German Marquez, Colorado Rockies
Kyle Freeland received a lot of praise for basically dominating from start-to-finish in 2018 (and for posting a 2.40 ERA at Coors Field), but German Marquez enjoyed a breakout season in his own right.
While he posted season-long career highs in a number categories, none of it would’ve happened without a sparkling second-half run. Heading into the midsummer classic, the 23-year-old owned a 4.81 ERA through 103 innings. He turned things around in his final 93 frames, evidenced by a 2.61 ERA.
Marquez’s hard-hit rate increased substantially (34.0% to 41.9%), but his fly-ball rate dipped more than four percentage points. That helped his homers allowed per nine innings rate (HR/9) decrease from 1.49 down to 0.68. His strikeout rate also spiked more than 10% percentage points (23.5% in first half to 33.9% in second half), allowing his season-long mark to make a huge jump for the second consecutive year.
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