Paul Blackburn (SP, OAK) - Week 11 Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Paul Blackburn allowed just one run on three hits over six strong innings in his 2018 debut, but he has his fantasy fleas. Namely, the three strikeouts in those six frames gives him a higher strikeout rate (15%) than his awful 9.2% K rate through 10 starts (58 ⅔ IP) last season.

He has barely broken the 6.0 K/9 mark even in the low Minors, but he sports solid command and suppresses the long ball with a beastly groundball rate that can sniff 60%. He induced just a 11.8% hard hit ball rate in his first start on the season, good for a ground ball pitcher.

Oakland’s spacious home park and strong defense play well for his game and he could be a cheap source of ratio relief if you can take the K hit. A start against the Astros on Wednesday is not good, but a matchup against the Padres in San Diego on June 19 is very solid.