Week 16 Pitcher:
Dallas Keuchel (Owned in 94% of ESPN Fantasy leagues)
After a rough start to his 2016, the 2015 AL Cy Young award winner has gone under the radar a bit in these last couple of weeks for fantasy owners.
In his last 32.1 innings pitched, Keuchel has a 3-0 record while only given up ten earned runs on 30 hits and eight walks. With his 1.18 WHIP, Keuchel also has struck out 23 batters.
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Keuchel looks to continue that success Tuesday against the last-place Oakland A’s. In his last start before the All-Star break, Keuchel had success against this A’s team, throwing seven innings of one-run ball, giving up four hits, walking two and striking out five in the Astros’ 2-1 win.
A couple of hitters on this A’s team has Keuchel’s number, though. Coco Crisp, Marcus Semien and Jake Smolinski each have a batting average over .295 against him, limit ten at-bats. However, the one guy to watch out for is a former Astro. Jed Lowrie, the A’s shortstop, is hitting .346 and has driven in three in 26 at bats against Keuchel.
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With a ground ball percentage creeping up to 57.4% after his last start, Keuchel seems to be coming back to his ace-like self. And with fantasy owners who drafted Keuchel as high as the first five rounds of their draft that should be music to their ears. Look for him to have a solid start Tuesday.
***Stats provided by MLB.com and FanGraphs***