What Should Fantasy Owners Do With David Price?

You have to begin to wonder if David Price will ever start to turn things around this season.  He’s made 10 starts since being recalled on May 25, and very few have been the least bit promising.  In his first nine starts he produced a line of:

3 Wins
44.0 Innings
4.70 ERA
1.64 WHIP
47 Strikeouts (9.61 K/9)
31 Walks (6.34 BB/9)
.306 BABIP

That, of course, does not include yesterday’s debacle against the White Sox, when he yielded four runs on eight hits and two walks, striking out six, over six innings.

Those who believed that his struggles in the minor leagues earlier this season were due to his demotion appear to be sorely mistaken.  If that was the problem, don’t you think he would’ve buckled down by now?

He’s already walked five or more batters five times.  I don’t care how talented you are, it’s impossible to be successful if you are going to hand out that many free passes.

The BABIP has been average, so let’s not point to bad luck as the reason for his struggles.

His strand rate, currently at 68 percent, would put him in the bottom 16 in the league if he had enough innings to qualify.  Of course, if he weren’t walking so many batters, that wouldn’t be such a big issue, would it?

He also has been taken out of the ballpark at an alarming rate, with a HR/9 of 1.43.  He’s not an extreme fly ball pitcher, currently at 40.5 percent.  In the minor leagues last season, his fly ball rate was 26.8 percent and his HR/9 just 0.56.

Those are clearly the numbers fantasy owners have to hope he rediscovers.  He’s not going to maintain his minor league rates, but he certainly is better than the numbers he’s posted this season.

Let’s not forget his problems away from home.  In five starts at home, he’s gone 3-1 with a 3.04 ERA.  In his four road starts (not including last night’s, which did little to help his numbers), he is winless with a 7.27 ERA. 

It’s still too small of a sample size to mention him in the same breath as Wandy Rodriguez, a pitcher who was once well-known for his ridiculous splits.

The strikeouts are impressive, though they aren’t without flaw.  He’s only struck out more than six in a start twice, one of which was an 11 K performance in just 5.2 innings.

Part of the problem is that he simply has not thrown that many innings, going six innings or more just four times.  It’s great that he had a start where he struck out six batters in 3.1 innings in his first start, but he posted a WHIP of just below 3 in that outing.

It certainly helps to skew the numbers a little bit, doesn’t it?  Yes, he is a good strikeout option, don’t get me wrong, but not enough to cover his glaring problems.

We all know he has unlimited potential.  He was a consensus top two prospect heading into the season, especially after being put in the spotlight in the 2008 playoffs and shining brightly. 

Sooner or later, he’s going to put things together.  He’s going to figure it out and string together strong starts and help to carry your fantasy squad.

He was Stephen Strasberg before Strasberg was the hot pitching prospect in baseball.  You have to give him time.  He’s still a rookie, despite what we want to think.  He’s faced the spotlight and succeeded, but he’s going to continue to be inconsistent.

Once he figures it out, he’s going to be dominant.  While he’s a better bet for 2010, he’s still worth considering this season, especially when the match-up is right. 

Should he be used each and every start?  Not yet, at least not until he proves that he has found the strike zone. Once that happens, things should get extremely better, and quickly.

The problem is, who can predict which starts are going to be dominant?  He’s shown the ability to struggle with control against any opponent, making it tough to play match-ups. 

He’s the type of pitcher that you either leave in there and hope that everything balances out, or you just leave him on your bench until he gets things sorted out.

That’s really all you can do with pitchers who struggle so mightily with their control.

At this point, I’m leaning towards leaving him on the bench.  What about you?  What would you do with Price at this point?

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