A revitalized Kyle Freeland takes the mound for the Rockies tonight against Dodgers and Dustin May. His stikeout rate stands as one of the lowest in the majors, but that has not led to an explosion of hits. May showed great control in his brief major league career, walking batters about once every six innings.

Brandon Bielak of the Astros brings his 1.69 ERA into battle against the Padres and Zach Davies. Bielak is one of 133 players who made their debut this season. In comparison, by the end of April 2019, 200 players made their debut. The number of newly debuting players in the first month of the season made a steady rise in the last decade. In 2010 there were 70 such debuts. In 2013, they passed 100, and last season hit 200. I suspect this is in part due to teams rejecting veteran free agents, and getting control of players for seven seasons by waiting until the end of April to bring them to the majors. Bielak walks a ton of batters, but doesn’t give up many hits. We will see how long he can sustain that. Davies greatly improved his K/BB this season with 24 K and just five walks in 27 2/3 innings.

Enjoy!