5 Starting Pitchers Who Need to Avoid Another Slow Start

Michael Pineda, New York Yankees

When talking about Michael Pineda, the one thing that jumps out the most is his ability to rack up strikeouts. After all, his 10.61 strikeouts per nine innings (K/9) from 2016 ranked sixth among qualified starters. Unfortunately, the other thing that jumps out about the right-hander has been his frustrating inconsistency.

Last season got off to probably the worst possible start. He posted a 6.33 ERA through 27 innings along with a .406 wOBA allowed. His 5.29 FIP was over a full run lower than his traditional ERA, but that doesn't take away from his issue of keeping the ball in the yard.

Pineda surrendered a 34.1% hard-hit rate and 38.1% fly-ball rate last April, which led to a homer-run-to-fly-ball ratio of 21.9% -- the fifth-highest among this group of 31 starters. This is something he'll need to figure out quick since he calls the homer-friendly Yankee Stadium home.

Outside of all those strikeouts, the right-hander's numbers didn't look great (6-12 record, 4.82 ERA, 1.35 WHIP), but he produced a 3.79 FIP and threw a career-high 175.2 innings. There's definitely some upside to him since he was the league's unluckiest qualified starter last year, but a solid April could do him a lot of good en route to potentially putting it all together.