Here is a link to a second half review for hitters.

Here is a link to a second half review for starting pitchers.

1 – First/Second half splits are arbitrary.

2 – Don’t read too much into second half success or struggles unless there are reasons beyond the raw numbers to look at. (A) Was the player hurt? (B) Did the player wear down? (C) Were the player’s weaknesses exposed? (D) Were we looking at nothing more than a regression to the mean?

Take all of that into account folks, I implore you, before you just blindly accept second half performances as the “new norm.”

0: The number of homers allowed in 29.1 innings in the second half by Zach Britton. Aroldis Chapman also didn’t allow a homer in the second half. Blake Wood was the worst at eight allowed.

0.66: The league best WHIP mark of Andrew Miller (minimum 20 innings). Kenley Jansen was second at 0.70 followed by Dan Otero at 0.71. Every heard of Kyle Ryan? He was fourth at 0.72.

2.00: The WHIP of Jeanmar Gomez in the second half. So much for him having any fantasy value in 2017.

4: The number of arms who posted an insane 4:1 GB/FB ratio. Here is the list: Zach Britton 7.38, Sam Dyson 5.55, Dan Otero 5.23 and Mark Melancon 4.07. Amazingly, Britton allowed an 8.2 line drive rate. That’s insanely low. Bonkers stupid actually. Triple that mark and you end up at 24.6 percent. There were 34 relievers, who threw at least 20-innings in the second half, who posted a mark of 24.6 percent or higher.

5: The league leading blown saves total in the second half for the following list of arms – Tyler Thornburg, Nate Jones, Jeurys Familia, Adam Ottavino, David Robertson and Santiago Casilla. Couple of guys listed there didn’t reach 10 saves in the second half. Ottavino had seven saves while Nate Jones had none. Jones did pitch well though as he still had 38 strikeouts with a 2.08 ERA over 30.1 innings. A bit unfair to list Jones here, but it’s just the deal.

7.71: The league worst BB/9 rate in the second half for David Phelps. Note that Phelps also struck out 14.33 batters per nine, the 6th best mark in baseball. Pretty much knew how an at-bat was going to end against Phelps in the second half didn’t we? More than 48 percent of all the plate appearances ended in a walk or strikeout.

14: The second best saves total in the second half for a guy who didn’t blow a save (more on the leader below). Craig Kimbrel was that man. Cody Allen was very close as well with 14 saves in 15 chances.   

16.33: The bullpen leading K/9 rate of Ken Giles. Kenley Jansen was second at 14.90 with Dellin Betances third at 14.90. There were 27 men with a K/9 rate of at least 12 batters per nine in the second half who threw a minimum of 10-innings. If we bump that mark up to 20 second half innings there were still 19 men who struck out more than 12 batters per nine.

18.00: The league leading K/BB ratio of Andrew Miller in the second half (minimum 20-innings). Two other men were in double-digits with Dan Otero at 11.50 and Kenley Jansen at 10.60. Those two men accomplished that success in totally different ways as Otero posted a 0.51 BB/9 rate with less than six strikeouts per nine while Jansen walked three times as many batters at 1.50 per nine but also struck out an amazing 15.90 batters.

20: The league leading saves total in the second half of the season. That mark was hit, dead on the nose, by six arms – Zach Britton, Mark Melancon, Sam Dyson, Jeurys Familia, Kenley Jansen and Francisco Rodriguez. Aroldis Chapman just missed with 19 saves. Some other interesting facts. Britton was the only arm mentioned who didn’t blow a save as he went 20-for-20. Other end of this Familia blew five chances. We all know how he struggled in the playoffs as well. Interesting, Melancon, Dyson, Jansen and K-Rod all blew three saves.

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21: The second half leading holds mark of Addison Reed. The righty of the Mets appeared in 37 games with 39 strikeouts and just four walks over 36 innings as he sported a 1.75 ERA. He pitched excellently. Jason Grilli was second with 17 holds. He had an uneven half with six homers allowed and a 4.13 ERA. There top-5 round out: Will Smith 16, Carlos Torres 15 and Brad Hand 15.

44.2: The league leading total of innings out of the bullpen for Chris Devenski. The Astros’ hurler had three wins, five holds, 52 punchouts and six walks over 24 games. That’s some elite work. Juan Nicasio wasn’t quite as good but he had a 3.05 ERA and 63 punchouts over 44.1 frames.

80.7: The best first pitch strike rate of Joe Smith. He came in throwing strikes to batter after batter. The next best mark was 73.6 percent for Joseph Biagini.

95.1: The league leading fastball total of Kenley Jansen in the second half. Zach Britton was second at 93.5 percent with Tony Cingrani was third at 91.6 percent. One of those men doesn’t belong here. Mark Melancon threw a fastball just 10.8 percent of the time. He threw his cutter 62.4 percent.

100: The left on base percentage in the second half by Shawn Kelly and Joe Smith. How remarkable is that? Kelley posted a 2.49 ERA, Smith 1.64. Those two men literally doubled the league worst mark of Carlos Villanueva who checked in at an atrocious 49.6 percent.

101.0: The average fastball velocity of Aroldis Chapman, the best in the game. How many of you were aware that Mauricio Cabrera averaged 100.0 on his fastball? I’m guessing very few.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).