Wei-Yin Chen (SP, MIA) - Week 23 Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: After an ugly 16 starts through the months of May, June, and July in which he produced a 6.26 ERA and 1.52 WHIP in 77.2 IP, Wei-Yin Chen has caught absolute fire for the fish with a 1.44 ERA and 0.798 WHIP over his last five starts Though his last few seasons have been hampered by health issues and subsequent inconsistency, does his success during August and the start of September mean Chen is poised for a strong finish?

In August, Chen produced impressive season-best figures of 8.87 K/9 and 2.31 BB/9. While he allowed a high pull rate (43.8%) and a low soft contact rate (12.5%) to opposing batters in August, he also allowed just 29.7% hard contact on batted balls that were hit for a high-frequency of fly balls (47.6%) and grounders (41.3%). By producing less hard contact and fewer line drives, Chen was able to produce a BABIP of just .210 through August while also minimizing the offensive damage done by producing the solid strikeout and walk rates that he did for the month. Even though he severely struggled to start the year, Wei-Yin Chen recovered with a marvelous month of August and had an excellent start to kick off September, and with his improved action on batted balls and strikeout percentage, he is an interesting option out of the Marlins rotation (as little run support as he may receive) for fantasy baseball managers getting creative over the last weeks of the regular season.