Nick Pivetta (SP, PHI) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: Philadelphia Phillies starter Nick Pivetta had a rough first attempt at the major league level in 2017. The young right-hander ended the year with a 6.02 ERA, 4.87 FIP, and an undesirable 3.49 BB/9. It is very difficult to survive at this level when a pitcher hands out that many free passes, and fantasy owners were forced to ignore Pivetta in 2018 drafts because of it. The Philadelphia righty was going to need to either increase his swing and miss production or cut down on his walk rate to improve.

Luckily for fantasy owners this year, Pivetta has done both so far. After being a very fastball dependent pitcher in 2017, the Phillies prospect has started to mix in his curveball at a 24.4% clip (up from just 15.5% last season). Pivetta has learned to trust his breaking pitches and learn to throw them for strikes. This has allowed his fastball to become more effective which has led to his swinging strike rate to rise from 8.7% up to 11% this year. Pivetta has also dramatically increased his first strike percentage, getting ahead of the count and putting himself in the best chance to succeed. This had the added effect of cutting down his walk rate by half to 1.91 BB/9 in 2018.

Nick Pivetta is a young strikeout pitcher who should only get better this year. He has always shown the ability to rack up Ks in the past, but his new found control and approach will allow him to get ahead of hitters and draw weak contact (23.1% hard contact rate, down from 35.5% in 2017). You put all those things together and you have another version of Aaron Nola. Fantasy owners should consider making a move to pick up the Phillies right-hander now before it is too late.