Start: May 10th vs. San Francisco Giants
ESPN percentage owned: 7.1%
Promising but frustrating fireballer Vince Velasquez has been off standard-league radars after his washout in 2017, wherein the Philadelphia Phillies' hurler labored through 72 injury-marred frames for a 5.13 ERA and disheartening 5.52 FIP.
Velasquez's 5.14 ERA on the current season appears to offer more of the same. That said, his improved 8.4% walk rate and stingy 22.5% hard-contact rate allowed might hint at something of a resurgence beyond his surface struggles, especially considering the whiff-rate gains on his changeup, which align more with his promising work in 2016 than with his lost season in 2017.
The 25-year-old gets a soft assignment this week against the San Francisco Giants. The Giants are below-average producers against both the changeup and the slider, two of Velasquez's primary weapons, and San Fran is a streamer-friendly offense in general. Even away from AT&T Park, they've managed just a .137 team ISO on the young season.