RADIO
BALLER MOVE: Add in Early Teen Rounds
ANALYSIS: Drew Smyly's size, pitch velocity and strikeout totals get fantasy GMs excited, but his platoon split issues have made Smyly a part-time fantasy baseball contributor. Smyly is absolutely deadly against left-handed hitters, with a .238 wOBA against lefties for his career. Lefties hit just .136 against his curve and posted an 16.3% swinging strike percentage. Against righties, his career wOBA sits at .327. Righties have posted a .197 BA against his curve with a 14.8% swinging strike percentage, and a .298 BAA and .450 SLG% against his four-seam fastball. He never threw his change-up against lefties in 2014, but he threw it 96 times to righties, allowing a .400 BAA with an .800 SLG%.
As a Ray, Smyly threw 45% of his fastballs more than three feet off the ground. As a Tiger, only about 25% of his fastballs were three feet up. Smyly made just seven starts for the Rays before being shut down, but six of those went for quality starts, including a complete game shutout. Smyly is likely still viewed by most as a platoon split guy and will likely come at a discount during draft season. Smart fantasy GMs should add Smyly in the early ‘teen rounds of their drafts.
