I hate walks

Finally, an all-fantasy baseball post! I love doing this!

 

I love watching pitchers pitch because of the continuous flow of the game and every pitch is important (whereas I lose all interest about a hitter after his at-bat ends, sometimes after one pitch). The most frustrating thing and heart-burn inducing thing is the walk. THROW STRIKES! It also helps in fantasy not to start walking people, so I’ve put a premium on low walk rates and high K/BB rates.

David Price

Wade Miley.

Wei Yin Chin 11 walks in 76.2 innings.

Nathan Eovaldi- 15 walks in 82.2 innings.

Henderson Alvarez- 16 walks in 81 innings. Seems like a trend with Marlin pitchers- keep track of them.

Some pitchers have excellent control and limit walks very well, but they give up too many hits. The Brandon McCarthy effect. Hitters know he’s a strike-thrower and jump on his straight fastballs even though they’re 95 MPH.

On the flip side, I HATE hitters who walk. It is frustrating for a guy who just watches pitches go by without even making an effort at hitting the ball. That’s why I’ll probably never watch high walkers like Joey Votto and Carlos Santana. Adam Dunn.

I own Jason Hammel so I’m probably biased, but I think his fast start (2.6 ERA, 0.88 WHIP) is for real. High strikeout rate, high velocity, limiting the walks. Might be a different pitcher. Limiting walks gives pitchers a confidence boost, limits big innings, allows you to go deeper into games, etc. For the season reason (but without having watched any of his games, Phil Hughes might be for real (just 8 walks in 86 innings!). Or he might be this year’s Ricky Nolasco- great career season, now back into a lemon).

Anyway hear of Charlie Blackmon recently? After a sizzling start, it’s time to move on from him.

Alexei Ramirez (currently No. 21 on the ESPN player rater) will fade. Michael Brantley (No. 10) has less of a history to suggest he’ll just fade, but chances of this lasting all season are low.

Add “Carlos Gomez” to the short list of names that could end up No. 1 on the player rater at the end of the year, as long as he doesn’t get any more suspensions.

Daily league people have to take advantage of “daily league” players like Adam Lind, Lucas Duda, etc. These guys have extreme splits against right-handed pitching that make them better than borderline fantasy studs like Alex Gordon or Freddie Freeman on any given day. If you have the roster room, roster them. It’s like Jered Weaver at home or Charlie Morton at home. The history supports that they are just better pitchers at home, and almost ace-like. Use the force!

And if you JUST need homers and maybe RBI’s, start Adam Dunn @ home against right-handers, and start Chris Carter anywhere v. LHP. Both should have at least 30 homers this year, you just don’t know when it’s going to be.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan