I’ll admit: When I saw Sandy Alcantara this spring, I bought into the hype. The stuff was all the way back to pre-injury form, and the Marlins‘ insistence that he would not face a real innings limit seemed to answer the biggest question we had about him coming into the season.
How wrong I was.
Alcantara struggled yet again Monday against the Dodgers, which wouldn’t be such a big problem – the Dodgers make most pitchers look bad, after all – if Alcantara hadn’t been bad against much easier matchups before this one. Through his first six starts, Alcantara has an 8.42 ERA and 1.61 WHIP, and has been utterly useless for Fantasy. He has just one start where he has finished six innings and has thrown more than five innings just one other time – this from the guy who was supposed to be baseball’s last true workhorse.
And yet … I’m not ready to drop Alcantara. It’s been a terrible month, and there really isn’t much of anything positive to say about it – he’s walked almost as many batters as he has struck out, he has given up by far the worst quality of contact of his career, and he doesn’t seem to be getting any better with each subsequent outing. In fact, his first outing might have been the one where he looked the best!
But when I look at the best pitchers available in my main 12-team Roto league, I’m looking at guys like Michael Wacha, Dean Kremer, Zack Littel, and Jeffrey Springs, and … I’m just not particularly moved to add any of them. They’re all more useful than Alcantara right now, of course – Wacha especially should be rostered in that kind of league – but do any of them have upside you’re likely to regret passing on? I don’t think so – even Wacha’s best seasons tend to come with a useful ERA and WHIP, but very limited strikeout production and mediocre volume overall. These are guys who are all useful at best. I’m still holding out hope that Alcantara can be a lot better than useful.
Maybe that’s a fool’s hope. Maybe he’ll never be the same pitcher he was prior to the injury. That’s certainly possible, though with whiff rates between 37% and 40% on his changeup, slider, and curveball, I have a hard time believing he’s just finished. Alcantara’s stuff doesn’t look quite back to where it was before the injury, but it’s not like he’s sitting at 92 mph with his fastball, or anything; this is still a dude with really good stuff, who just isn’t executing right now.
Dropping Alcantara right now might make you feel better in the moment, I’ll grant. And maybe that’s all you want. If so: Pull the trigger! But I think it’s a lot more likely you’ll look back in two months and regret dropping Alcantara than you will not picking up Dean Kremer or Zack Littel or whoever is available in your league. Because, if Alcantara does figure it out, he’s obviously a must-start pitcher. I don’t think there’s really anyone else widely available in most leagues I would say that about.
Stick him on your bench until he figures it out. That’s what it’s there for!
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