Fantasy Baseball: 6 Players Who Have Completely Erased Their Slow Starts
Jeff Samardzija, SP, San Francisco Giants
The Slow Start
It may seem a little unfair to say Jeff Samardzija got off to a bad start since he experience his fair share of tough luck, but it's hard to ignore the 6.32 ERA and 1.34 WHIP over his first 31.1 innings of work.
The right-hander did post a 25.9% strikeout rate with a 7.9% walk rate that we could've definitely gotten behind, but with a strand rate (LOB%) of 60.1% and a homers-allowed-per-nine-innings rate of 1.72, it was easy to see why there was such a huge difference between his ERA, FIP (4.56) and xFIP (3.52).
The Hot Streak
Samardzija's season-long ERA currently sits at 4.29 through 79.2 innings. His peripherals showed us he was performing better than some traditional statistics displayed, but he also made history in the process.
Jeff Samardzija: First P in the modern era w/50+ K & 1 or fewer BB over a span of 7 starts
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— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 6, 2017
That's pretty good, you guys. And that wasn't the only thing that's been good about Samardzija's performance since the end of April.
He's only posted a 2-3 record over his last 7 starts, but we can't fault him for how bad the San Francisco Giants have been. The right-hander has posted a sterling 2.98 ERA with an incredible 1.82 FIP while striking out 59 hitters and allowing just that 1 walk over 48.1 innings. Getting ahead in the count always helps, too -- his first-strike percentage during this time is 69.5%, which is quite different from the 55.6% mark he posted in April.
