Dallas Keuchel struggled again for the Astros allowing six runs, five earned, and 13 hits in just 4.1 innings but didn't factor in the decision for the game. We all know that the key to Keuchel's game is generating ground balls at a ludicrous level (65%+) and while he is still sitting at a 55% ground ball rate, he doesn't quite do enough around that to be able to survive such a steep drop. His batted ball numbers (19.0% /19.8% LD, 55.8%/.55.2% GB, 24.4%/25% FB) look scarily similar to his 2016 season and we all remember how that season went. In case you don't remember Keuchel was coming off his Cy Young season and then had a disastrous season that saw him finish with a 4.55 ERA and a 9-and-12 record. While he didn't allow any homers in this latest start, he has already allowed 12 homers this year in 84 innings and he allowed 15 homers in 145.2 innings last season. If I'm a Kuechel owner I hope for a good start next time out and then I try to ship him off.
Corey Kluber allowed two runs over eight innings Sunday to get his American League leading 10th win of the season. He allowed five hits and no walks in the outing and also struck out eight batters. Kluber's overall numbers look outstanding this year but there's a few weird numbers that are un-Kluber like that is you follow Michael Waldo (@MichaelWaldo) that can raise some concerns. Some of the numbers Michael highlighted have come back down to his normal levels but Kluber still isn't missing as many bats this year with his swinging strike rate being down 5% and he was at 11% in this start. He's also getting hit uncharacteristically hard this year with a 36.7% hard contact rate which has risen (albiet very slowly until the 2018 spike) every year since 2013.
Curtis Granderson had a huge game Sunday going 4-for-6 at the plate with a homer, two doubles, and six RBI. Granderson has put together a solid but unspectacular season in mostly-regular playing time hitting six homers with 23 RBI and a .237/.363/.434 triple slash. Granderson has always been far more effective against right handed pitching, but over the last few seasons the split has gotten even more extreme with a 115 wRC+ against righties and a 32 wRC+ against lefties this year. Granderson has all six of his homers this year off righties and 21 of his 23 RBI off them as well. The fact he's completely useless against lefties make him tough for mixed league, but he's useable in AL-Only and a solid DFS play in the right matchups.
Yuli Gurriel went 4-for-5 at the plate with his second homer of the season. Guriell is due for some positive regression in the homerun category as he has a 31% hard contact rate, 29.3% FB rate and a 1.9% HR/FB. There isn't a ton of positive regression that's due for him as he's on barreled two balls all season according to Statcast, but 1.9% is low for anyone besides Ben Revere's standards. With a current .282/.305/.361 triple slash and some belief there's power that's due to come he's an interesting utility option.
Reynaldo Lopez picked up his second win of the season allowing two runs (one earned) over 6.1 innings. Lopez allowed six hits to the Red Sox and also walked three while recording six strikeouts. The (essentially) strikeout per inning is a solid total but it is slightly concerning that he didn't record a single swing and miss on anything besides his slider in the outing. Seven whiffs on 17 sliders is outstanding, but not a single swing and miss on any of the other 79 pitches is strange. For the season, he's getting whiffs on 30% of his changeups so Sunday must have just been an off day for the offering.
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