We've been wanting to see something big from Vincent Velasquez all season and last night we got our upside game via 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. He's back! No way he's going to the bullpen! I'm so happy I stuck with him! Yeah yeah yeah, but should we really be all too thrilled? This was against the Braves, he has to head to Coors next (though his schedule after that is oh-so-pretty), and these starts against weak teams are still not guaranteed like you want them to be. His repertoire isn't complete and while he will have these starts that pull you in, Velasquez is more of a PEAS than a guy like Pomeranz who you can depend on each start to provide you value. All that being said, I think you resist picking him up given Coors, but I'd take a flier if he's still around following given that easy schedule. Just hold a short leash and don't get too excited about this one start. This probably could have been a smaller blurb but I wanted to lead here as I'm sure many were eyeing him on that Kate Moss thin wire.
Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:
Thoughts on McCullers?
Whoa! My giant McCullers blurb got deleted. Give me a second, I’ll get it back.
McCullers just got placed back on the DL. Looks like the injury was still nagging at him after all.
Re: Lynn – Lynn doesn’t walk guys and 4 of them were in one inning, so I don’t really think you should put much stock into that fluky inning. If you take out that one inning, his line was 5IP, 0R, BB, 3H, 2K which is not so bad against one of the best offenses in baseball when he clearly did not have his stuff or command. I get that you can make most starts good by taking out an inning or two… but Lynn really wasn’t bad yesterday all things considered.
On Colon: maybe something about Babe the Blue Ox?
Which is a better indicator of pitching performance when they contradict each other, FIP or DRA? As an example, Brad Peacock has a 2.68 ERA, 2.51 FIP but a DRA of 3.67. I realize there are many other factors to consider but one (FIP) suggests his ERA is for real and the other (DRA) says he doesn’t deserve a 2.68 ERA.
I know he probably doesn’t read this site, but I kinda feel bad for Clayton Richard cause he’ll never have an actual blurb written about him that isn’t “It’s the wrong Clayton!”
You’re way too hard on Taijuan. His xFIP is still top 40 amongst qualified starters (http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2017&month=0&season1=2017&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=18,a&page=2_30) and his FIP is top 30.
Top 40 qualified starters is not a good number. There are only 71 total qualified starters!
…and Taijuan walker isn’t even qualified. So let’s set it to 90 IP and…he ranks #51 of 96 pitchers.
I’m not sure this is the right argument to make.
Castillo is out there, taunting me to add him. I am torn dropping Vargas or Faria though. Vargas is getting it done again against all odds with barely any K and Faria still had 8 K in 4 IP.
You know I love your stuff, but the Braves offense is stingier than most would think. They walk a decent amount and put a lot of balls in play. They aren’t as bad as people think.
I think VV started rough, but he really impressed in the end.