Matt Boyd (SP, DET) - Week 22 Waiver Wire Pickups

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OWNED IN: 27% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Since his last start on July, Matt Boyd has been in a nice rhythm for the Tigers to the tune of a 2.56 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, and 7.7 K/9 over his last five starts. He got off to an excellent start to the season through the first two months, but limped through June with a 6.32 ERA and 1.47 WHIP after allowing six HR and 42.7% hard contact on batted balls. Boyd struggled to gain footing after June, but since the start of August he improved his production in several telling aspects.

For one, since the start of the month, he has improved his allowance of hard contact and soft contact with respective figures of 32.8% and 25.4%, both being his best since his fantastic month of April. Boyd is a FB-heavy pitcher (his fly ball rate for August is 59.7%), and although this causes HR vulnerability (10% HR/FB), his improved soft contact when combined with his solid IFFB rate keeps his ERA down. Posting a 12.5% IFFB rate this month, Boyd has seen that rate consistently over 10% all year. Although his August K/9 is down to 7.61 after steadily moving from 8.21 to 9.62 from May through July, his walk frequency has improved mightily. His BB/9 this month sits all the way down at just 1.14, after producing 4.32 during his woeful June.

While Boyd only gets one start this week, it is a good one, as he will face the Royals in Kansas City on Wednesday. Considering that the Royals are one of the worst offenses and their home ballpark suppresses offense, this could be a perfect stream for Boyd. With his performance and great matchup for the week, Boyd can be safely streamed in deeper formats.