Welcome to the SP Roundup, my daily fantasy baseball article reviewing every starting pitcher’s performance from every Monday game. I apologize for the jokes written in my delirium in advance. Have questions? Ask me during my office hours on Playback.tv weekday mornings from 10 am-12 pm ET.
JP Sears (ATH) @ TEX (W) – 5.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks – 6 Whiffs, 28% CSW, 89 pitches.
There are a few pitchers I elect to spend little time discussing each start and JP Sears falls into that bucket. However, after tonight’s 5.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks – 6 Whiffs, 28% CSW, 89 pitches (W) against Texas, I may need to shed a little bit more light on what he does well (and what he doesn’t).
Sears used to struggle to find the zone with his arsenal but has swung the pendulum in the other direction as of late, featuring incessant sweepers and four-seamers comfortably inside the zone to RHB without fear. It does lead to more thump than ideal, but it also comes with many called strikes, including 11/34 on the four-seamer here and a chunk on his backdoor sweeper. Whiffs? Nah, you won’t find many against the RHB-heavy Texas lineup, especially when Sears’ changeup returned a 19% CSW and was rolled over a bunch to get through nearly six frames.
This doesn’t seem very appealing. That’s because it isn’t and why I generally don’t spend a ton of time on Sears. Despite having a super flat 1.6 HAVAA on his four-seamer, he rarely executes the BSB and has turned into a strike-thrower hoping Koufax is there to help him and/or batters are too passive to take their hacks. This start was a mixture of both and voila, there’s your day of success. The next sentence is usually “I wouldn’t touch this”, but Sears does head to Miami next, so fine. Go after that if you like. Just make that decision based on how you felt about Sears before this start as this one changes nothing.
Let’s see how every other SP did Monday:
Tomoyuki Sugano (BAL) vs NYY (W) – 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 8 Ks – 17 Whiffs, 36% CSW, 95 pitches.
Hot dang look at you! The splitter and sweeper were both phenomenal, with the former returning 9/19 whiffs and leading the CSW charge for a King Cole. His pitch separation was better than ever with 16″ vert four-seamers landing upstairs consistently + curves coming down for the most part to LHB. Consider this the first time that I’m actually intrigued by Sugano. This was definitely the peak performance, but at least there’s a bar to hit that I never considered prior. And all of this against the Yankees! Fun stuff.
Griffin Canning (NYM) @ WSN (W) – 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 5 Ks – 10 Whiffs, 27% CSW, 90 pitches.
Canning was one of the last ones off The List today and it sure feels like he deserved a spot. This was another game of Canning effectively getting his slider down while utilizing his four-seamer upstairs and nibbling without giving in over the plate. I can’t tell you this is an ideal approach, even with the strike-heavy changeup, but it feels like a Vargas Rule in the meantime. Not the worst start against the Cardinals next.
Bailey Ober (MIN) @ CLE (W) – 7.2 IP, 1 ER, 8 Hits, 0 BBs, 2 Ks – 7 Whiffs, 28% CSW, 102 pitches.
Everything looks incredible until the very end. Two strikeouts, Ober? Two?! Sure, the changeup earned weak contact galore, I get it. And the four-seamer earned called strikes, but TWO?! Fine, whatever. You’re still down in velocity (90.2 mph…) and threw so many heaters down the middle that I’m still worried, and I hate that I have this anxiety about you.
Nick Martinez (CIN) vs STL (W) – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks – 6 Whiffs, 26% CSW, 76 pitches.
We’ll take this all day from NickMart, especially when his changeup was having one of the worst days I’ve ever seen it. Good on the slider and cutter to take care of RHB while the four-seamer was able to sneak over the plate like it entered an empty bank. Seriously? They’re just letting me do this?! He’s a Toby and that’s fine for the Nats next.
Patrick Corbin (TEX) vs ATH (L) – 4.2 IP, 2 ER, 7 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks – 12 Whiffs, 24% CSW, 93 pitches.
I’m gonna applaud Corbin for inside sinkers and away sliders to LHB, while keeping the slider down and trying his best to nail the cutter inside to RHB. He’s really doing everything possible to squeeze value out of his arsenal and that’s all you can really ask. Sadly, that’s not worth our time in fantasy leagues.
Andre Pallante (STL) @ CIN (L) – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks – 9 Whiffs, 23% CSW, 90 pitches.
