MLB Daily Notes - June 15th
A daily automated report of what happened yesterday in Major League Baseball, along with other recent trends and further analysis.
Pitchers - Yesterday
Garrett Whitlock almost did the thing that Kirby did yesterday with a 19.6% SwStr% and a 58.7% Strike%. Incredibly good start for him, and he’s finally showing some of that upside we knew he had.
He’s now up to a strong 13.% SwStr% and 51% Strike% on the season, and he puts up a decent GB% along with it. Over his last two starts now, he has a 25% K%, a 3.8% BB%, a 20% SwStr%, and a 54.4% Strike%. I think he should be added everywhere.
Eury Perez had a nice start with a big 53.8% Strike%, but a lower 10.8% SwStr%. For the year he has a 25.4% K% with a 9.9% BB% - so not exactly the elite pitcher a lot of people thought they were getting when they rushed out to grab him. The 46.8% Strike% and 37.6% Ball% are pretty much league average, and he lets a lot of balls get hit into the air.
He’s not getting many whiffs with the fastball (6.6% SwStr%), but the slider and curve are working nicely in that regard. He needs to avoid the long ball to have success, which isn’t super easy to do with 46% usage on a mediocre fastball with a 13% GB%.
Obviously there’s tons and tons of room and time for him to improve, but I wouldn’t say he’s in the “great fantasy pitcher” group right now.
More elite stuff from Tyler Glasnow, who now has a SwStr% above 20% on both his slider and curveball.
Michael Wacha got it done again without great underlying marks. Bailey Ober was very good with a 17% SwStr% and a 56% Strike%.
How about Reid Detmers? The rollercoaster ride continued. He has double-digit whiffs in five straight, but he’s had two really bad starts in that time. He’s pretty much ditched the changeup now and is splitting the fastball/slider/curve pretty evenly.
There’s just not a lot of consistency, and maybe it has something to do with the feel of his breaking balls on any given day. Whatever “feel” means.
Kyle Bradish and Reese Olson were miserably bad yesterday with SwStr% below 6%. Two more struggling young pitchers there, it’s just not an easy thing to do to pitch well in the Majors.
Moving to the leaderboards:
Fantasy Points Leaders - Yesterday
1. Jose Berrios (vs. BAL): 28.86 Points
2. Eury Perez (vs. SEA): 27.7 Points
3. Ranger Suarez (vs. ARI): 26.15 Points
4. Michael Wacha (vs. CLE): 26.01 Points
5. Garrett Whitlock (vs. COL): 25.55 Points
6. Gerrit Cole (vs. NYM): 25.1 Points
7. Reid Detmers (vs. TEX): 23.9 Points
8. Bailey Ober (vs. MIL): 23.3 Points
9. Framber Valdez (vs. WSH): 22.75 Points
10. Justin Verlander (vs. NYY): 21.7 Points
Whiffs Leaders - Yesterday
1. Merrill Kelly (ARI): 20 Whiffs (102 Pitches)
2. Tyler Glasnow (TB): 19 Whiffs (94 Pitches)
3. Garrett Whitlock (BOS): 18 Whiffs (92 Pitches)
4. Spencer Strider (ATL): 17 Whiffs (94 Pitches)
5. Luis Castillo (SEA): 16 Whiffs (101 Pitches)
6. Gerrit Cole (NYY): 16 Whiffs (95 Pitches)
7. Bailey Ober (MIN): 16 Whiffs (93 Pitches)
8. Reid Detmers (LAA): 15 Whiffs (96 Pitches)
9. Anthony DeSclafani (SF): 14 Whiffs (78 Pitches)
10. Justin Verlander (NYM): 14 Whiffs (107 Pitches)
Strike% Leaders - Yesterday
1. Garrett Whitlock (BOS): 58.7 Strike%, 21.7 Ball%
2. Bailey Ober (MIN): 55.9 Strike%, 26.9 Ball%
3. Gerrit Cole (NYY): 55.8 Strike%, 29.5 Ball%
4. Eury Perez (MIA): 53.8 Strike%, 31.2 Ball%
5. Reid Detmers (LAA): 53.1 Strike%, 33.3 Ball%
6. Tyler Glasnow (TB): 52.1 Strike%, 33.0 Ball%
7. Osvaldo Bido (PIT): 51.6 Strike%, 37.4 Ball%
8. Justin Verlander (NYM): 50.5 Strike%, 36.4 Ball%
9. Jordan Montgomery (STL): 50.0 Strike%, 31.6 Ball%
10. Anthony DeSclafani (SF): 48.7 Strike%, 39.7 Ball%
11. Reese Olson (DET): 48.3 Strike%, 36.0 Ball%
12. Mike Clevinger (CWS): 48.1 Strike%, 36.4 Ball%
13. Josiah Gray (WSH): 47.4 Strike%, 30.5 Ball%
14. Austin Gomber (COL): 47.3 Strike%, 31.9 Ball%
15. Merrill Kelly (ARI): 47.1 Strike%, 39.2 Ball%
I plan on re-doing these ‘JA scores’ to make them much better and that will mean I’ll be re-doing the automated ranking process as well. Hopefully in the next week or so I can get that done.
