Scott Kazmir -- Kazmir struggled yet again on Sunday, allowing 6 runs in 5 innings of work (albeit with 9 strikeouts and just 1 walk). The peripherals suggest he was unlucky, but this isn't the first bad start Kazmir has had. After a strong start to the year, since the beginning of August Kazmir has completely fallen to pieces: a 6.29 ERA and 4.46 xFIP to go with a K/9 that has fallen from 8.3 in the first half to 6.3. We're not talking about bad luck here, we're talking about a systematic change in who Kazmir is as a pitcher. Since his numbers have tumbled, his velocity has fallen off and his breaking balls aren't breaking as much. This puts Kazmir's 2015 value in question because who's to say which pitcher we're going to get... and if it's the good one, how long he'll stay that way.
Corey Kluber -- Kluber dominated once again on Sunday, throwing 8 two-run innings with 14 strikeouts and just one walk. Kluber entered the day with a 10.0 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 2.54 ERA, and 2.65 xFIP. If you don't believe that Kluber is a legitimate ace yet, I don't know what else the guy needs to do. He's completely reinvented himself as a pitcher over the past few season with the switch to the sinker as his primary fastball, the development of a nasty slider, and the addition of a brutal cutter. Kluber is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball and should be treated as such on draft day 2015.
Brian McCann -- McCann hit his 21st and 22nd home runs of the year on Sunday. It's been a very disappointing season for McCann, who has hit just .232 in his first season as a Yankee, and his power hasn't increased as much as we expected given his move to lefty-friendly Yankee Stadium. A lot of this can be attributed to the rising influence of the defensive shift across baseball. McCann has been shifted against more than double the amount of times he was in 2013, and by mid-season he was working with Yankees' hitting coach Kevin Long to adjust his swing to his new situation. This adjustment period threw off his timing at the plate and just made things worse, but he's been a little better of late. Though he's still hitting in the .220s this month, he has hit 7 home runs. Don't look at McCann's .236 BABIP this season and deem him unlucky or a bounceback candidate for 2015. He's facing a different set of circumstances these days and is starting to age, so make sure you know what you're getting yourself into before drafting him next year.
Dallas Keuchel -- The Astros have decided to shut breakout starter Dallas Keuchel down for the season. Keuchel finishes the year with a 6.6 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, 64% GB%, 2.93 ERA, and 3.20 xFIP. While the strikeout rate isn't gaudy, the development of his slider, which has become a true plus or possibly even plus-plus pitch, has kept it at a respectable level and has really enabled a lot of Keuchel's success. His improved control and his ability to keep the ball on the ground should allow him to keep preventing runs at a very good clip, even if the strikeouts are less than fantasy owners would like to see. But if he keeps developing, there's a pretty good chance those will rise.
This will be my final column for Fantistics this year. I wanted to say thank you to all of the amazing readers and let you know that you can follow and send me your questions to me throughout the off-season on Twitter (@DerekCarty). And if daily fantasy baseball is your thing, make sure you look into my DFS projection system, THE BAT, which is the most sophisticated model on the market.
This is just a small sample our our daily analysis, join our member area for more premium content: http://www.fantistics.com/join/join.php3
