Kyle Gibson, Minnesota Twins - Kyle Gibson moved to 2-0 on the year with 6.1 innings of one run baseball Friday against the Royals. He was able to keep the ball on the ground forcing 11 GB outs against 5 FB outs, helping offset his nine base runners he allowed to reach (five hits, four walks). Gibson is off to a nice start, but it will need to be seen how long he can keep walking batters at this rate, (8 in 11.1 innings) combined with the hits he allows. Working as a ground ball pitcher like he did Friday will surely help that, but if teams are able to elevate some pitches he could get into trouble early. Gibson is out pitching his FIP by a huge margin (1.59 ERA to 4.30 FIP) so he will need to change some things up if he wants to continue his success. Facing the Blue Jays at home is a promising start next time out for him, but owners should be wary about his numbers coming back down to earth.
David Price, Tampa Bay Rays - David Price was dominant tossing 8.1 innings of shutout baseball before his last batter Joey Votto took him deep to end the shutout chance. He had a season high 10 K's and now owns a 22:2 K:BB in '14. Friday was an excellent bounce back game for Price after allowing four runs in 6.0 innings last time out and he lowered his ERA to 2.91 in the effort. After a down year for Price standards saw him win just 10 games and he had a K/9 rate under 8 for the first time since 2009, his rookie year. Price has seen a jump in many peripherals (LD%, GB%, IFFB%, HR/FB%) in the direction (respectively) that makes them favorable to a pitcher. In other words, Price is back and enjoy the ride fantasy owners.
Kurt Suzuki, Minnesota Twins - Kurt Suzuki notched two RBI Friday to bring his season total to eight early on in the season. The catcher does not hit for much power with a career .122 ISO but he is off to a hot start with a .333 batting average through 33 at bats. Since he is a light hitting catcher his fantasy value is completely reliant on his average staying above average and knocking in runners on base, which is something he can only control to a certain extent. His LD% is up to 30% from his career norm of 18.9% but his FB% has dropped dramatically from a career 39.7% all the way to 15.0%. His BABIP is at .350 now while his career .269 BABIP suggests that right now, despite the solid contact, he average is likely to regress as the season goes. There are definitely positives to owning Suzuki right now, but eventually the lack of power and reliance on others to get on base will make him worth rostering in just deep AL only leagues.
Chris Carter, Houston Astros - Chris Carter is someone I took a gamble on in the late rounds of my draft, hoping I could snag a 25-30 homerun outfielder and that I could just carry his bad average. So far though in '14, Carter has yet to homer and has just one RBI on the season. He is actually striking out more than last season (36.2% in '13 and 44.1% in '14), which is hard to do considering he led the league in strikeouts last year. For a player with as much raw power as Carter possesses, a GB rate of 50% is not at all what fantasy owners want to see. He is a career 31.7% GB hitter and a 46.5% FB hitter which plays great for his strengths and the strengths of the Astros' home stadium. He needs to fix some glaring holes in his swing (18.5% SwStr%) if he wants to stay owned for fantasy purposes.
Chris Tillman, Baltimore Orioles - Chris Tillman turned in his second straight 8+ inning, one or less earned run start Friday and walked away with the loss as the Orioles were out-dueled by the Blue Jays. The righty threw eight innings allowing just three hits, two unearned runs and struck out six for his second straight quality start. Tillman has been dominant this season with his 0.84 ERA and WHIP while fanning 15 batters and walking just three. He took major strides in both 2012 and 2013 and looks to be making even more strides in the right direction so far this year. His K rate has dropped over one K/9 from '13, but he has also lowered his walks per nine by almost one and a half. Besides the two stats mentioned above, Tillman's overall numbers look relatively similar beside he's getting batters to chase more often (33.6% this season, 28.7% career) and they are swinging at less pitches in the zone (64.8% this season, 66% for this season) so some regression would not be surprising but he is still an excellent pitcher for a good ball club.
Josh Sperry - @jsperry1991
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