Roy Halladay earned his 200th win by going eight innings and only allowing one run against the Marlins yesterday. Halladay pitched a lot better compared to his previous two starters. Specifically throwing his curveball for strikes and incorporating a changeup for the first time this year. The image below shows the pitch location of his curveball yesterday compared to his previous two starts. Despite the box score, Halladay wasn’t dominant; instead he hung around the zone and pitched to contact. If he was facing a lineup that wouldn’t be confused for Triple-A lineup he would not have fared so well as he did yesterday. Halladay is a stream only pitcher.

Brandon Maurer saved fantasy owners (including myself) in weekly leagues by getting the win and allowing two earned runs in six innings against the Rangers yesterday. The biggest thing I noticed was the command of the fastball, which is a plus pitch (sits 93-95 mph), specifically working up and along the corners of the zone. The image below shows a heat map of the pitch location of his fastball yesterday compared to his first two starts.

The offense for the Tampa Bay Rays is Evan Longoria, Desmond Jennings, Ben Zobrist and fringe average offensive players. At this point I put them in the same category as the Marlins when it comes to determining the stream value of a pitcher. The Rays front office has to seriously consider calling up Wil Myers, but what happens if they do, fans are going to count on him to be a savior of the offense, which is a lot of pressure for a rookie.

Saturday Jose Veras blew his first save chance of the year against the Angels. I’ve watched almost every Astros game this year and it’s only a matter of time before Rhiner Cruz, who has the best stuff in the bullpen, becomes the closer.

I’m concerned about Jarrod Parker, but I’m not as concerned as I was this morning. This is the third game in a row his command was loose, but yesterday was the worst he’s looked all year. He bounced a lot of pitchers in the dirt and missed above the hitter’s shoulders several times. The Tigers made a lot of hard contact on the pitches that were in the thrown in the zone; his line drive percentage was 24% last year, but this year its 35%. After reviewing his mechanics (below) I didn’t find anything dramatically different including his leg lift, posture and momentum. His velocity is the same; the only difference is location, which can be corrected. I’m waiting until he has a good start before I start him.

Game 1, 2012 ALDS

 
Sunday April 14, 2003