Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers - Miguel Cabrera is to the point when .315, 25 HR, and 109 RBI is no longer noteworthy for Cabrera because that legitimately is considered a down season for him. His 2012 and 2013 were just so good that his "decline" to 2011 standards gets overlooked. His walk rate took a dip this year to the lowest that it has been since 2009 and his strikeouts rate also jumped to 16%, his highest since 2008. The move to first base helped Cabrera health wise as he was able to play 156 games after just playing in 148 last year. Cabrera likely has at least two more years of this elite level of production before he starts to slow down to about a 4.0 win player.
Oswaldo Arcia, Minnesota Twins - Arcia homered on Friday, his 20th of the season in just 101 games played. Every other player in baseball who reached the 20 homer plateau played in at least 120 games, with most playing in the 135-140 game range. He has a .226 ISO on the year and that is helped by his 6% rise in LD rate while his FB% stayed in the low 40% range. Homers have been his only source of offense though as he only has 57 RBI on the year and is hitting a lowly .231 on the season with a 111 wRC+. If you can carry his low average, he could be a nice value pick in 2015 with his 30 homerun potential.
Rick Porcello, Detroit Tigers - Porcello struggled in Friday's start making it the second straight outing he's been chased from the game without making it through four innings. Over the seven innings in his last two starts, he's given up 15 hits, 10 runs (8 earned), five walks, and seven strikeouts. Overall on the year though Porcello had excellent season, posting career highs in WAR, ERA, and he just missed a career low FIP by 4 points. While he isn't a flashy pitcher he simply gets the job done with a near 50% ground ball rate and by keeping extra runners off base with less than two walks per nine. He's going to be drafted decently high among pitchers, but don't reach too far for him as his low strikeout numbers overall cap his ceiling as a fantasy pitchers.
Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians - Kluber made his final Cy Young statement Friday striking out 11 Rays batters over eight innings to earn his 18th win of the season. Likely it's going to come down to Kluber and King Felix for the Cy Young Award, but if I had a vote I'd go with Kluber and his 7.0 fWAR (second to only Clayton Kershaw among pitchers) and his 2.34 FIP over 235 innings. He could likely be the best value pick among all positions as few players have provided the numbers he has over this season. He'll likely be drafted among the top 10 pitchers next year as pitchers who strikeout 10 per game with less than two walks are very rare commodities.
Chris Archer, Tampa Bay Rays - Archer was excellent against the Indians Friday with one run over 7.2 innings, but he was faced off against Corey Kluber who did Corey Kluber things. This was his fourth straight quality starts and he has allowed five runs over 27.1 innings. Archer finished off what is by far the best season of his career with a 3.2 WAR and a 3.39 FIP. In terms of WAR he has improved each season that he has been in the majors and he saw his strikeout rate jump to 8.04/9 this year. A huge key in his year was him shaving his HR/9 down to 0.54 for the whole season. I like Archer as a top 25 starter next year, especially as he keeps making strides in the positive direction.
Josh Sperry - @jsperry1991
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