Welcome to the SP Roundup, my daily fantasy baseball article reviewing every starting pitcher’s performance from every Thursday game. I apologize for the jokes written in my delirium in advance. Have questions? Ask me during my office hours on Playback.tv weekday mornings from 10 am-12 pm ET.
Brad Lord (WSN) vs PHI (ND) – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 7 Hits, 1 BBs, 3 Ks – 6 Whiffs, 22% CSW, 92 pitches.
If you’re like me, you had zero expectations for Brad Lord facing the Phillies on Thursday night and his 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 7 Hits, 1 BBs, 3 Ks – 6 Whiffs, 22% CSW, 92 pitches (ND) performance raised an eyebrow. Who is this guy?
He’s a 94/95 mph sinkerballer who scrunches his delivery a bit like Brady Singer with a changeup that matches at 8 MPH slower and a gyro slider. That doesn’t sound like a high upside arm. That’s because he isn’t. The games like these can happen when he jams RHB enough with the sinker for outs, while he’s able to locate enough changeups and backdoor sliders to LHB to get through the lineup.
What about the four-seamer? It has some interesting two-plane movement that Lord prefers to use upstairs to LHB and it’s…not great? It’s a bit of a surprise to LHB as he splits it with the sinker, but there’s nothing special here.
You should view Lord as a desperate QS option. Sinkerballers can be more efficient than their counterparts when Koufax is magnanimous. He’s destined to allow more hits than your typical starter, without strikeouts to help salvage the poor outings, and pick your spots wisely…or just not at all.
Let’s see how every other SP did Thursday:
Eduardo Rodriguez (ARI) @ COL (W) – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 6 Ks – 10 Whiffs, 33% CSW, 93 pitches.
Ayyyy, it worked even inside Coors! And with 91/92 mph four-seamers 61% of the time! Wait, what. Yeah, this was a weird one and let’s just be happy for those who went for it despite Coors n all. He’s a decent stream against the Guardians up next.
Max Scherzer (TOR) vs CHC (W) – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 3 Ks – 9 Whiffs, 23% CSW, 78 pitches.
Scherzer continues to be a light inside your rotation and now it’s @PIT, MIN, @CIN up next. Gotta love it.
Tomoyuki Sugano (BAL) vs SEA (W) – 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 Hits, 1 BBs, 2 Ks – 6 Whiffs, 22% CSW, 81 pitches.
Oh dang, he came through! This wasn’t the stellar command to LHB we’ve seen, but he came through against RHB and Koufax was a kind soul. Don’t push it in Fenway next time.
Bryce Elder (ATL) @ NYM (W) – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks – 12 Whiffs, 25% CSW, 87 pitches.
I guess you can trust your Elder once a full moon…? I’m shocked to tell you he leaned into high four-seamers against LHB and returned 5/26 whiffs on them (nearly 20% SwStr!). That’s a new trick. Is that enough to stream him against the White Sox or Miami in his next two? Ehhhhh, I wouldn’t.
Matthew Boyd (CHC) @ TOR (L) – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks – 7 Whiffs, 19% CSW, 78 pitches.
Here I am, worried about the Jays against LHP and north of the border, and Boyd doesn’t care. We’re now seeing nearly 90% four-seamers and changeups to RHB and why not? It’s not like it’s broken.
Kodai Senga (NYM) vs ATL (ND) – 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks – 15 Whiffs, 31% CSW, 93 pitches.
FINALLY. So we’re back?! I want to say yes, but it’s not quite there. The ghost fork returned four strikeouts, the four-seamer found 74% strikes and the cutter…oh. Well that was a 45% strike rate, but hey! Four outs in play! That’s good enough for now. At least the sinker arrived to help out a little + sweepers returned a trio of outs on nine thrown. There’s still some polish left, but it’s a step in the right direction, of course.
Tanner Bibee (CLE) vs MIA (W) – 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 4 BBs, 5 Ks – 6 Whiffs, 21% CSW, 102 pitches.
Look, we’ll take the Philly and a Dusty Donut, alright? Just six whiffs and 21% CSW should tell you how this is still a huge struggle for Bibee and there’s still a decent amount to fix. I can’t recommend chasing it quite yet.
Logan Evans (SEA) @ BAL (L) – 4.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 Hits, 4 BBs, 1 Ks – 6 Whiffs, 23% CSW, 70 pitches.
I know I’ve said it many times now, but how did the Mariners not acquire a fifth starter at the deadline? Nick, it’s a 4.50 ERA and just two ER! They lost this game. JUST SAYING. He still hasn’t found the ability to get the sinker inside to RHB, locking his best chance at efficient outings. No thanks.
Tarik Skubal (DET) @ MIN (ND) – 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks – 11 Whiffs, 29% CSW, 99 pitches.
Aces gonna allow 3+ ER in three straight starts after doing so in 6/21 starts prior. Blame both fastballs returning sub 60% strike rates, including the sinker’s 17% NC Rate. What’s that bout, Skubs? At least he’s still at 97+ mph with a filthy changeup.
Jesús Luzardo (PHI) @ WSN (L) – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 7 Ks – 17 Whiffs, 32% CSW, 97 pitches.
A Bailey Special with a Gallows Pole is totally fine with me from Luzardo, who once again elected to limit his changeup usage. The pitch wasn’t spotted well, but helped with 60% strikes without a hit allowed and I wonder if we see it more in future starts. He’s still the same Cherry Bomb.
Bailey Ober (MIN) vs DET (ND) – 5.1 IP, 3 ER, 4 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks – 14 Whiffs, 29% CSW, 89 pitches.
OH SNAP. I’ve been waiting for Oberizzi to return and here it is! His heater landed upstairs 15/17 times against LHB and 11/13 against RHB, leading to 7/30 whiffs and…a HR to Greene on a high-and-middle 90 mph 1-0 pitch. Womp womp. Still, this is a better version than we’ve seen and now it’s just about getting the velocity back to 92 mph instead of 90.3 mph. Whoa whoa whoa, that’s low. Yeaaaaaah. One step forward, one step back, right? He’s hosting the Athletics up next and I’m going to favor the improved feel to put him as a questionable starter – I haven’t seen him locate this well in a long time and I have to believe a tweak was made.
Edward Cabrera (MIA) @ CLE (L) – 5.1 IP, 5 ER, 7 Hits, 3 BBs, 6 Ks – 17 Whiffs, 38% CSW, 95 pitches.
He got bamboozled for three runs in the first and returned a Golden Goal while every pitch recorded a strike rate of 62% or higher. This isn’t a regression back to his old self, just a blegh day of bad timing and failing to execute at specific times. Keep rolling with ECab.
Bradley Blalock (COL) vs ARI (L) – 3.2 IP, 7 ER, 6 Hits, 4 BBs, 0 Ks – 2 Whiffs, 14% CSW, 79 pitches.
Blalock has limited upside, pitches his home games at Coors Field, and doesn’t deserve a spot on your team. This should be the blurb for every Colorado starter.
Game of the Day
Zack Wheeler vs. MacKenzie Gore – Wheeler’s shoulder has been bothering him a little lately and I hope his velocity is back. Gore just had a phenomenal start and I just want him to replicate it.
But Nick?! Where are the streaming picks? – I’ve moved them to the daily SP Matchups & Streamer Rankings article.
Have Questions? – Join my morning Playback.tv livestream! I answer all questions there for free: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm ET Monday through Friday.
Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter/X; @justinparadis.bsky.social on BlueSky)
