Walbert Urena (SP - LAA) - Urena tossed 6 shutout innings against the Brewers on Sunday, allowing 3 hits and 3 walks with 7 K's. The 22 year old is really just the Jose Soriano starter kit, replete with a lot of velo, a ton of groundballs, and some fairly sizable control issues. The inefficiency does make it tough for him to get deep into games and certainly lowers his floor, but he's allowed just 3 runs over 27 2/3 innings in his last 5 starts, and he's only had two poor starts out of 18 since returning to the Angels in mid-April. I really like this kid and, much like Soriano, any incremental increase in control will pay massive dividends with his impressive stuff. Unlike early-career Soriano, he's already missing bats at an above average level here in year one as well. There's a great ceiling here.
Peter Lambert (SP - HOU) - Lambert held the Rangers to 2 runs on 3 hits over 5 2/3 innings on Sunday, walking 2 while fanning 8 and generating 16 swinging strikes on just 83 pitches. The Astros don't let him go too deep in games typically, as he's only thrown over 100 pitches twice since Memorial Day, but he's also only allowed more than 2 runs once in those same 12 starts. The advanced ERA metrics are split on Lambert, as SIERA and xFIP don't like him very much at all (4.21 and 4.47 respectively) while xERA paints him as a well above-average arm (3.43). There are a lot of flyballs here, but both the walk rate and strikeout rate have steadily improved as the season has progressed. This is most definitely not the same pitcher that left for Japan two years ago, and I do believe that he is a useful SP in all formats at present with his extremely deep arsenal.
Gavin Williams (SP - CLE) - Williams was brilliant against Arizona on Sunday, allowing just a single and a walk over 5 2/3 shutout innings, striking out 10. That was his 5th straight game striking out 10 or more, as the 27 year old continues to show increased velocity combined with vastly improved control. Sure, the EV allowed is up again, but there's some truth to "ball come in fast, ball go out fast". The BB rate has improved so much this year that he's now better than average there, and he's 3rd overall in K/9. The GB rate has improved in each of his 4 seasons as well, so there's an awful lot to like here. I'm not sure his ceiling is that of a #1, but it seems pretty darn close to me: in his last 5 starts he's gone 32 2/3 IP while allowing just 16 hits and 9 runs with 3 walks and 55 K's. That is an incredibly impressive run.
John Rave (OF - KC) - I love when "4A" players get a shot, and John Rave has been making the most of his playing time of late, hitting in 4 straight and going 4-11 with a HR in the weekend series at Coors. Rave has always been a very patient, disciplined hitter at the plate, and the contact ability has improved steadily during his minor league time. The power looks to be somewhere around average, but the bat speed has jumped considerably the past few seasons, and he does have rather good speed to go along with all of the other stuff. The Lane Thomas trade opens up some playing time, but Rave was already starting to play every day before the deal, although Kyle Isbel was activated on Sunday. With their entire starting infield on the IL and the season already slipping into "lost", I expect them to continue to take a long look at guys like Rave to see if they'll have value beyond the present. He turns 29 this offseason, so the future is definitely now for a player who was at AAA for his 5th season.
Gerrit Cole (SP - NYY) - Cole fell an out shy of his 5th straight QS, but he did manage to pick up the win against the Cubs in a tense 2-1 pitcher's duel on Sunday. Cole allowed 4 hits and walked 3 over those 5 2/3 innings, but was pretty firmly in control until his last inning of work. I honestly expected a little more from the 35 year old this season than what we've seen, so I think the 2018-23 ace-level version may be truly gone at this point. What's left is still a pretty good pitcher, with excellent control and an average ability to miss bats offset a bit by an ever-declining GB rate. Cole should slot in nicely behind Schlittler and Fried as a #3 for the Yanks, and that's about the level that I think of him for fantasy now as well. This is 6 straight years of a declining swinging strike rate combined with back-to-back years of a rapidly increasing flyball rate, something that's usually death to a RHP at Yankee Stadium. If you can convinced anybody that the 2022 version of Cole is hovering beneath the surface, I'm much more of a seller than a buyer here.
