7 years agoLos Angeles Angels starting pitcher Matt Shoemaker had forearm surgery that cut his 2017 season short and was 6-2 with a 4.52 ERA and 1.30 WHIP in 77 2/3 innings. This came after a 2016 season that ended with him hit in the head by a line drive off of the bat of Kyle Seager. Shoemaker broke onto the scene in 2014 with a 16-4 record and 3.04 ERA, but has regressed in over the last three seasons, never throwing more than 160 innings. He was a bit above average in 2016 (posting a 3.88 ERA), but dipped below average last season and was a bit lucky with his ERA, as his FIP was 5.13. He did have a very strong 4.77 K:BB ratio in 2016, but that immediately dipped to 2.46 in 2017, with his BB% jumping from 4.5% to 8.6%. It could be that Shoemaker had control issues because of the forearm injury, as his career BB% is 5.6%, so look for him to see a better WHIP if his walk rate normalizes. A bigger issue is that his soft hit ball rate dropped to 14.7% in 2017 while his hard hit ball rate rose to 36.2%. The jump in hard hit balls also led to a rise in fly balls, contact rate, and a HR/FB rate at a career-worst 14.6%. It may be a bit dismissive to say that all of these issues were because of the forearm injury, but it may be worth giving Shoemaker another shot. He could be worth a late round flier in deeper leagues, particularly considering that the Angels are improved going into 2018 and he could see a bump in wins.--Chris Zolli