MLB

Fantasy Baseball: 4 Under-the-Radar Starting Pitchers to Target in 2017

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle Jan 4th, 2017
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Robbie Ray, Arizona Diamondbacks

Consensus SP Rank: 62

Arizona Diamondbacks starter Robbie Ray was one of only 10 pitchers in 2016 to record 200 strikeouts or more, racking up 218 on his way to a strikeout rate of 28.1%, good for fifth-best in the league.

So why is he only the 62nd starting pitcher off the board? Walks have been Ray's bugaboo, and he walked 9.2% of batters faced last season. Combine that with a healthy fly-ball rate (32.6%) and a home park that was second in home runs in 2016, and you start to understand why Ray's 8-15 record and 4.90 ERA can go overlooked.

But there are a lot of positives with Ray. Obviously, the strikeout rate is among the league's elite, and Ray's ground-ball rate has continued to rise, peaking at 45.7% in 2016. If Ray can normalize that home-run rate and cut down on the walks, which are actually lower than his minor league numbers, he could rise quickly in 2017.

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