Fantasy Baseball: 5 Low-Cost Starters Who Are Innings-Pitched Assets in Rotisserie Formats

Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros

There's no getting around it -- Dallas Keuchel's Cy Young followup was disaster.

Compromised by a shoulder injury that limited him to a three-year low in innings output, the lefty ace was not only extremely hittable -- with major spikes in both hard-contact rate and on-base plus slugging (OPS) against -- but also very unlucky, as Keuchel's expected fielding independent pitching (xFIP) trailed his unsightly 4.55 ERA by more than a run.

There's an argument to be made that 2016 represented a case of extreme regression, with the big lefty's nibble-in-the-zone tendencies succumbing in a big way to the vagaries of batted-ball variance. Even so, the cratering of Keuchel's normally high ground-ball rate last year does suggest that, luck aside, the Houston ace was working through his health issues with a dented arsenal.

Of course, we won't know if a healthier Keuchel is poised for a bounce back until we see him toe the rubber in a game that counts. But what does seem safe to project is a strong rotation-leading workload -- our projections have the lefty down for 191 innings in 2017.

Even if Keuchel struggles to regain the pure ace form from his salad days of 2014 and 2015, he seems like a good bet to hold down an ERA closer to last season's 3.53 xFIP. Such high-volume ratio help should make Keuchel a strong mid-rotation piece in roto leagues, especially if you can snag him where he sits in the current FantasyPros average draft position (ADP) aggregate, just outside of the overall top 130.