2018 Midseason MLB Analysis - Starting Pitcher Risers and Fallers in K% As we reach the non-official midpoint of the MLB season, now seems like as good a time as any to take a look at some pitchers who've seen the most dramatic upticks or downslides in their strikeout percentages. We'll take a look at what could be causing the changes and whether their first half numbers could continue for the rest of the season. Also be sure to check out our MVP, Cy Young and Biggest Surprise picks for the first half. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered.   Biggest Risers Gerrit Cole - HOU 2018: 35.2 K% 2017: 23.1 K%  Diff: 12.1% The Astros made a splash in the offseason trading a haul of prospects (with Musgrove at the core) for Cole. The latter was coming off a solid season that saw him post just under a strikeout an inning with an xFIP right at 3.81. He was a solid major league starter with pedigree, but those numbers wouldn’t blow anyone away. This season? His numbers are blowing people away. He’s made such a tremendous leap with the strikeout stuff, completely outpacing his previous best K% season (24.3% back in 2015). It helps moving to one of (if not) the best analytics teams in all of baseball. The Astros and Cole have reconfigured his approach, essentially ditching the sinker and changeup (he threw them 18% and 11% of the time respectively last season) in favor of a slider and curveball combo to compliment the fastball. It’s not that he didn’t throw those pitches last season, it’s just that he’s throwing them more now. It’s working. He’s posting the second-highest K% in the majors behind Chris Sale (37.2%) and because of the new approach, I see the number sticking in this range. It’s always tough, from a projection standpoint to assume a single season’s gains are sustainable after a big sample size that would suggest otherwise, but I think it’s the case with Cole. According to FanGraphs linear pitch values, the slider and curveball have been devastating to opposing hitters and have only served to strengthen the fastball. It’s all working and it sure seems like Cole will stick with the elite tier of strikeout guys in the majors. Patrick Corbin - ARI 2018: 30.4 K% 2017: 21.6 K% Diff: 8.8% Speaking of players using a...

DFSR Midseason MLB Awards - Biggest Bust Welcome to the Major League All-Star Break, where your only baseball fix over the next few days will be a rather meaningless exhibition game and a batting practice contest. So we thought we'd take the time to weigh in on our mid-season awards (both superlative and not so much). Here we bring you the Biggest "Bust" of the season. Bust can mean a lot of things (in baseball terms and otherwise). Some guys went bust based on preseason expectations. Others just went dudes who, flat out, suck. Also be sure to check out our MVP, Cy Young and Biggest Surprise picks for the first half. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. James Davis - DFSR CoFounder and CEO, drops knowledge on the DFSR MLB Podcast Anthony Rizzo - CHC .246 / .341 / .407 -  0.7 WAR 12 HR / 38 Runs / 61 RBI This guy has almost been the inverse of Jose Ramirez this season. He's gone from a guy who tops a .900 OPS consistently to one who is trying to keep his head over .700. In an age 28 season that should still be well in the middle of his prime, he's posting career lows in AVG and SLG while being .010 points off his career low OBP. So what's going on here? Well, BABIP certainly tells some of the tale. Rizzo has never been great at turning balls in play into base hits, but this year's .236 BABIP is low even for him. He's walking less than he did any season besides his rookie year, and while he's striking out less as well, this less patient approach overall has seriously hurt him. His .157 ISO is a career low too. Throw in his typically bad defense and you have a guy who currently sits at .4 WAR, meaning he's basically been as good as players you can pull off the scrap heap, or out of the minors. Thankfully the Cubs are good enough that they are still 1 game back in the central, but will Rizzo turn it around in time to be the impact player we've come to expect? Only time will tell. Doug Norrie - DFSR CoFounder, Editor-in-Chief, and Statistical Director Chris Davis - BAL .158 / .232 / .274 (-2.4 WAR) 9 HR / 17 Runs / 28 RBIs It's a real testament to...

