Matthew Boyd News

Matthew Boyd

29-Year-Old PitcherSP

Detroit Tigers

2019 Stats

W-L

9-12

ERA

4.56

WHIP

1.23

238

2020 Projections

W-L

ERA

WHIP

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2020 Fantasy Outlook

The perennial fantasy tease was at it again. Two months into the season, Boyd was sporting a 2.85 ERA and 1.02 WHIP with 88 strikeouts, 15 walks and a stingy seven homers in 72.2 frames. There wasn't anything different with his pitch mix, but the strong start was supported by underlying metrics, sending many down the familiar rabbit hole. Once the calendar flipped to June, Boyd gave up homers like Pete Alonso's cousin in the Home Run Derby, surrendering 12 in his next 34.1 innings. The onslaught continued with Boyd ultimately serving up 39 long balls in 185.1 innings, second most in the league. While the lively ball played a part, the main reason for the homer barrage was Boyd's inability to continue getting away with working up in the zone. In order to be trusted as more than a streamer, Boyd needs to demonstrate a tangible reason he can the ball in the yard all season. If you take the flier, be ready to bail. Read Past Outlooks

RANKS

#163

ADP

Overall

Starting Pitcher

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League Majors

Bats L

Throws L

40 Man Yes

Height 6'3"

Weight 234

DOB 2/2/1991

Born Mercer Island, WA

College Oregon State

Drafted 6th Rd 2013 TOR

Focused on weight room

PDetroit Tigers

March 16, 2020

Boyd said he plans on getting stronger in the weight room while spring training is suspended and his throwing program is interrupted, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reports.

ANALYSIS
Boyd has remained at the Tigers' facility in Lakeland, Fla., and tried to look on the bright side of the delay, calling it an "awesome opportunity for us to get even stronger." The lefty struggled a bit down the stretch last season after a strong start, so perhaps the emphasis on strength training could help with his endurance whenever the 2020 campaign resumes.

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Pitching Stats

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2019

2018

2017

2019 MLB Game Log

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Scoring

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2018 MLB Game Log

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2017 MLB Game Log

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Minor League Game Log

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Pitching Appearances Breakdown

Average Pitch Count

Last 10 Games

Last 5 Games

How many pitches does Matthew Boyd generally throw?

1-10

11-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

51-60

61-70

71-80

81-90

91-100

101-110

111-120

121+

1-10

11-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

51-60

61-70

71-80

81-90

91-100

101-110

111-120

121+

1-10

11-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

51-60

61-70

71-80

81-90

91-100

101-110

111-120

121+

What part of the game does Matthew Boyd generally pitch?

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

Extra

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

Extra

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

Extra

% Games Reaching Innings Threshold

% Games By Number of Innings Pitched

Left/Right Pitching Splits

Since 2017

-8%

BAA vs LHP

2019

-8%

BAA vs LHP

2018

-7%

BAA vs LHP

2017

-3%

BAA vs LHP

	BAA	Batters	K	BB	H	2B	3B	HR
Since 2017vs Left	.237	398	102	21	86	16	2	13
Since 2017vs Right	.257	1704	405	133	395	85	7	71
2019vs Left	.231	148	44	6	31	5	0	7
2019vs Right	.250	640	194	44	147	31	2	32
2018vs Left	.215	155	41	6	31	8	0	6
2018vs Right	.232	554	118	45	115	25	1	21
2017vs Left	.282	95	17	9	24	3	2	0
2017vs Right	.292	510	93	44	133	29	4	18
More Splits→	View More Split Stats

Home/Away Pitching Splits

Since 2017

-28%

ERA at Home

2019

-1%

ERA on Road

2018

-55%

ERA at Home

2017

-26%

ERA at Home

	ERA	WHIP	IP	W	L	SV	K/9	BB/9	HR/9
Since 2017Home	3.92	1.17	236.2	14	12	0	8.3	2.5	1.7
Since 2017Away	5.42	1.41	254.0	10	24	0	10.2	3.1	1.4
2019Home	4.59	1.23	86.1	5	5	0	10.1	2.3	2.7
2019Away	4.55	1.23	99.0	4	7	0	12.8	2.5	1.2
2018Home	2.63	0.98	78.2	6	3	0	7.9	2.3	0.9
2018Away	5.89	1.31	91.2	3	10	0	8.8	3.0	1.9
2017Home	4.52	1.33	71.2	3	4	0	6.7	3.0	1.3
2017Away	6.11	1.82	63.1	3	7	0	8.1	4.1	1.1
More Splits→	View More Split Stats

Stat Review

How does Matthew Boyd compare to other starting pitchers?

This section compares his stats with all starting pitcher seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 120 innings)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity, Barrels/BBE %, Balls Hit 95+ MPH %, and Spin Rate are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 120 IP). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.

