Not too many major starts today, so I felt like leading with one of my major man crushes this season, Zack Godley who went 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 Hits, 2 BBs, 5 Ks against the Cubs on Wednesday night. Why are you spending time talking about how great Godley is? We all know this! Do you? He's owned in just 63.0% of ESPN leagues, with names like Rick Porcello, Ivan Nova, Johnny Cueto, Cole Hamels, Jacob Faria, Julio Teheran, and even Brad Peacock holding more ownership, and it just doesn't make sense to me. In Monday's edition of The List, I raised Godley to #15 and I feel the need to really dive into why. xStats absolutely adores him, with about 60% of all his batted balls as what I'm calling "Easy Outs" (It's his dribbler and pop up rates combined), leading to a bbFIP of just 2.30. That's absurd. Meanwhile, he's fanning batters at a 26.0% rate, 17th best in the majors in front of Aaron Nola and Lance McCullers, and there isn't a single stat that scares me away. Seriously, he's had just three starts all season where his xFIP for that single game was 4.00 or higher. If he's somehow on your wire, change that now. If there is some chance you can buy him off someone, do it. Just own him everywhere, okay? Here's to hoping that he somehow falls outside the Top 120 in next season's drafts as people overlook him as you're going to get a #2 with #1 upside. He's that good.
Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:
JC Ramirez went 8.0 IP, 6H, 2BB, 3K’s Yesterday
He totally did. Not sure how I get that line instead, let me update the article.
Thanks for catching that!
Love the content, Nick. Huge fan.
Regarding ownership rates, I feel like you, of all people, should know to take the rates with a HUGE grain of salt. It’s because of the huge number of casual leagues, leagues that are abandoned, or real leagues that were mistakenly drafted as a mock draft that cause a skew in the numbers.
The reason Rick Porcello, Ivan Nova, Johnny Cueto, Cole Hamels, and Teheran are more largely owned than Godley is because those guys were drafted at the beginning of the season. Can’t necessarily say the same about Faria and Peacock, but it’s not a number to get too worked up about. Regardless, the ownership rates can’t be completely ignored–as there are always exceptions–but they’re just not very accurate of the true numbers.
Wonder if fantasy platforms can fix this in years to come, giving a more true ownership rate by eliminating abandoned leagues or coming up with a new algorithm or something.
Yep you’re totally right about that! I felt it was important to being though with the context of Faria and Peacock as those are players who were definitely not drafted.
I’ve also seen some comments asking if Godley should be picked up and felt the need to make sure he wasn’t ignored.
Loving Godley! Re: him going after 120 in drafts next year, I think that is very possible considering he is on a small market team (and Fulmer went around 120 or higher going into this year after winning ROY)
I hope so! Fulmer is a little different given a lot of the peripherals suggesting a major regression and a lower K rate, which Godley looks golden across the board.
What do you think the order is ROS? Godley, Castillo, Peacock
Godley, Castillo, Peacock. Still unsure how many starts Peacock has left.
Duffy, Ray, Godley, Castillo order ROS? Thx Nick.
Godley, Duffy, Castillo, Ray.
ROS: Godley, Nola, Manea, Castillo, Weaver, Wacha, Vargas?
Don’t see a reason to change The List for those guys since Monday.
With Fulmer now on the DL I need to pick up one of the following…
– Jeff Samardzija
– Luis Castillo
– Masahiro Tanaka
– Brad Peacock
Any favs from those?
I’m amazed they are all available.
Tanaka is the sturdiest option.
Thanks.
10 team league but only 8 are active; H2H
Who’s your second option in those? I have Kenta Maeda as well and he’s been doing pretty good keeping my ERA/whip low and still giving me wins, but is he worth replacing with any of the above too?
12 team*
Also what about Danny Salazar with all of those options too?
I think you still go Tanaka.
Man, that Tanaka blurb escalated REAL quick right there at the end, haha.