Top Pitcher JA Scores - Yesterday
1. Garrett Whitlock - 6.33 IP - 171.5 JA Points
2. Jordan Montgomery - 6.33 IP - 149.0 JA Points
3. Ranger Suarez - 7.0 IP - 143.5 JA Points
4. Jose Berrios - 7.67 IP - 140.0 JA Points
5. Josiah Gray - 7.0 IP - 137.5 JA Points
6. Clayton Kershaw - 6.0 IP - 137.0 JA Points
7. Justin Verlander - 6.0 IP - 130.0 JA Points
8. Merrill Kelly - 6.0 IP - 128.5 JA Points
9. Luis Castillo - 5.67 IP - 126.0 JA Points
10. Kyle Bradish - 7.0 IP - 120.0 JA Points
Pitcher JA Scores - Season
1. Spencer Strider (ATL) - 14.0 GS - 119.87 JA Points
2. Trevor Richards (TOR) - 1.0 GS - 119.5 JA Points
3. Nick Lodolo (CIN) - 7.0 GS - 119.12 JA Points
4. Alex Wood (SF) - 7.0 GS - 111.4 JA Points
5. David Peterson (NYM) - 8.0 GS - 109.05 JA Points
6. Luis Castillo (SEA) - 14.0 GS - 108.81 JA Points
7. Brayan Bello (BOS) - 10.0 GS - 107.97 JA Points
8. Garrett Whitlock (BOS) - 7.0 GS - 107.57 JA Points
9. Jesus Luzardo (MIA) - 14.0 GS - 107.1 JA Points
10. James Paxton (BOS) - 6.0 GS - 106.74 JA Points
Pitcher & Pitch Trends
Wacha lost some velocity but it didn’t matter. He has a 2.89 ERA on the year and a 0.91 ERA since May 1st. The K-BB% isn’t awful on him at 16%, but there’s major over-performance going on here. But still, he’s a guy to start right now - but I’d say he’s also a guy to sell on if you can get a price much higher than you would have at the beginning of the season.
Velo Changes - Yesterday
Michael Wacha's FF velo (23 pitches) DOWN -1.5mph to 90.4
Michael Wacha's SI velo (12 pitches) DOWN -1.5mph to 89.9
Bailey Ober's SL velo (20 pitches) DOWN -1.6mph to 80.1
Michael Wacha's FC velo (10 pitches) DOWN -1.7mph to 85.3
Garrett Whitlock's CH velo (32 pitches) DOWN -2.0mph to 81.2
Pitch Mix Changes - Yesterday
Aaron Civale's SI usage (37.9%) up 21.5 points
Andrew Heaney's SL usage (35.8%) up 14.9 points
Austin Gomber's SL usage (45.1%) up 30.6 points
Ben Lively's SL usage (35.8%) up 11.6 points
Colin Rea's FF usage (35.6%) up 14.3 points
Gerrit Cole's FF usage (67.4%) up 11.3 points
Josiah Gray's SI usage (37.9%) up 35.2 points
Josiah Gray's ST usage (27.4%) up 27.1 points
Justin Verlander's CU usage (27.1%) up 12.3 points
Kyle Bradish's SI usage (28.6%) up 12.8 points
Luis Castillo's FF usage (55.4%) up 10.2 points
Merrill Kelly's FF usage (41.2%) up 15.3 points
Michael Lorenzen's SL usage (38.3%) up 16.1 points
Pitch Mix Changes - Last 3 Starts
Chase Anderson 4-Seam Fastball: -22.1%
Zach Davies 4-Seam Fastball: +20.3%
Yusei Kikuchi Curveball: +18.8%
Yu Darvish Sinker: +18.3%
Josiah Gray Sinker: +18.0%
Austin Gomber Slider: +17.8%
Jameson Taillon 4-Seam Fastball: +17.8%
JP Sears Sweeper: -16.4%
Mike Clevinger 4-Seam Fastball: -16.1%
Logan Allen Changeup: +15.7%
Matt Strahm Cutter: -15.4%
Yusei Kikuchi Changeup: -14.4%
Shintaro Fujinami Slider: -13.7%
Sonny Gray 4-Seam Fastball: +13.6%
Shintaro Fujinami 4-Seam Fastball: +13.2%
J.P. France Changeup: +13.0%
