Lance Lynn, Texas Rangers
Projected fWAR: 1.8
Current fWAR: 6.4
Watching the Rangers sign Lynn to a three-year, $30 million contract last winter seemed like a curious move, but it’s paid off. How do we know this? Well, his 6.4 fWAR has only been bested by Jacob deGrom, Scherzer, and Gerrit Cole at the moment.
While Lynn’s 27.8% strikeout rate is on track to be a career-high mark, it’s his walk rate that really jumps off the page. That number is currently at 6.8%, which is also on pace to be a personal best. What makes that stand out more than some other stats is what he did in that category over the past two years heading into 2019. It was up at 10.1% in 2017 with the St. Louis Cardinals and then even higher at 10.9% last year with the Minnesota Twins and Yankees.
Both his 62.4% first-pitch strike rate and 44.1% zone rate are as high as they’ve even been throughout Lynn’s big-league career. His fastball usage is also down to 71.2% (it was 81.1% as recently as ’17), which has obviously allowed him to mix in his secondary pitches with more frequency.
About Matt Musico
Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book and created an online class about how to get started as a sports blogger. Check those out and more helpful tips on sports blogging at his website.
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