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Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Robbie Ray is a 2020 fantasy baseball draft value. His ADP is undervalued, making him a potential draft bargain and late-round sleeper to target.
BALLER MOVE: Target ~140
CURRENT ADP: ~160 overall
ANALYSIS: Robbie Ray is one of the most fascinating pitchers in baseball. He has some of the best fundamental pitches in the game, but when it comes to command and control, he struggles. He is an elite strikeout pitcher as he had a K% of 31.4 in 2018 and 31.5 in 2019. To go with it, he also had an impressive SwStr% of 12.8 and 13.6. Unfortunately, with those strikeout rates came a horrendous 13.3 and 11.2 BB%.
In 2019, Robbie Ray’s best month of baseball came in July, where he posted a 3.26 ERA and 28.0 K-BB%. That month was his lowest BB% in any month. He noticeably upped his four-seam fastball usage to 50%, which lowered his walk percentage to 7.2%. He seems to have the most control with his fastball as he pounded the zone with it 57.3% of the time in 2019. This might be the key to Ray dropping his walk percentage.
If Ray can continue to drop his walk rate and push his K-BB% up to around 28%, he can become an elite pitcher in baseball. He may be on his way because from the second half of the 2018 season, to the second half of the 2019 season, he dropped his walk rate from 13.80% to 10.00%. Robbie Ray is currently going at pick 152, and he holds value at that spot, especially if you are looking for high strikeout totals.
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