CC Sabathia, LHP NYA Sabathia tossed a complete game and allowed four runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts Wednesday against Cleveland. Sabathia has a 19/1 K/BB over his last two starts. Sabathia is still seemingly learning how to work throw reduced velocity. His average four-seam velocity has sat at 90.3 mph this season, down from 92.4 in 2012 and 93.9 in 2011. The good news, however, is that the left-hander's swing-and-miss percentage is the same as it has been over the last three years. Sabathia has a career 3.32 ERA and an 8.31 K/9 after the All-Star break, compared to 3.66 and 7.35 before, so his 3.74 ERA should continue to dip.
Bartolo Colon, RHP OAK After holding the Brewers to one run over seven innings Wednesday in a 6-1 win, Colon is 4-0 with a 0.90 ERA over his last four starts. The right-hander once again has been one of the top strike-throwers in baseball, posting a 0.70 BB/9 in 77 1/3 innings. Colon is getting batters to swing at more pitches but has lowered his contact rate from 90.1 percent to 86.2 percent since last season. That's still the seventh-highest contact rate in baseball, but pitching to contact isn't so bad when you allow an 18.3 percent line-drive rate, a 45 percent groundball rate and a 7.5 percent HR/FB.
Alex Cobb, RHP TB Cobb hurled 7 2/3 scoreless innings in a no decision against the Tigers Wednesday and is 6-2 with a 2.39 ERA. Cobb had a 4.03 ERA and a 3.67 FIP last season; in 2013, his FIP is 3.54, so he hasn't exactly pitched that much better than 2012. The difference has been his performance with runners on base; he stranded 68.5 percent last season and is stranding 87.9 percent in 2013. However, he mostly has been luckier than he was last year -- despite posting a 22.6 percent line-drive rate with RISP, he has a .250 BABIP in those situations.
Jeremy Guthrie, RHP KC Even though Guthrie has a 3.66 ERA, fantasy owners might shy away from him because he has a 5.53 FIP. The reason his FIP is so high is because home runs are heavily weighted in the FIP formula, and Guthrie has given up 15 of them in 78 2/3 innings. However, 14 of them were of the solo variety - the other was a three-run blast -- and the right-hander has otherwise stranded 85.2 percent of his baserunners. He has allowed just a 16 percent line-drive rate and a 65 percent groundball rate with runners in scoring position.
Dustin Pedroia, 2B BOS Pedroia hit his fourth homer of the season Wednesday, a solo shot off Rangers starter Alexi Ogando. The second baseman's flyball rate is down from 34.6 percent in 2012, when he hit 15 homers, to 26.7 percent this season. His HR/FB also is down slightly, from 8.5 percent to 7.4 percent. Pedroia has turned out groundballs at a rate of 51.5 percent, a career high, and his line-drive rate is 21.8 percent, up from 19.8 percent last season. Hitting a lower percentage of flyballs has helped Pedroia hit for a .369 BABIP and a .330 batting average. If he keeps his walk rate up near 12.4 percent, up from 7.7 percent last season, he should be able to keep his average up in the .320s.
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