Red Sox Rick Porcello: Fantasy Baseball 2016 Most Valuable Pitcher

The Red Sox had a great offense this season. They also received a great deal of help from Rick Porcello. He is my most valuable pitcher for this season.

The Boston Red Sox had a great 2016 season. The offense was consistent all season, which is needed in a competitive American League East. The team was also assisted by the performance of starting pitcher Rick Porcello. Based on his ADP in fantasy, he is my most valuable pitcher.

Porcello had a less than stellar 2015 season with the Red Sox. He had a 9-15 record, 4.92 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 7.8 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9. He entered this season as a 23rd round pick. At that position, any little improvement would have made that a good pick. Luckily, he made a much bigger improvement.

Porcello led the league with 22 wins. He dropped his ERA over 1.5 runs to 3.15. He had a 1.01 WHIP, 7.6 K/9 and 1.3 BB/9. The small decline in strikeouts was not noticeable because he made big strides in his command as his walk rate dropped almost a walk per nine innings.

Since the All-Star break, Porcello posted a 2.62 ERA and 0.88 WHIP. He went 11-2 in 15 starts and did not pitch fewer than six innings in any of those starts.

This was clearly Porcello’s best season of his career. He had a career best in starts, wins, losses, ERA, WHIP, BB/9, innings, strikeouts, and walks.

At the age of 27, Porcello looks to have finally put it all together. It’s surprising that he only allowed 78 earned runs while pitching in this division. Three teams, not counting the Red Sox, finished in the top-10 in team home runs.

Porcello was drafted between Andrew Bailey and Yovani Gallardo based on the ESPN ADP. Bailey had some value towards the end of the season as the Los Angeles Angels closer while Gallardo struggled throughout the year.

I don’t think Porcello will be able to replicate his performance in 2017, but he will definitely be a top-15 starting pitcher. The Red Sox offense will look practically the same, except for one ‘big’ absence. I do think, however, that he if Porcello can keep control of his pitches and limited the base runners like he did last season, he will have another great year.

Though, this time it won’t be at the same value it was this season.