It’s a PQS that provides minimal value for non-QS leagues. Yep, that sounds like Pallante. I absolutely love the aggression with sliders gloveside and sinkers armside to RHB, but that slider was wasted too many times for it to pull through. I am happy to see the four-seamer at 94/95 mph, though. If it all comes together, this could work, though I think we all have our eyebrow raised to that. We all agreed on the left eyebrow, correct? Obviously.
Bryce Elder (ATL) @ COL (W) – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks – 7 Whiffs, 29% CSW, 90 pitches.
A PQS with a Win in Coors is gorgeous. That’s essentially a Birthday Party for Elder. Yep.
Dustin May (LAD) vs MIA (ND) – 5.1 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks – 7 Whiffs, 23% CSW, 83 pitches.
Uhhhh, this ain’t it. The Marlins, Dustin. THE MARLINS. Poorly commanded 94/95 mph sinkers without a good sweeper is far from the guy you were earlier in the season and I really hope something hasn’t happened between this and your last game that has messed up your command. But alright, you get one more chance against…THE MARLINS AGAIN. You can do this, take the time and make the adjustments. Please.
Ronel Blanco (HOU) vs DET (ND) – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 3 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks – 19 Whiffs, 36% CSW, 84 pitches.
A Gallows Pole for Blanco, eh? You can thank that slider looking awfully gorgeous to RHB for an 82% strike rate, on top of a changeup that came alive to LHB, and the curve doing work here and there for a 42% CSW but low strike rate. Sadly, the slider needs a little more help than a 44% strike rate four-seamer getting featured 32% of the time, but he had a chance to snag a Win here and it didn’t go his way. I think you’re fine trusting this against the Brewers with the way Blanco’s slider and changeup are looking these days.
Jack Flaherty (DET) @ HOU (L) – 5.0 IP, 4 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks – 10 Whiffs, 26% CSW, 89 pitches.
Blegh. I was just singing your praises and now the curve goes 53% strikes?! And your slider was hittable? And the four-seamer was down the pipe and pretty dang hittable?! I’m glad you got it out of your system Flaherty, I’m sure you’ll get it back together against the Angels over the weekend.
Will Warren (NYY) @ BAL (L) – 3.1 IP, 4 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 5 Ks – 10 Whiffs, 32% CSW, 72 pitches.
The four-seamer is flatter than ever at 1.5 HAVAA at 16″ of vert, but he didn’t spot it super well, while the changeup got too much of the plate to LHB. Womp womp. The sweeper had moments but allowed some hard contact as it wasn’t precise and I’m obviously disappointed here. The tools are there, and it’ll likely take some time for the polish to come.
Gavin Williams (CLE) vs MIN (L) – 2.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks – 6 Whiffs, 21% CSW, 61 pitches.
Yeah, I’m sad. After flexing strikes with both the sweeper and curve last time, neither pitch was reliable here, while the cutter was thrown just a handful of times and poorly. UGGGH. He’s just a PEAS, isn’t he. It’ll click at some point, Nick. I hope so. Maybe this will be the moment he understands the importance of his cutter. We can only dream.
Trevor Williams (WSN) vs NYM (L) – 5.1 IP, 5 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 5 Ks – 7 Whiffs, 24% CSW, 99 pitches.
Remember kids, #NeverTrevor.
Ryan Feltner (COL) vs ATL (L) – 4.2 IP, 5 ER, 10 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks – 12 Whiffs, 25% CSW, 95 pitches.
It’s Coors. And Feltner. At two ticks down. Against Atlanta. You really don’t need me.
Edward Cabrera (MIA) @ LAD (ND) – 4.0 IP, 5 ER, 9 Hits, 3 BBs, 2 Ks – 3 Whiffs, 20% CSW, 97 pitches.
Not that we expected any different from ECab against the Dodgers, but I was at least hoping for something promising we could latch on to. Buuuuut nope. The slider was barely used, the curve was all over the place, the changeup was meh, the blah blah blah IT WAS TERRIBLE. Let’s place Edward on the waiver wire and stare at him, mumbling to ourselves about what could have been. What a PEAS…
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Game of the Day
MacKenzie Gore vs. Zack Wheeler – It’s a repeat matchup of opening day and all I want is more of the same.
But Nick?! Where are the streaming picks? – I’ve moved them to the daily SP Matchups & Streamer Rankings article.
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Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)
