Drew Smyly (SP, PHI) - Week 20 Waiver Wire Pickups

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OWNED IN: 20% of leagues

ANALYSIS: It's been quite the long, frustrating road for Drew Smyly as he fell from that status of a promising prospect to a guy just hoping to carve out an MLB career. After an absolutely disastrous 51.1 inning stint with the Texas Rangers to kick off the campaign and a little time in the Brewers farm system, Smyly eventually landed with the Philadelphia Phillies, and since then appears to have turned a major corner. In 23.2 IP across his first four starts with the Phillies, he has netted a 3.80 ERA, 1.099 WHIP, 24 strikeouts, and just seven walks (though he did allow four home runs).

Encouragingly, this shift in momentum for Smyly appears to be supported by a strong foundation of statistical improvements. Since signing with Philadelphia, Smyly has upped his strikeout rate to 26.1%, lowered his walk rate (by 6%) to a much more manageable 7.6%, bumped up the rate of grounders forced from just 27% to 42.6%, improved his forced soft contact on batted balls to 14.8%, and lowered his hard contact rate from 50.6% to 34.4%. In terms of on-field performance, that's practically night and day compared to his time in Texas. Drew Smyly always packed the potential of high-strikeout outings, but he is a much more reliable option from start to start now that he is limiting solid contact and controlling the strike zone.