Velocity. Youth. Durability. These are a few of the traits that are common among breakout pitchers each and every season. This weeks’s top add, Oakland A’s starting pitcher Rich Hill (51.4% owned; +35.6% over the past week), possesses none of these qualities. Why is he such a hot commodity then? It’s simple. Strikeouts. Through 32 IP this season, his 41 Ks are tied for the 6th highest total in all of baseball. How he’s accomplishing this impressive feat is a bit more complicated. Hill is a 36-year-old with 532 MLB innings on his resumé, and just 104.2 of those were recorded during the 2010-2015 seasons. That’s less than 18 innings or roughly three starts per season. Not terribly encouraging on the durability front. What Hill does have going for him is a knee-buckling curve as well as an effective fourseam fastball which he is able to command effectively against both right-handed and left-handed hitters. This combination has allowed him to rack up the strikeouts as well as induce groundballs at an elite rate. In fact, he’s one of only two qualified starting pitchers this season to produce an 11+ K/9 with a 50+ GB%. The other pitcher is Noah Syndergaard. Grab Hill if he’s available and enjoy the numbers as long as the old man is able to stay on the field.
Here are a couple of other interesting adds/drops in fantasy baseball over the past week:
Nathan Eovaldi: 20.9% owned; +6.0%
Remember those velocity, youth, and durability traits that are generally considered to be important when evaluating potential breakout pitchers? Eovaldi checks off all of those boxes. The 26-year-old is one of 46 pitchers to start at least 60 games across the previous two seasons, and his average fastball velocity of 96.1 mph was the 2nd highest among qualified SPs in MLB during that span. He also carried a no-hitter deep into his recent start against the Texas Rangers. The problem is that despite those seven shutout innings against the Rangers, Eovaldi sports an ugly 5.46 ERA to go along with a 1.38 WHIP. MLB hitters can hit a hard, straight fastball if they’re sitting on it, and Eovaldi’s secondary pitches aren’t quite good enough to keep them honest on a regular basis. Next up on the schedule is the Boston Red Sox who just tagged him for 10 hits and 6 earned runs over 5 IP this past Sunday in Boston. Save your ratios and look elsewhere. TRASH.
Jerad Eickhoff: 26.4% owned; -16.4%
Eickhoff is kind of like a younger, right-handed version of Hill in a lot of ways. He doesn’t throw particularly hard. His best pitch is probably his curveball, which he has thrown almost a third of the time this season. Dating back to last season (81.1 IP), he’s struck out a batter per inning and has shown impressive control (1.99 BB/9) in the process. He’s allowed 3 earned runs or less in 11 of his 13 MLB starts. High K-rate, low BB-rate, consistency. Not a bad combo. Eickhoff has a tough matchup against the Cardinals in St. Louis on Thursday, but gets to face the Braves in his following start. If you’re looking for an under-the-radar SP4, he’s a solid option. TREASURE.
