Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers Who Must Build Off a Strong Second Half

Trevor Bauer, SP, Cleveland Indians

A lot of attention in the Cleveland Indians/ starting rotation went to guys like Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco this year, but the team wouldn't have gone on their ridiculous second-half run if it wasn't for Trevor Bauer.

The talent has always been there for the right-hander, but the results -- and more importantly, the consistency -- haven't been.

It was more of the same in the first half this past year, as he struggled to a 5.24 ERA in 92.2 innings of work. There was reason for optimism, though, evidenced by a 3.90 SIERA and 25.8% strikeout rate. And thankfully for the Indians, that's exactly what happened.

His SIERA only slightly improved to 3.69, but his ERA finally followed suit, as that number dropped all the way down to 3.01 in 83.2 innings. His strikeout rate also saw a slight uptick (26.7%), but his walk rate dropped by a full percentage point (7.5%) while his homers allowed per nine innings went from 1.36 in the first half to 1.18 in the second half.

Opposing hitters also chased more pitches out of the strike zone (23.2% in first half, 27.3% in second half). That helped engineer a rise in Bauer's swinging-strike rate (8.4% to 10.0%), and although his fly-ball rate allowed stayed around 32.0%, it was the drastic improvement in his hard-hit rate allowed that was a big reason behind such a solid performance following the All-Star break (37.6% to 30.8%).