez simply raising the white flag on the Nationals leadoff situation currently seems like a revelatory game changer. Since assuming the leadoff role two weeks ago, Schwarber has put up mammoth numbers, raising his batting average nearly twenty points to .250, quite respectable for 2021; slugging 12 homers to move into second place in the National League, ahead of fellow leadoff hitter Ronald Acuna and driven in 23 runs to move into a tie for fifth place in the NL. If there’s anything to complain about – well, he hasn’t stolen many bases.
While Schwarber’s tale is wonderful, full of statistical anomalies, it likely doesn’t have the happy ending of a romantic comedy. Although the Schwarber revival may feel like a comeback story, it is really a mystery and one that may be solved soon. If you have Schwarber, ride the wave – you deserve to reap the benefits of having patience. Otherwise, there’s a better movie on another station.”
Response: No doubt Rickey Henderson would be a first ballot fantasy hall of famer and would add that to his Cooperstown admission! Little known fact, Rickey Henderson is the first player I ever drafted in a roto league. Not a bad way to start this little hobby!