Weekly Planner

Week 25

by Paul Sporer

Some teams are running six-man rotations and every team seemingly has their rotation in flux, but we’ll try to iron out the two-start pitchers for next week as we inch closer and closer to wrapping up yet another 162.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Auto-Starts: Max Scherzer and Doug Fister

It’s a full week for the Tigers, giving two of their best pitchers two opportunities each. Fister was originally slated for two this past week, but that was scrapped; now he has the Monday-Saturday pairing while Scherzer has Tuesday-Sunday. Both are pitching out of their minds right now.

Start
Ryan Dempster (@ LAA; @ SEA) – Remember when Dempster was pummeled in his first outing? And then again in his third? The trade was deemed a failure by some right then and there, which, of course, is ludicrous. Since the second of the eight-run outings on August 13 in New York, Dempster has posted a 1.91 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 9.8 K/9, and 3.6 K/BB in 33 innings of work spanning five starts. Side-note irrelevant to fantasy: the Rangers staff is really coming together as Yu Darvish and Derek Holland are also throwing their best baseball right now.

Alex Cobb (vs. BOS; vs. TOR) – Even with an outing that saw him yield eight earned in 2 2/3 innings, Cobb still has a strong 3.31 ERA since August 1 (a span of 49 innings). It helps that four of those eight outings saw him give up one or fewer, including an August 23 shutout against Oakland. The best part of Cobb’s surge is the improved peripherals. His season strikeout rate is 6.8 with a 2.8 K/BB, both of which are solid, but during the run he has a 7.5 K/9 with an excellent 4.6 K/BB.

Jeremy Hellickson (vs. BOS; vs. TOR) – Hellickson has maintained a strong ERA all year (never worse than 3.55), but his peripherals weren’t too sharp through June with just a 1.7 K/BB in 81 innings. From July 1 on, he has a 2.99 ERA in 75 1/3 innings but with a much more palatable 2.3 K/BB.

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