Fantasy Baseball: 7 Mid-Round Starting Pitching Targets for 2018
Danny Salazar, Cleveland Indians
ADP: 171.31
Danny Salazar's talent has never been in question. In 587 career innings, the right-hander has a 3.82 ERA, a 3.56 FIP and a 27.8% strikeout rate. His problem is staying healthy.
He made 23 appearances last year (19 starts) and has only managed to pitch more than 130 innings once in his career (185 in 2015). In 2017, he put in 103 innings and missed time due to shoulder soreness but was relatively effective when healthy, albeit with a higher ERA (4.28) than we're used to seeing. His 3.48 FIP and .343 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) indicates he was a bit unlucky. However, his ground-ball rate plummeted from 47.8% in 2016 to 39.2% last year.
Still, Salazar strikes guys out (12.67 K/9, 33.0% last season), and he plays for one of the best teams in the American League, the Cleveland Indians. He should pile up some more wins this season while providing elite strikeout numbers whenever he's on the hill.
