Don’t forget about my main man, James Paxton, tonight. This will be Paxton’s first start since Aug 7th thanks to a line drive he took off the elbow that day against the Angels. Paxton made it through his AAA rehab start with no issues and should get right back to business tonight against the White Sox. Remember that Paxton had only allowed five earned runs in his last four starts before the injury, which was good for a 1.59 ERA. In that span he limited opponents to a .176 batting average against and was striking out nearly a batter per inning. Paxton will return to face the White Sox who rank 23rd in wOBA in the last thirty days.
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I will never understand who took over J.A. Happ‘s body but I’m buying it again tonight. It’s the year 2016 and Happ is actually the front-runner to win the AL Cy Young Award. I shouldn’t have to tell you how great he’s been this season, so let’s just look at his last eight starts. He’s posting a killer 1.78 ERA with a whopping 64 strikeouts in just 50.2 IP. Now he’s at home where his ERA is actually better (2.76 vs. 3.32) and facing the Angels who rank in the bottom of the league in nearly every offensive category. Happ opens as a massive -227 favorite, so expect him to be heavily owned in all formats.
Let’s pick on Twins rookie, Jose Berrios. Unfortunately for Berrios, he has not had a good season at all. His season ERA (over 8 starts) is 9.28 (!!). That covers two stints in the bigs from late April to mid-May, then again from August 1st to today. In the four games during the recent stretch, his ERA is a monstrous 8.47 and opponents are batting .329 against him. He will face the Tigers who rank 11th in wOBA this month and will definitely see nine trips to the plate as the road team. This is an early game, so take advantage of those all-day slates.
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