Welcome back to the Cut List. Each weekend from now until the end of the season, I’ll be offering my thoughts on players who don’t deserve to keep drawing a nonexistent salary on your fake baseball teams.
In addition to the players on the Cut List, we'll also spotlight a player on the Hot Seat: Someone who may not be a cut yet, but whose situation is worth monitoring. Without further ado, here are your Week 10 cut candidates.
Let's get to it.
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The Cut List: Week 10
Rougned Odor, 2B, Texas Rangers
Guys who can post a .271-89-33-88-14 line at age 22 are hard to find, but Odor’s followed his breakout year with a big wet fart of a season. His average has hovered around the Mendoza line all year, and while he was at least contributing some category juice early, that’s dried up as well. Odor hasn’t hit a home run since May 5, and he’s continued to be an inefficient base stealer with just five thefts in nine attempts.
Stephen Piscotty, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
Piscotty’s plate discipline has improved this season, but it hasn’t led to much in the way of production. After hitting 22 homers last year, he’s gone deep only twice and has just eight extra-base hits in 2017. He’s hitting just .245/.377/.358 on the year and has also struggled on the bases, converting just two of his seven stolen base attempts.
John Lackey, SP, Chicago Cubs
Perhaps more than any other pitcher, Lackey benefited from the Cubs’ stellar defense in 2016. With their performance coming back to earth this year, Lackey has struggled even though he’s striking out batters at a career-best rate. Part of that has nothing to do with the guys behind him – it’s almost impossible to be successful when you’re allowing home runs at the rate Lackey has been – but it certainly hasn’t helped. Even after seven shutout innings in his last turn, Lackey carries a 4.90 ERA and 1.38 WHIP in his age-38 season.
The Hot Seat: Week 10
Rick Porcello, SP, Boston Red Sox
The reigning AL Cy Young has looked more like he did in his Boston debut two years ago, allowing a ton of home runs and hard contact. While Porcello maintains an elite walk rate and is striking out hitters more often than ever before, he’s also allowed eight or more hits in seven of his 12 starts, including each of the last five.
Last Week
Addison Russell managed just two hits since last week’s column and failed to score or drive in a run. On the bright side, he did also draw three walks.
Odubel Herrera has mostly been riding the pine lately as the Phillies try to give him time to pull out of this slump. He managed to hit two doubles and drive in three runs yesterday, so perhaps the benching did some good.
Jerad Eickhoff continues to struggle. He allowed a whopping 11 baserunners in his last start and recorded only eight outs.
Danny Salazar was indeed demoted to the bullpen. He’s allowed a run and four hits in his two relief appearances, though he’s also struck out four and walked none. We’ll see how things go whenever he returns to the rotation.
More Week 10 Lineup Prep