Two Start Pitchers, Week 17: Dolci Giolito

No Doubt

Donkey Teeth and I have profiled everyone in this grouping, except Kershaw, at some point or another on the podcast. If you want some detailed profiles, go check out those various episodes. Outside of the first week of the season, this is the toughest week to figure out the 2 start pitchers. There’s a lot of educated guessing in here, and hopefully, it helps your preparation. The table at the bottom may end up being more helpful once more starters are announced Monday and Tuesday. Nothing more here, start these guys.

Pretty…Pretty Good

Kyle Hendricks has been his usual, steady self this season. The Ks aren’t impressive, but with 2 starts this week, you should feel pretty safe throwing him out there.

James Paxton and Brandon Woodruff have been a little up and down this season, but have maintained impressive K rates. Woodruff has 5 quality starts in his last 6, which coupled with the strikeout potential is more than enough to earn him a start. This season, if you can find somebody to get you Ks that doesn’t have too many massive blow up games, that’s a winner.

While Paxton had that horrendous start against the Blue Jays before the break, the upside is enough and opponents friendly enough to throw him out there in just about any league. He’s currently sporting the best swinging strike rate and K rate of his career, and should be in for some posi-gression with his current .358 BABIP, which is outside of his career average at slightly above .300.

Start Em If You Got Em

Donkey Teeth and I also just looked at Zack Wheeler on the most recent podcast, and found minimal differences between this year and 2018. He’s struggled to get out of the gates and also out of the stretch, but has flashed the upside we know is there. With 2 plus ballparks this week, start em if you got em.

I was a big German Marquez supported in the pre-season, and while we knew he wasn’t going to be that pitcher from the 2nd half (much like Wheeler), the skills were there and the stuff is nasty.

Well, the K rate has not held up, which was the skill that I expected to buoy his value even with some less than great home starts thrown into the mix. His home start this week is against the Giants who are one of 9 teams to reach the 400 runs mark on the season, and while the Yankees on the road are less than ideal, Marquez is sporting a 3.33 ERA on the road this season with a better K% and BB%.

Brown Paper Bag

Originally titled as ‘Serviceable’, just couldn’t bring myself to leave that headline in place as it didn’t feel correct.  There’s a lot more hoping and wishing in this group than serviceability.

Anthony Desclafani’s recent performance should warrant a better place in the groupings, but I’m skeptical that he can continue given his track record of mediocrity. However, since June, in 6 starts, Disco has a 3.06 ERA, 1.36 WHIP (not great) with a 25.4% K rate and what would be a career best 5.8% BB rate over that period. While I don’t necessarily believe this string of good starts continues, it has not been all luck either as he’s actually been a bit unlucky with a .359 BABIP and has been supported by a sub 3 FIP.

Eyes Wide Shut

Free Streamonator Pick of The Week: If you’ve been reading the 2 start column regularly, you can probably guess another free pick, but going to switch it up this week and let you know that Streamonator likes Framber at the Angels and home for the Rangers.

I Immediately Regret This Decision

Notes

• There’s a lot of TBDs on here that I did my best to figure out.
  • TBDs
    • Boston Monday, Detroit Monday, Houston Tuesday, Kansas City Monday and Tuesday, Miami Tuesday, Yankees Monday, Yankees Tuesday
• San Francisco has a double header on Monday. They could use both Monday starters as 2 start pitchers rather than the Tuesday stater.
• Repeat, San Diego is running a 6 man rotation, so, no 2 starters predicted for the week.