Fantasy Baseball: 4 Undervalued Pitchers Who Own Superb Swinging-Strike Rates
Dinelson Lamet, RHP, San Diego Padres
Swinging-strike rate: 12.9 percent
Dinelson Lamet is easy to find on the swinging-strike rate leaderboard. Among 171 starters who have thrown at least 50 innings this season, he’s got a swinging-strike rate of 12.9 percent. That’s tied for 12th overall with Zack Greinke and just behind Robbie Ray and Carlos Carrasco. Or perhaps, more notably, it’s ahead of Stephen Strasburg, James Paxton, Alex Wood and Lance McCullers. Those are some legitimate pitchers, and Lamet may not be in that mix yet, but he could be in due time.
It’s easy to see why Lamet’s stock hasn’t taken off, as his ERA was in the 5.00 range until just recently, and it’s still at 4.84. However, that’s backed by a reasonable 4.12 FIP, and he’s striking out 11.3 batters per nine (K/9) while walking just a touch under 4.0 per nine. He’s been a bit homer prone and is skating by on a .258 BABIP, but he’s also got a strand rate of just 63 percent -- a mark that is bound to improve.
The primary bugaboo with Lamet right now is his home/road splits. He’s wonderful at home (3.98 ERA, 0.96 WHIP) and much worse on the road (5.72, 1.42). However, he’s been really, really good in the second half through seven starts: 3.69 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 10.4 K/9. With double-digit swinging-strike rates on all three of his non-four-seam fastball pitches -- including a 21-percent clip on his slider -- Lamet looks like a guy who could be a fast riser on draft boards next season.
