Chase Anderson is a 28 year old righty, who pitches for the Brewers if you weren’t aware. He’s a mere 1-5 with a 6.11 ERA and 1.64 WHIP. He’s been flat out dreadful. He allowed three runs in his last outing against the Marlins, but he also allowed a homer, the ninth of his last five outings. He can’t be trusted in any format, including league specific setups.

Adam Conley had a 3.76 ERA and 1.28 WHIP last year. This year the marks are 3.72 and 1.24. His K/9 rate is up to an impressive 9.41, but because of all the walk his K/BB is down from 2.81 to 2.53. Big arm, but still every uneven with his performances.

Chris Devenski faces the Red Sox Sunday with a 0-2 record despite a 1.72 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. If you don’t know who he is, the 25 year old righty pitches for the Astros. He’s made nine appearances for the ‘Stros with three starts that have been pretty solid though no one has likely noticed (2.55 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 7.64 K/9, 3.06 BB/9). The walks could come down if his work the past two years is any indication, and if that happens you might just have a viable option on the bump, if he can stick in the rotation which would seem to be a challenge now that Lance McCullers is back.

Jerad Eickhoff is receiving just 2.63 runs of support per nine innings. That’s the 7th worst mark in baseball. That 1-5 record stinks, as does his 4.43 ERA, but the guy has pitched much better than that. Really. Focus more on the 7.97 K/9, impressive 1.77 BB/9 and solid 1.31 GB/FB ratio. He’s pitching better than it looks, and you can see it in his SIERA (3.66) and FIP (3.60).

Michael Fulmer has made three starts with a 6.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, .364 BAA and .447 BABIP. He’s been blasted when not walking batters (3.60). I wrote of my concerns in his Player Profile, and unfortunately to this point he simply doesn’t look like he’s quite ready.

Kyle Hendricks has been pitching really well. He has a 3.03 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and sterling 4.43 K/BB ratio. He’s also generating tremendous amounts of grounder with his 61.9 percent ground ball rate. Remember what I wrote in his Player Profile? I said that he could be this year’s Corey Kluber, a breakout star as Kluber was a few years back. I even noted how each man’s performance was really similar pre-breakout. Hope you took the advice and grabbed Hendricks.

I wrote this about Dallas Keuchel in the preseason in his Player Profile. “The truth is, Dallas Keuchel has been, more or less, the same hurler for two-straight seasons. The only massive leap forward he offered in 2015 was a huge uptick in his strikeout rate. The jump was so significant that I’m far from sold that his 2015 level is the “new” Keuchel. At the same time, even if he gives back half those gains, a sub three ERA with a WHIP in the low one’s is possible. I’m a bit reluctant to give a 100-percent endorsement of his skills, but after two seasons of impressive work it’s not fair to doubt him. If rostering Keuchel, I would feel much better if he was an SP2 as opposed to your ace, even if that isn’t reasonable given how folks will view him heading to drafts. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see across-the-board regression in wins, ERA, WHIP and strikeouts from him in 2016. Again, I’m not predicting any kind of flame-out here, but just realize that the 2015 effort of Keuchel was as good as it gets, so don’t pay/draft him expecting a full repeat.”

Mike Leake is 1-3 with a 5.10 ERA. He sucks. He’s on waivers everywhere. Should he be? Well, it depends on your league and setup, but I can say this. There really is no difference in performance right now for Leake who has been the consummate innings eater the last few years who won’t hurt your ratios. Leake’s K/9 rate of 5.74 this season is a tenth better than last year. His 2.13 BB/9 rate is better that last year. His 1.73 GB/FB is two hundredths below his career rate. His 15.0 HR/FB ratio is a mere 1.3 points above his career mark. His .270 BABIP is .017 points below his career rate. His .253 BAA is eight points below his career average. Same as always, despite what looks like on the surface as a poor effort.

Juan Nicasio has 37 strikeouts in 37.1 innings, but the walk rate is still up a bit too much at 3.62 per nine. Nothing negative here in the pitching line overall though. A bit of a concern that his BABIP is .042 points below his career mark at .273, and it’s pretty unlikely that he’s going to better his career batting average against by .043 points. Still, he’s pitching pretty well overall, even if his ground ball rate would be a four year low (to be fair, it’s only three points below his career rate).

Williams Perez threw eight innings of one run ball against the Phillies in his last outing. That was the first time in four starts that he lasted more than five innings, and you might be tempted because of the 3.54 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. Admit it. It’s OK. Pull back from those temptations. Over 137 career innings including 24 starts, he owns a pathetic 5.45 K/9 and a poor 3.88 BB/9. Terrible stuff. His WHIP is 1.49, which makes sense given his overall skills. He gets grounders with a 52 percent mark for his career, but he’s nothing other than a streaming option in the right matchup.

Marcus Stroman throws an amazing sinker. As I wrote about in the Daily Trends piece when I was talking about SWIP, it’s odd that his strikeouts are so low (over his last 12 starts the mark is 6.40 per nine). Great arm though, love it and the overall game. Note though that he threw less than 40 innings last year because of his knee injury, so it’s certainly an open ended question as to how many innings he will be allowed to throw this year.  

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 6 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).