DFSR Midseason MLB Awards - Biggest Surprise Welcome to the Major League All-Star Break, where your only baseball fix over the next few days will be a rather meaningless exhibition game and a batting practice contest. So we thought we'd take the time to weigh in on our mid-season awards (both superlative and not so much). Today we bring you the Biggest "Surprise" of the season. The word surprise has a wide range of interpretation. Some guys went surprise based on preseason expectations. Others went more toward guys who seem to be making a next-level leap. Also be sure to check out our MVP and Cy Young picks for the first half. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. James Davis - DFSR CoFounder and CEO, drops knowledge on the DFSR MLB Podcast Jose Ramirez - CLE .302 / .401 / .628 -  6.5 WAR 29 HR / 70 RBI / 20 SB Okay, so this award sort of cheats and grabs the second half of last year as well, but who could have seen THIS version of Jose Ramirez coming? The Indians' slugger has always been a prospect based on his excellent approach - even in his tough 2015 campaign he managed to walk in 9% of his plate appearances against striking out in just 11% of them as a 21-year-old. In 2016 it was assumed that he'd taken on his final form, adding a little bit of power and finishing with a similar excellent K:BB ratio while also adding a .150 ISO and 11 home runs through 618 plate appearances. He "broke out" last season, reaching 29 home runs and finishing with a .957 OPS. Surely, that had to be a season in the top percentile of what a player of his makeup could reach, right? Nah. This year Ramirez has cleared the 1k OPS mark while hitting 1 fewer home run than he did all of last year, almost touching Betts with a .322 ISO, and playing solid defense to boot. It's incredible to see Ramirez's production take on such parabolic growth. The real question now, is, can he get even better somehow? He's still just 25. Even if he maintains his current level of production, though, the Indians have a potential Hall of Famer on their hands.   Doug Norrie - DFSR CoFounder, Editor-in-Chief, and Statistical Director Jesus Aguilar - MIL .298 / .373 /...

DFSR's Daily Fantasy MLB Podcast for FanDuel & DraftKings Friday 7/13/18 DFSR's Doug Norrie and James Davis take to the Friday podcast to discuss a full slate of evening MLB action on FanDuel and DraftKings. They start off with pitchers which looks very much like the opposite of Thursday evening. There we had a who's who of ace-level arms. On Friday, the decisions are a little closer with a bunch of guys like Madison Bumgarner, Carlos Martinez, Dallas Keuchel and more coming on the cheaper side because they've been less than stellar this season. The guys try to wade through the cash and GPP considerations there. Plus we have a game in Coors with an opening 12 over/under that's slightly in the Rockies' favor. It looks like Colorado will be the clear cash game stack. But the guys also look at the James Shields-Brad Keller matchup in Chicago and the Cardinals against Matt Harvey. Be sure to subscribe...

Daily Fantasy MLB Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 7/13/18 It's Friday the 13th which is about the best explanation I can come up with for why pitching is so bad today. But there are a few arms we can take a look at, plus a game in Coors to jack up the ole expected run line. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Pitcher Madison Bumgarner FD 9400 DK 11400 Opponent - OAK (Edwin Jackson) Park - SF FD - 39.07 DK - 20.84 In his first three games back off the DL, Bumgarner struggled to find his strikeout stuff, K-ing only nine total in his first 17.3 innings. But the last four games have seen him return to previous form, striking out about a batter an inning and going six or more innings in three of his last four starts. From a pedigree standpoint, there are few other pitchers on Bumgarner’s level going on Friday (blame yesterday that sucked up all of the good pitching). He’ll face an Oakland team below average against lefties who strike out 23% of the time in that split. He’s a solid -165 opening line favorite with Oakland coming in at only 3.3 implied runs. They do have some solid righty bats at the top of the order, but by and large this is a mediocre bunch and AT&T Park really helps to surpress power, ranking dead last in home runs in 2017. This is close to an ideal situation for Bumgarner, even moving the A’s into the NL where he’ll get the pitcher slot in the lineup. He’s a bit expensive on DraftKings and I’m not sure the strikeout upside makes for enough to pay a mid-$11K salary. But it’s close. Carlos Martinez FD 8800 DK 8100 Opponent - CIN (Matt Harvey) Park - STL FD - 34.82 DK - 18.07 Martinez’s season numbers look a bit grizzly with the 4.59 xFIP running more than a run and half behind the 3.05 ERA. The biggest *issue* for C-Mart, over the course of the season, has been the spike in walk rate that went from 8% last season to 11% this season. That being said, there’s a clustering effect to the control issues with half of his walks (24) coming in only four starts (15 games total). It means when he’s been off to start, he’s been really off. The...