5 Underrated Starting Pitchers in Fantasy Baseball This Season

Jose Urena, Miami Marlins

ESPN Ownership: 20.5%

Pitcher development is by no means linear, and sometimes it takes a while for someone with all the right stuff to see it come together. It feels like Jose Urena is one of these guys.

The 25-year-old righty has been throwing smoke in the big leagues for parts of three seasons with little to show for it, except an ERA approaching 5.00, no strikeouts to speak of and a ground-ball rate that's just about league average. He's looked better this year, though.

Through 108.1 innings, he owns a 3.82 ERA despite a decreasing ground-ball rate (on pace to be a career-low 40.4%). He does have a BABIP allowed of just .242, and his 4.96 FIP tells us his performance may not be as great as it has been.

With that said, the talent has never been in question. Urena is averaging a career-best 95.6 mph on his fastballs -- split almost evenly between two- and four-seamers -- and he’s hit 90 mph with a slider that has a respectable whiff rate of 13.1% via PITCHf/x. In fact, all four of his offerings other than the four-seam fastball have double-digit whiff rates.

This feels like a breakout waiting to happen.