'Eye Spy' details first-hand Spring Training notes and observations from a fantasy baseball perspective.I've had the pleasure of watching some pretty good starting pitchers since I've been in Florida watching Grapefruit League action. I was there for Johan Santana's first spring start versus Ricky Nolasco. I got to see Braves phenom Tommy Hanson go up against Josh Johnson. But, of all the starters I've seen, no performance was as good as Sunday's start by Marlins starter Chris Volstad.
Volstad went five strong innings on Sunday, striking out three, walking none and giving up only three hits. He was in compete control on the mound even though it wasn't what I'd call a dominant performance. He was doing a great job of keeping hitters guessing. There were a number of occasions where Volstad had a hitter way out front for a weak grounder or had batters fouling off pitches, just to stay alive. One of the three hits he gave up was a complete piece of luck as Brian Schneider was so fooled by a pitch he threw his hands and bat at the ball and blooped it into center field.
Last season, Volstad was an extreme ground ball pitcher. He had a 53.4% ground ball rate which helped keep his ERA down below three at 2.88. He flashed those same skills Sunday getting nine ground ball outs and only recording two flyball outs. He's a strikeout neutral pitcher, meaning he doesn't record a lot of strikeouts compared to his innings pitched. He had 52 strikeouts in 84.1 innings last season while giving up 36 walks. Now, that walk rate is a bit high, but from what I saw on Sunday and from his spring numbers, he's dramatically lowering his bases on balls. This spring he's struck out seven while only walking two batters. That's a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.4 compared to 1.4 last season.
Volstad's improved walk rate, along with his continued ground ball superiority means that his ERA should stay low. He's never going to be a source of strike outs for your fantasy team, but his average draft position of 256.35 (22nd round) means he's a great starting pitcher to select for value late in fantasy drafts. He's going to outperform his draft slot and make you a winning fantasy GM.
