- Fantasy Baseball Week 20 preview: Top two-start pitchers | Scott White's top-10 sleeper hitters
Maybe some pitchers just aren't meant to last.
When Lance McCullers is on the mound, he's one of the most unique pitchers in baseball, a curveball-twirling dynamo who racks up groundballs and strikeouts at a borderline elite rate. However, he struggled with shoulder and elbow injuries in 2016, while back issues sidelined him for stretches in 2017. Now, he's likely headed back to the DL this week, after exiting Sunday's start with elbow discomfort.
He was sent back to Houston to be evaluated, and he told reporters after the game he was dealing with "some abnormal soreness and stiffness" in his forearm. Without speculating on the extent of the injury, it's still safe to say this isn't good news for McCullers' Fantasy owners.
The Astros aren't lacking for options to replace McCullers, though at this point we can't do much more than speculate as to what they may choose to do. One obvious option would be Brad Peacock, who moved to the bullpen and has a 2.93 ERA this season in that role; he had a 3.22 ERA with 10.9 K/9 in 21 starts last season. However, he hasn't thrown more than 30 pitches in an outing since July 6 and would certainly need some time to get stretched out if moved into the rotation. He's worth a speculative add in deeper leagues.
An even more interesting possibility would be the promotion of top prospect Forrest Whitley, but he hasn't pitched since July 5 due to an oblique strain. They almost certainly wouldn't call him up straight off the minor-league DL, so we would only see him in the event of a season-ending injury for McCullers, I would bet. He's worth stashing in deep, deep leagues, but we need to see him on the mound again before he is considered a possibility.
Maybe the Astros will give Collin McHugh another look. He has thrived in a move to the bullpen, sporting a 1.01 ERA and seeing his velocity spike in that role; however, like Peacock, he would likely need to be stretched out before such a move is made. Given the gains he has made as a reliever, McHugh would be an interesting option to start, and would be worth adding if he got the chance.
It doesn't quite make sense, but Anibal Sanchez deserves a lot more love than he's gotten from the Fantasy community. 14 starts into his season, he's sporting a 2.89 ERA along with the best strikeout rate of his career, at 24.6 percent. He's doing that with above-average control, and his highest groundball rate since 2014. A 3.86 SIERA suggests this might not be wholly sustainable, but it also suggests Sanchez has returned to being an above-average pitcher. It's time to buy in.
A step back wasn't exactly unexpected from Souza after last season, but even the biggest pessimists among us likely didn't see him floundering to a roughly .700 OPS into August. Injuries bear some of the blame, of course, and Souza has been raking of late. He went deep Sunday against the Giants, his second in five games, and is now hitting .327/.400/.571 in 13 games since the All-Star break. Now healthy, Souza is reminding us what he's capable of, and that's worth owning in five-outfielder leagues.
Forget 2016. That's never, ever happening again. That shouldn't be your expectation, and it doesn't need to be for Villar to be worth adding. Because here's the thing: It looks like he's going to be playing every day in Baltimore, and Villar is still fast. Really fast. He stole his first base for the Orioles Sunday and is 8 for 17 at the plate since joining the team at the deadline. For the season, he's hitting .274, and has at least managed to cut his strikeout rate to somewhat more manageable levels. He'll almost certainly never be a star again, but if he can hit .270 and steal a bunch of bases on a bad team the rest of the way, Villar's going to be must-start in all category-based leagues. Might as well add him now.
It's hard to be excited about someone with Ryan Borucki's strikeout rate, but I must admit, I remain intrigued. He's shown more upside than that in the minors, and even if he remains a below-average strikeout pitcher, he does enough else well to at least be worth keeping on your radar. Borucki has excellent control, and he's done an excellent job keeping the ball in the park going back to the minors. There's no star potential here, but Borucki could at least pitch to something like league average run prevention marks, while helping in WHIP, making him an interesting flier in deeper category-based leagues.
If you're skeptical, I can't blame you: there's been very little to write about in Aledmys Diaz's game since the start of 2017. But there are still flashes in his ability to put the bat on the ball consistently with power. He got off to a solid start to the season, posting an .874 OPS in the first 13 games, but fell into a deep slump from that point on. He's pulled out of it in a big way since the All-Star break, as he hit his sixth homer in 12 games Sunday. He's hitting .373 in that span, and just may be tapping into his potential again. I wouldn't say you need to buy in in a standard H2H points league with a shallow roster, but if you need some middle infield help, he's worth a chance.
