DFS PLAYBOOK PRO – An exciting offering from the Alarm is the DFS Playbook Pro. I will be doing a daily breakdown of the hitters – Hitting Coach – while Howard Bender looks into the Pitchers (Pitching Coach). You can find the link to the Hitting and Pitching articles under the DFS Playbook pro tab at the top right of the screen.

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HITTERS

Jose Abreu has 30 homers and 100 RBIs (he, Ryan Braun and Albert Pujols are the only players to hit 30 homers each of their first two seasons). He’s also hitting .292. Impressive indeed. Still, he’s come to the plate 41 more times than last season and has six fewer homers, six fewer RBIs, his average is down .025 points, his OBP is .035 points and his SLG is down .075. The result is a .110 reduction in OPS. Oh, and his ground ball rate is up even further from 45.5 percent last season to 47.5 percent this season. That’s a ton of grounders for a guy who wants to be considered a 30-homer threat over and over.

Adrian Beltre was at it again Thursday night. Beltre had two hits leading to three RBIs which pushes his season total to 77 runs batted in. Since the start of September he has 32 RBIs in 29 games. Yowzahs. No one in baseball has more RBIs since the start of September. There is a third baseman in the National League who has also driven in 32 runs in that timeframe to tie Beltre. Of course it’s Nolan Arenado.

Paul Goldschmidt has slowed down in the second half, but that’s still relative. Over his last 69 games he’s hit .288 with a .403 OBP and .494 SLG. If a .897 half season is your “down” effort then you’re a hell of a hitter. Through 156 games Goldy has hit .317 with 31 homers, 107 RBIs, 100 runs and 21 steals. Hell of a season. His OPS has dropped to .991 with the slower second half.

Curtis Granderson has been, dare I say it, great this year. Think back to draft day. You’re in a mixed league. Did you look Granderson’s way? Did anyone look his way? Possibly no, right? Flash forward 154 games and Granderson has been super productive. He’s batting .257, his best mark in four seasons and a direct match for his career mark. He has a .364 OBP, his best mark in four seasons (career .341). He has a .452 SLG, his best mark in three seasons (his SLG has been under .410 the past two seasons). But you don’t care as much about all of that as his counting numbers, right? Granderson his 27 homers over 216 games in 2013-14. He’s gone deep 25 times this season. Granderson has 69 RBIs, a three year high. Granderson has scored 97 times this season, a three year best. He’s even stolen 11 bases, a three year high. Like I said, pretty great for a guy who wasn’t drafted in a lot of mixed leagues.

Manny Machado hit 33 homers his first three big league seasons (289 games). This season he’s hit 33 homers in 159 games. Machado stole 10 bases his first 289 games. He’s stolen 20 bases this season. Yeah, he’s gone 30/20 after never having hit 15 homers or stolen 10 bases. An elite talent, it finally all came together for Machado this season. He’s even seen his walk rate go up while his K-rate has gone down. After three seasons with a BB/K ratio under 0.30 the mark this season has soared to 0.64. We all knew that he had this talent, but it’s rather remarkable that it all came together this quickly.

Yangervis Solarte hit his 14th homer Thursday. He had 10 homers over 131 games the last two seasons. Overall he’s been solid going .274-14-63-63-1 over 514 at-bats. Nothing stands out there… until you realize his defensive versatility brought him tremendous value in deep leagues. He has appeared in 89 games as a third baseman, 28 as a first baseman and 19 as a second sacker. That’s one hell of a versatile player to plug in when injures hit.

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PITCHERS

Dellin Betances had a 1.40 ERA last season. This year the mark is 1.41. Last year he struck out 13.50 batters per nine. This year the mark is 13.88. Last year his ground ball rate was 46.6 percent. This year the mark is 48.1 percent. Dude has had an amazing two year run. The only negative was a massive increase in his walk rate from 2.40 per nine last season to 4.23 per nine this year. What an arm.

Tyler Duffey tossed yet another solid game Thursday night as he permitted two runs across the plate over 6.1 innings against the Indians. Duffey, with an “e,” made 10 starts for the Twins going 5-1 with a 3.10 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. He was pretty lucky to be the owner of a 79.6 percent left on base rate, and his SIERA (3.84) and xFIP (3.65) marks also suggest that his ERA was artificially low. Gotta like the 53 strikeouts in 58 innings, and the 49.7 percent ground ball rate is also shiny, so it’s not like there aren’t skills here.

Jose Fernandez finished up an up and down season health wise with a 6-1 record, 2.92 ERA and 1.16 WHIP. He also punched out 79 batters in 64.2 innings and walked a mere 1.95 per nine. Hidden in that effort is a far too high to be acceptable .343 BABIP and his ground ball rate was down about five percent at 40 percent. Bottom line – Fernandez looked every bit the star he will be moving forward. Still some concern about workload next season though. Don’t forget that he’s never thrown 175 innings in a season and only threw 64.2 innings this year – 89.1 innings if you include his minor league work.

Andrew Heaney walked five batters leading to four runs over 4.1 innings in his final start of the season. Heaney ends the year at 6-4 with a 3.49 ERA and 1.20 WHIP. He also went 0-2 in his last five starts, and over his final eight outings his ERA was 5.06 and WHIP 1.45. Overall it was a very solid 18 start season, but his late season fade, and lack of punchouts (6.64 per nine) should cause some pause.

CC Sabathia allowed one run over five innings in his final start of the regular season Thursday night. Sabathia’s overall numbers were awful for the second year in a row: 6-10, 4.73 ERA, and 1.42 WHIP. A silver lining. Over his last nine outings CC posted a 2.86 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP. Those are decent numbers for sure. Still, he’s walked 4.47 batters per nine in that time and he was very fortunate to be the owner of an 81 percent left on base rate. He’s not someone to target next season despite a decent finish.

Stephen Strasburg allowed no runs to the Braves in his last start of the season. Continually injured, Strasburg posted a 1.89 ERA and 0.75 WHIP over his last 10 injuries. Strasburg was at the top of his game the last two months of the season with 92 strikeouts versus just eight walks in those 10 starts. In the end he made 23 starts with a 10.96 K/9, 1.84 BB/9 and has a 1.11 WHIP. He also allowed a 24 percent line drive rate, his highest mark in four seasons, while his 34 percent fly ball rate was a four year high. Further, his 42 percent ground ball rate was well below his 46 percent career mark. And then there is this. Strasburg has thrown 185 innings one time in six seasons. Once. For the second time in four years he failed to reach 160-innings. Tons of skill, but the draft day cost might always exceed the risk.

 

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