I know that Joaquin Benoit is hard to hit, but a .182 BABIP (the best in baseball for a hurler with 40-innings pitched)? His career mark is a still strong .266 but check out his 2014 number: .203. He will be 39 years old next July but facts are facts and BABIP suggests that the last two years the guy has been a beast. Two others had marks under .200 in 2015: Will Harris (.192) and Josh Tomlin (.199). Tomlin’s number is a joke (.276 for his career) but Harris? OK, his mark is a joke too (career .285) but many might have missed how dominant he was in 2015 (1.90 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 51 percent ground ball rate).

Tyler Clippard wasn’t at his best this season, at least that is the perception. Is it accurate? Yes and no. For the first time in six years he failed to appear in 70-games though it’s not like 69 outings is that far off. He did throw 70-innings though for a 6th straight season. He is the only reliever in baseball to have done that. In fact, over the last six years only two other men have had four seasons of 70-innings: Matt Belisle and Mark Melancon. Clipped also had a 1.13 WHIP, his 5th straight season with a mark under 1.17 (career 1.09). His ERA was 2.92, just four hundredths above his career rate. On the downside, his K/9 rate of 8.11 was his first mark under 9.25 since 2008, and his 3.93 BB/9 rate was a 5-year high. Also scary bad 0.35 GB/FB ratio. Just can’t have long term success doing that no matter who you are.

Wade Davis had a 0.94 ERA in 2015. The mark was 1.00 in 2014. According to Elias, Davis became the first since 1913 to have a sub 1.00 ERA over a 2-year span with a minimum of 100-innings pitched. His ERA was 0.97. Is he the best pitcher in baseball?

Nathan Eovaldi went 14-3 and he throws hard. In fact, no AL arm, minimum 140-innings, threw their fastball harder in 2015 than his 96.7 mph mark according to PITCHf/x (the NL leader was Noah Syndergaard at 97.1 mph). Still, Nathan was a disappointment. His 4.20 ERA was worse than the league average. His 1.42 WHIP was way worse than league average. His 7.06 K/9 mark was a career best but still below the league average. After cutting his previous 3.50 type of walk rate down to 1.94 per nine in 2014 that mark rose nearly a full batter in 2015 (2.86 per nine). You can’t teach heat, and this guy reminds me an awful lot of Daniel Cabrera. On the right day you nearly fall off your chair with a wow factor through the roof. Other times, you just scratch your heard trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

Marco Estrada had a great run for the Blue Jays, something that has continued into the playoffs. Were you aware that he had the same strikeout total as Dellin Betances at 131? Dellin is a reliever and he threw 77 fewer innings than Estrada.

Am I the only one who changes the channel when Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” comes on the radio? This is me being pompous and assuming that whatever my opinion is about something everyone else will share it.

Mike Fiers had more strikeouts than Johnny Cueto: 180 to 176.

Chi Chi Gonzalez has a cool name. He also has a very cool fantasy game, as in cold. In his rookie season he made 10 starts (14 appearances) with a league average 3.90 ERA. The 1.21 WHIP was decent, but there is this: his BABIP was .206. That’s not going to happen again in 2016. When that number normalizes, especially if his line drive rate stays around 20 percent, we could see his performance tank. Oh yeah, a 4.30 walk rate per nine is hideous and only outdone by his odious 4.03 per nine strikeout mark.

The Pirates won 98 games in 2015 and made the playoffs. Only one team in baseball, the Cardinals, had more victories with 100. How the hell did Jeff Locke make 30 starts for the Pirates with a 4.49 ERA, 1.42 WHIP and 2.15 K/BB ratio? Teach your kids to throw left-handed folks.

Rubby de la Rosa had the 13th fastest heater in baseball amongst ERA qualifies at 94.3 mph. It didn’t matter much though he did win 14 games. Still, a 4.67 ERA and 1.36 WHIP are terrible, and for all the heat he only struck out 7.16 batters per nine. I do like the arm, and the 49.1 percent ground ball rate intrigues, so I might consider rostering him with my final selection in mixed leagues in 2016. There’s talent to be mined here.

Watch out for Sam…

 

 
 

 

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