Fantasy Baseball: Which Atlanta Braves Pitchers Can You Trust?

Mike Foltynewicz

Mike Foltynewicz is a hard-throwing 26-year-old right-hander who has bounced back nicely following a 2017 season in which he had a 4.79 ERA, 4.33 FIP, and 4.60 xFIP. His ERA of 2.53 is a big drop, and his peripherals bear out some improvement, with a FIP of 3.88 and an xFIP of 3.73.

Unlike Teheran, Foltynewicz' fastball averages in the mid-90s, and his BABIP allowed of .270, while lower than the league average (.292), is not insanely low. Like Teheran, Foltynewicz issues too many free passes (4.22 BB/9), but he's also seen his strikeout numbers jump from 8.36 K/9 last season to 10.97 this year, which is 5th in the NL (11th in MLB).

There's reason to believe Foltynewicz may be discovering something here in 2018, but a decrease from last year in first-pitch strike percentage (62.3% to 56.7%), a reduction in swings outside the strike zone (27.9% to 22.1%) and swinging-strike percentage (9.4% to 8.6%) means a regression could be coming. So while fantasy owners shouldn't go out of their way to trade for him, those who own him should keep him in the rotation for now and see how things progress.