Chris Archer is an elite option on this slate and for good reason. But instead of talking about him like we do every five days, I’ll turn the attention to his counterpart, Doug Fister. Fister has been a little risky lately, but has continued to show his upside. Fister has allowed zero or one earned run in three of his last five starts and four of his last seven. So it’s really just a matter of if we will get “Good Fister” or “Bad Fister” tonight. He has the opportunity to keep it going tonight against the Rays who are striking out at the third highest clip in the league in the last thirty days (24.9%). He’s coming off an excellent six strikeout performance over seven innings while only allowing three hits in his last start.
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Andrew Triggs is an up-and-comer for the Oakland A’s who has only made three starts for the Athletics this season. In those three starts, Triggs has allowed four earned in 15.2 innings, which is good for a 2.30 ERA. He’s struck out 12 batters and walked just one batter in those innings. After making 19 appearances out of the bullpen, the A’s are clearly stretching Triggs out. He’s thrown 66, 75 and 89 pitches in that order over those starts. If that trend continues, Triggs could push 100 pitches tonight against the Cardinals. This isn’t a great matchup with St. Louis, but he will at least be facing a National League team instead of his usual American League opponents. If you want more info on Triggs, there’s a really great piece on FanGraphs about him.
This could be an opportunity to invest in the Reds as a bit of a sleeper. They are coming off a 13 run game yesterday and they now rank 13th in wOBA over the last thirty days. That might not sound like much, but it’s a big improvement over their offense the first few months of the season. Additionally, they are striking out at a tiny 17.9%, the best mark in the league, so it should give plenty of trouble to Archie Bradley tonight. Bradley has looked pretty bad in August. Since the 1st of the month, Bradley is surrendering an 8.22 ERA across five starts. In just 23 innings, he’s allowed 21 earned, 36 hits and has walked 13 (!!) hitters. This game will be played in one of the most hitter friendly parks in the league, as if things could get worse for Bradley.
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