Thursday, July 28, 2011

Line of the Day: Ervin Santana: July 27th, 2011

Ervin Santana pitched the first no-hitter of his career, striking out 10 and walking one in a 3-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians. It was the ninth no-hitter in the history of the Los Angeles Angels franchise and the third thrown in the majors this season. (video recap)

Line: 9 IP | 0 H | 0 ER | 1 BB | 10 K; W | QS | CG


NOTE: ESPN's formula for Top Performances of the year ranks this as tied for the best individual pitching performance of 2011.

My fantasy perspective: Other than his 6-8 record, Santana has been a very good pitcher to own in fantasy baseball. His 3.47 ERA (3.68 FIP; 3.58 xFIP) and 1.16 WHIP are both below his career averages as well as his 20.2 K% and 6.6 BB%.

Over his last six starts, he's gone 3-0 with a 1.77 ERA and a 36/7 K/BB ratio in 45.2 innings pitched. Batters are hitting just .183 against him over that span with a .219 BABIP against. All of that is good enough to rank him as the seventh-best fantasy starting pitcher over the last 30 days.

His ownership numbers are low enough in some formats (64.5% ESPN; 65% Yahoo!; 91% CBS) that he might be sitting out there on waivers but not for long and not in any truly competitive leagues, so good luck.

Question: Where does the Angels' trio of Jered Weaver, Dan Haren and Santana rank among baseball's front end of pitching staffs?


Agree? Disagree? Check out ESPN's formula for determining the best daily performances and nominate your own Line of the Day player using the comments section or hitting me up on Twitter.

Be sure to check out the past winners of COSFBA's Line of the Day awards and subscribe to its feed, too.

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