Tanner Houck Cutter: -13.0%
Adrian Houser Sinker: +13.0%
Alex Cobb Split-Finger: +12.9%
Reid Detmers Curveball: +12.6%
Luis Castillo 4-Seam Fastball: +12.6%
Kyle Bradish 4-Seam Fastball: -12.2%
Pitching Leaders - Recent
CSW% Leaders - Last 3 Weeks
Braxton Garrett - 82 TBF, 35.8% CSW%
Charlie Morton - 100 TBF, 35.1% CSW%
James Paxton - 73 TBF, 34.9% CSW%
Luis Castillo - 98 TBF, 34.6% CSW%
Jose Berrios - 97 TBF, 34.3% CSW%
Jesus Luzardo - 86 TBF, 33.9% CSW%
Spencer Strider - 90 TBF, 33.8% CSW%
Corbin Burnes - 104 TBF, 33.8% CSW%
Colin Rea - 89 TBF, 33.6% CSW%
Tyler Glasnow - 88 TBF, 33.5% CSW%
K% Leaders - Last 3 Weeks
Hunter Greene - 68 TBF, 41.2% K%
Kevin Gausman - 98 TBF, 36.7% K%
Blake Snell - 92 TBF, 35.9% K%
Michael Kopech - 70 TBF, 35.7% K%
James Paxton - 73 TBF, 34.2% K%
Spencer Strider - 90 TBF, 33.3% K%
Luis Castillo - 98 TBF, 32.7% K%
Jon Gray - 77 TBF, 32.5% K%
Charlie Morton - 100 TBF, 31.0% K%
Corbin Burnes - 104 TBF, 30.8% K%
K-BB% Leaders - Last 3 Weeks
Hunter Greene - 68 TBF, 30.9% K-BB%
Michael Kopech - 70 TBF, 30.0% K-BB%
Jon Gray - 77 TBF, 29.9% K-BB%
James Paxton - 73 TBF, 28.8% K-BB%
Max Scherzer - 100 TBF, 28.0% K-BB%
Griffin Canning - 69 TBF, 27.5% K-BB%
Jesus Luzardo - 86 TBF, 26.7% K-BB%
Zack Wheeler - 98 TBF, 26.5% K-BB%
Kevin Gausman - 98 TBF, 25.5% K-BB%
MacKenzie Gore - 71 TBF, 25.4% K-BB%
GB% Leaders - Last 3 Weeks
Marcus Stroman - 83 TBF, 67.3% GB%
Hunter Brown - 97 TBF, 62.3% GB%
Zach Eflin - 94 TBF, 61.8% GB%
Edward Cabrera - 84 TBF, 61.2% GB%
Logan Webb - 104 TBF, 57.5% GB%
Joe Musgrove - 93 TBF, 56.1% GB%
Sandy Alcantara - 81 TBF, 55.9% GB%
Ranger Suarez - 104 TBF, 54.7% GB%
Bryce Elder - 75 TBF, 54.5% GB%
Bobby Miller - 67 TBF, 53.5% GB%
Magic Formula Qualifiers - Pitchers - Last 3 Weeks
Braxton Garrett - 82 TBF, 30.5 K%, 6.1 BB%, 51.9% GB%
Clayton Kershaw - 102 TBF, 28.4 K%, 6.9 BB%, 51.5% GB%
James Paxton - 73 TBF, 34.2 K%, 5.5 BB%, 43.2% GB%
Jesus Luzardo - 86 TBF, 30.2 K%, 3.5 BB%, 49.1% GB%
Max Scherzer - 100 TBF, 29.0 K%, 1.0 BB%, 44.1% GB%
Hot Pitcher Tracker - Last 3 Weeks vs. Career
Daniel Lynch - +2.3% CSW%, -1.9 BB%
George Kirby - +3.1% CSW%, -2.1 BB%
Jesus Luzardo - +3.6% CSW%, -5.3 BB%
Zach Davies - +3.8% CSW%, -1.9 BB%
Jon Gray - +2.6% CSW%, -5.4 BB%
Michael Kopech - +2.5% CSW%, -4.7 BB%
Griffin Canning - +4.0% CSW%, -7.1 BB%
Mike Clevinger - +6.7% CSW%, -1.7 BB%
Braxton Garrett - +8.0% CSW%, -3.7 BB%
Hitters - Recent
Multiple Barrels
Eugenio Suarez (SEA) 4 PA, 5 Swings, 2 Barrels, 0 HR
Jake Burger (CWS) 5 PA, 7 Swings, 2 Barrels, 2 HR
Michael Harris II (ATL) 8 PA, 15 Swings, 2 Barrels, 1 HR
Miguel Cabrera (DET) 9 PA, 19 Swings, 2 Barrels, 1 HR
Nick Castellanos (PHI) 5 PA, 8 Swings, 2 Barrels, 0 HR
Ronald Acuna Jr. (ATL) 10 PA, 17 Swings, 2 Barrels, 2 HR
New Max Launch Velos
Jarren Duran, Yesterday: 112.6 Previous High: 111.6
Pablo Reyes, Yesterday: 109.2 Previous High: 109.0
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