Jose Quintana (SP-CHA). Quintana picked up his 9th win on Friday night by holding the Rays to one ER over 7.1 innings, while striking out 6. Quintana has quietly put together another very solid season. While his 9 wins are underwhelming, that is more a function of a lack of support from an inconsistent White Sox offense than an indicator of Quintana's performance. Quintana's ERA now sits at 3.22, which is particularly impressive given his home park, and he has struck out 171 over 193 innings. These numbers are fully supported by his peripherals, as he entered tonight's action with a 2.78 FIP, a 3.44 xFIP and an 8.3% swinging strike rate. Most surprisingly, Quintana has posted a 5.0 WAR, which puts him among the elite as far as pitchers are concerned )for comparison purposes, Clayton Kershaw's WAR number is 6.7). Quintana is definitely on my list of sleeper pitchers for 2015, as he is consistently underrated by the fantasy community.
Jeremy Hellickson (SP-TB). Whither Jeremy Hellickson? He lasted only 4.1 innings against the White Sox on Friday night, giving up 4 ER on 7 hits while striking out only one. Hellickson's ERA now sits at 3.96 for the year. Hellickson's start to the season was delayed by non-TJ elbow surgery, so tonight's start was only his 12th and he has totalled only 61.1 innings pitched in those starts. The abbreviated nature of Hellickson's season makes it difficult to evaluate his prospects for 2015, but I'm going to make the attempt anyway. Hellickson has increased both his K and BB rates this year and is inducing fewer grounders (his GB rate is 4% below his career average). If he can maintain the increase in strikeouts he might be able to get away with fewer grounders, and the increase in strikeouts may be sustainable, as he has increased his swinging strike rate by 1% over his career rate (which seems to be the result of throwing more curveballs). At the end of the day, however, Hellickson's skill set is that of a pitcher who is likely to post an ERA somewhere in the vicinity of his current 3.99 FIP. That makes him someone to avoid in my mind, particularly in light of the fact that his value still tends to be a bit overinflated by those who remember his likely unrepeatable 2011 season.
Phil Hughes (SP-MIN). Hughes got a no-decision against the Indians on Friday, tossing 7 innings of 4 run 10 hit ball, while striking out 5. Hughes has had a solid first season in Minnesota, with his most remarkable stat being his 2.0% BB rate. On the negative side, he has been very hittable (23.4% LD rate) and his 6.4% HR/FB rate is probably not sustainable even with half his starts taking place in Target Field. However, the HR regression should be offset by a normalization of Hughes' 69.% strand rate. Bottom line, I expect Hughes to put up similar numbers next year and will be valuing him as a borderline SP3/SP4 for fantasy purposes.
Dustin Ackley (OF-SEA). Ackley went 2 for 4 with 2 HR and 3 runs scored against the Astros on Friday night. Ackley is now slashing .249/.298/.405 on the season, with 13 HR, 63 runs, 64 RBI and 8 SBs. Ackley's BA is being suppressed by a .276 BABIP, but otherwise this is probably the best that owners can expect from Ackley. While Ackley's numbers are solid for a fantasy 2B, he will lose that qualification next year. As strictly an OF, Ackley's mediocre numbers are not sufficient to make him fantasy relevant in standard leagues.
Kyle Seager (3B-SEA). Seager went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI and his 24th HR on Friday night. Despite an extremely slow start to the season, Seager is now slashing .273/.341/.466 on the season, with 92 RBI to go with the 24 HR. Seager was one of my targets coming into the season and he has done nothing to change that for next year. Seager's career LD rate is 22.2%, which indicates that he should be able to continue to post BAs in the .270 to .280 range and his HR production has been increasing steadily, if slowly. Seager could potentially push 30 HR next year, which makes him a potential 3B bargain in 2015.
