Fantasy Baseball: 5 Under-the-Radar Pitchers to Target in 2017

Eduardo Rodriguez, P, Boston Red Sox

ESPN Ownership: 34%

Eduardo Rodriguez quietly had a really great second half -- at least as quiet as any Boston Red Sox player can have -- as he was 15th in strikeout rate after the break (9.2 K/9) with an acceptable walk rate (3.2 BB/9) and solid 3.24 ERA.

One thing that might be a bit worrisome is that Rodriguez became extremely fly-ball reliant in a park where that might not fly -- um, pun unintended? -- for a left-hander. It didn’t bite him too badly this year as he had no discernible split (.318 wOBA for left-handed hitters, .312 for righties).

Rodriguez clearly has a plan in place here. This year he attacked lefties with sinkers and sliders, with righties seeing more four-seam fastballs and changeups. Not throwing same-side changeups can be a pretty typical thing for pitchers, but what’s important here is that he went through a fairly substantial sample size -- 107 innings this year -- and wasn’t ripped by righties. In fact for what it’s worth, righties have hit just .239/.306/.389 against him in his career (.302 wOBA), and that’s a span of nearly 230 innings -- a pretty significant amount.