K/BB

4.76

K/9

11.6

BB/9

2.4

HR/9

1.9

Fastball

92.0 mph

ERA

4.56

WHIP

1.23

BABIP

.328

GB/FB

0.89

Left On Base

73.2%

Exit Velocity

89.0 mph

Barrels/BBE

8.9%

Spin Rate

2332 rpm

Balls Hit 95+ MPH

35.7%

Swinging Strike

14.2%

Advanced Pitching Stats

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Defensive Stats

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Stats Vs Today's Lineup

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Tigers Depth Chart

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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Matthew Boyd

My AL Tout Wars Team

15 days ago

Chris Liss bought a few injured players at a discount, figuring the delayed start to the season will give them time to heal.

RotoWire Roundtable: Updated Composite Rankings

17 days ago

Individual sets of fantasy baseball rankings by Jeff Erickson, Todd Zola, Clay Link and Erik Halterman are compiled into a top 300 composite ranking, with a two-week delay to the season factored in.

Mound Musings: A Look at Pitching in the AL Central

26 days ago

Brad Johnson does a deep dive into AL Central pitching, where in Cleveland, Mike Clevinger is no longer a sleeper, and his draft day price will reflect that.

Collette Calls: My 2020 AL LABR Team

26 days ago

Jason Collette returns to AL LABR in 2020. He details parts of his pre-auction plan and reviews how the draft went in his latest Collette Calls!

Draft Review: AL LABR Auction

28 days ago

Clay Link is trying to get over the hump and knock off Glenn Colton and Rick Wolf in the AL-only League of Alternative Baseball Reality. How did he do in Saturday night's auction?

Past Fantasy Outlooks

2019

2018

2017

2016

Boyd was the de facto staff ace for Detroit in 2018, leading the team in starts, quality starts, wins and strikeouts. The lefty came out of the gates hot, posting an even 3.00 ERA over his first 10 starts, but these monthly ERAs followed: 6.32, 4.34, 4.25, 5.40. He can show flashes of upside, like he did Sept. 8 when he fanned 11 Cardinals, but only his slider graded out as league average. Granted, it was the fifth-best slider among starters, but it's tough to be successful in the major leagues on a consistent basis with only one good pitch. Against lefty batters, Boyd had a 22.6 K-BB%, but that number fell all the way to 13.2% against opposite-handed hitters. Righties combined for 21 homers against Boyd (1.44 HR/9). He seems cemented into the Tigers' rotation and his WHIP will likely remain reasonable, but those home runs aren't going anywhere and the team will be bad, so don't get too carried away.

The lefty has enjoyed a great deal of success at Triple-A (2.54 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 8.5 K/9), but to this point he's been unable to sustain success at the highest level. His strikeout rate fell by two per nine with the jump between levels last season (to 7.3 K/9) while his walk rate ticked up by more than a walk per nine (3.5 BB/9), but even so he probably deserved a little better than a 5.27 ERA -- Boyd was bit unlucky with a .330 BABIP and 68.7 percent strand rate. Just keep in mind that Boyd's BABIP will remain relatively high if he continues to allow line drives at a 22.3 percent clip. Boyd finished strong last season (2.95 ERA in September) and should have a rotation spot locked down on the rebuilding Tigers, so he has some appeal in the endgame of AL-only drafts and auctions, but he's waiver-wire fodder in mixed leagues until further notice.

Boyd had one of those seasons we regularly see from young arms: he was either good or horrible. There was little in-between. He had four incredibly bad starts that accounted for 49 percent of his earned runs (24-of-49) in just 11 percent of his innings (11.2 out of 97.1) yielding a 18.46 ERA. He posted a 2.63 ERA in his other 85.7 innings (14 starts, two relief appearances). Boyd has a quality four-pitch mix with the slider and changeup both operating as swing-and-miss offerings against righties and lefties, but the fastball and curve were homer-prone versus righties which resulted in a 202-point OPS split. His key to success is keeping the fastball up versus righties and maybe shifting some of the curveball usage to his other secondaries unless he can stop hanging it so much. There's something to bet on here and he won't cost much at all.

Boyd went to Detroit in the David Price trade and had a cup of coffee as the Tigers' fifth starter last year. He struggled with control and the long ball. In fact, he allowed 17 homers in just 57.1 innings of work and finished 1-6 with a 1.59 WHIP and 43:20 K:BB rate. He's a power lefty who hit 95 mph as a starter, but his future might lie in the bullpen, as his heater could theoretically hit 97 or even 98 if he were restricted to just one or two innings of work, and that could make him remarkably successful given the deceit that comes with his arm slot. He isn't yet worth owning as a starter in most formats, although he will have an opportunity to compete for a spot in the rotation during spring training. His horrible numbers in limited work in the big leagues last year will scare everyone away, so if he does win a spot out of camp, he will be dirt cheap in AL-only leagues.

More Fantasy News

Pitching well this spring

PDetroit Tigers

March 10, 2020

Boyd, who allowed just one run across 4.1 innings in Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Pirates, has a 1.93 ERA this spring.