Chris Bassitt has to be the best pitcher hardly anyone talks about, so let’s talk about him. Bassitt threw seven bagels at the Rangers on Wednesday (3 H, 1 BB, 7 K), scoring his ninth win and taking his ERA down to 3.04. His WHIP is a tidy 1.03. If you rank all starting pitchers in banked 5×5 value, Bassitt comes in 14th.
Bassitt’s stuff doesn’t blow anyone away. His average fastball is a modest 93.2 mph. But he’s pushed his strikeout clip over one per inning, he still has elite control (2.28 BB/9), and he’s been pretty good at keeping the ball in the park. (If you subscribe to xFIP — and I don’t — he’s been too lucky with the homers. The xFIP stat says Bassitt should have a 3.89 ERA. Bassitt’s Savant-suggested ERA is more in line with my thinking; that’s 3.20.)
As you’d expect, Bassitt’s best foot comes at home, in roomy Oakland — 2.55 ERA, 0.93 WHIP. The ERA jumps almost a run on the road. The division probably turns into a wash; the Astros and Angels score plenty of runs, the Mariners and Rangers don’t. I suspect many fantasy managers drafted Bassitt as a support arm, but he’s a fantasy No. 3 at worst going forward.
Jared Walsh has a jagged platoon split, as so many lefties do. But tell that to a Aroldis Chapman meatball. Walsh clobbered a grand slam off Chapman, Walsh’s second homer of the night, as the Angels surged past the Yankees in the ninth inning.
Walsh is up to 20 homers on the year, with a .282/345/.568 slash. No one in the OC misses Albert Pujols. But back to the split we mentioned — Walsh is a .335/.409/.665 monster against righties, but a .172/.198/.366 hitter against lefties. If you have the luxury of sitting Walsh against lefty starters, it’s prudent to do so.
It became a footnote to this game, but Shohei Ohtani was roughed up in his brief start (two outs recorded, seven runs). His ERA jumped to 3.60 on the year. For as much fun as the story is — and Ohtani sure seems like the AL’s MVP to this point — I still think his maximum value to the Angels could come as a dedicated position player. Alas, I don’t think anyone’s close to that point.
Anyone have a good Anthony Rendon theory? Obviously he’s been hurt a big chunk of the year, but after another collar, he’s down to .233/.322/.364.