Michael Fulmer, Detroit Tigers
Two years of 3.0-plus fWAR production wasn’t enough for Michael Fulmer to win his recent arbitration hearing following a rough 2018 campaign. The right-hander did log 132.1 innings, but those frames produced a 3-12 record, 4.69 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 19.7% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate, 1.4 fWAR, and two trips to the injured list.
Opposing hitters actually saw their contact rate on strikes go down from 2017 (89.0%) to 2018 (85.7%). However, there wasn’t such a slide in his overall numbers because of a rise in hard-hit rate (30.0% to 39.5%) and homers allowed per nine innings (0.71 to 1.29). It also didn’t help that his line-drive rate increased for the second consecutive year.
Fulmer will need to find a little more balance between his home/road splits in 2019. He pitched to a 3.74 ERA and .288 wOBA in 74.2 innings at Comerica, but those numbers jumped to 5.93 and .373, respectively, in 57.2 road innings.
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