The Bible is one book, yet duality reigns throughout. There is Old vs New Testament. Vengeful vs loving God. Wrath against sin vs grace towards sinners. Duality is also present in major league baseball, as players can have two different seasons within one. Jakob Junis (44.5% owned – increase of 21.8%) is yet another example. For the first four months of the season, Junis had a decent 8.22 K/9 and 2.72 BB/9, but was serving up gopher balls like how God sent manna down from the heavens. 2.02 HR/9 and 18.3% HR/FB helped contribute to a 4.52 xFIP. Since August 6th, though, the BB/9 is down to 0.98, HR/9 is 0.59, and HR/FB is 8.1%. The xFIP is a not-so-surprising 3.23. The walks, fly balls, and home runs are all down. EZ PZ. From a pitch selection perspective, he’s been throwing the fastball more (55.5% vs 51.9%) and off-speed less (curveball down 1.1% and change up down 2.1%). Here’s my issue. In 260.1 big league innings, Junis has a 2.25 BB/9, 1.52 HR/9, and 14.6% HR/FB. He’s young at 25 years old, so there’s the possbility that things have clicked. I’m fading that notion, though. He wasn’t as bad as the first four months indicated, and he’s not as good as the last two months have shown. I think the pendulum swings back the other way to settle somewhere in the middle. TRASH
Tyler Glasnow (14.6% owned – decrease of 10.4%) has not been good the past five starts: 7.86 K/9, 16.1% HR/FB, and 5.81 ERA. The xFIP has been 4.50 and the strand rate 54.2%, so some positive regression could be in the works. Let’s take at a look at the teams he faced. CLE, KC, and BOS are 29th, 23rd, and 30th respectively in strikeout rate. The one team that did blow him up for 7 earned runs was TOR, which is 11th in strikeouts. Baseball, man. He held CLE to 3 earned runs in 14 innings and gave up 4 earned runs to BOS. Did you know that BOS is freaking amazing? No shame there. Anyways, Glasnow still throws mid-90s, routinely has a K/9 above 10, and he gets TEX next, a team that is 5th in strikeout rate. TREASURE
Adam Frazier (16.9% owned – increase of 7.4%) is slated to start in right field, now that Gregory Polanco is done for the year. After delving into his numbers, I’m surprised Frazier is not more owned. 8.4% walk rate, 15.2% strikeout rate, .354 wOBA, and .177 ISO. The swinging strike rate is a paltry 5.9% and chase rate is only 27.6%. He also hits both righties and lefties equally well. Aaaaanannnndd, he’s now batting lead off for the Pirates. I’m out. Have to go pick him up in all my leagues. TREASURE