Talk to any odd MLB personnel man and they will tell you that
Tampa Bay Rays righty Chris Archer has some of the most overpowering stuff in
baseball. With a fastball which reaches the upper-90's and offspeed stuff
that has crazy movement, Archer carries the potential for a no-hitter in any
one outing. To drive home the point regarding how much of a handful
Archer is for opposing hitters, here are his season strikeout totals from the
last three seasons: 252, 233, 249. Those are some incredible
numbers and it speaks to the annually massive potential Archer brings to the
fantasy baseball table. Unfortunately Archer has made it a bad habit to
always leave his owners wanting more in putting forth season numbers that fall
way below expectations relative to the quality of stuff. It is almost
impossible to understand how Archer has posted ERA's of 4.02 and 4.07 the last
two years despite all those strikeouts but underachievement is now the name of
the game here. When searching for the culprit in Archer's struggles, the
main problem centers on the home run ball. Archer continues to lose that
battle with the long ball; having registered HR/9 rates over 1.20 each of the
last two years. While Archer can strike out 10 batters in any one outing,
he also can miss with one or two pitches that end up over the outfield wall.
Throw in some Tommy John scares last season and Archer doesn't look as enticing
as he once did.
2018 PROJECTION:
14-10 3.86 ERA 1.27 WHIP 225 K
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