Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
With all the money currently sunk into the San Francisco Giants starting rotation, SP Matt Cain has simply not lived up to par this fantasy baseball season.
Cain has a pretty mundane 4-3 record at the moment. He has already had three games in which he has allowed six earned runs or more this season and the former All-Star has simply been off his game.
Cain currently has a miserable 5.45 ERA and it is easily the worst start of his nine-year career. Cain has finished with an ERA under 3.15 in four consecutive seasons; so his rough start is extremely frustrating to any owner that wasted a top-five pick on the famous righty.
Big Daddy Cain has never allowed more than 22 home runs in a season, but the right-hander has already allowed a jaw-dropping 13 balls to leave to ballpark this year. He is letting his pitches drift up in the strike zone too much and it has only made it easier for opposing hitters to bash home runs.
According to FanGraphs, Cain’s fastball is averaging just 90.9 MPH on the radar gun. He is throwing his fastball less and ironically utilizing his slider more often. Cain is throwing his slider a 26.1% of the time this year, compared to just 19.9% of the time last season. He seems to be trying to trick batters with his slider more and more, but sometimes it is better to simply throw the heater right past them.
Cain is still worth hanging onto in all fantasy formats, but his recent meltdown has to be a little alarming for owners. It is still early in the season, though, so give Cain a couple more weeks before you bail on the three-time All-Star.
Adam McGill is the Senior Fantasy Sports Writer at Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @adammcgill83, like him on Facebook, or add him to you networks on Google here or here.
