Fantasy Baseball: 5 Starting Pitcher Sleepers to Target in 2017
RHP Chad Kuhl, Pittsburgh Pirates
ESPN End of Season Ownership: 10%
Chances are fantasy owners didn’t hear much noise about Chad Kuhl. The disappointing season of Gerrit Cole and the rejuvenation of Ivan Nova dominated the headlines, as have the arrivals of Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon.
But the little-known Kuhl did a tremendous job down the stretch for the Pittsburgh Pirates and merits more attention than last season's ownership figures dictated. Kuhl’s overall numbers won’t pull anyone’s immediate focus -- 4.20 ERA (3.95 FIP), 6.8 K/9 and a WHIP of 1.32 -- but he pitched tremendously in the second half to assert himself as a key cog in what ought to be a very good Pirates rotation in 2017.
In 57.1 second-half innings, Kuhl posted a 3.77 ERA (3.70 FIP) and held opposing batters to a slash line of just .250/.311/.399 (.308 wOBA). He also posted solid peripheral figures across the board, fanning 7.1 batters per nine, walking just 2.4 per nine and allowing just 0.8 home runs per nine, along with an impressive ground-ball rate (47.7 percent).
It’ll be important for the 24-year-old righty to neutralize lefties better moving forward (.363 wOBA), but he absolutely dominated righties to the tune of a .240/.296/.380 line (.295 wOBA). Kuhl’s top two pitches in terms of frequency were his sinker and his slider; both induced healthy ground-ball rates, while the slider was by far his best swing-and-miss pitch (18.2 percent).
He looks like more than a garden-variety sinker-slider guy, and could be a nice fit to round out fantasy rotations. It sure doesn’t hurt that he’ll be working with vaunted pitching coach Ray Searage. There’s a lot to like here, including his fairly solid velocity (92.7 mph average sinker).
