Andrew

Abbott

Abbott allowed four hits, walked four and struck out four before departing with a 2-0 lead that failed to hold up. It’s his first scoreless start since he shut out the Red Sox for six innings in Opening Day, and it dropped his ERA from 5.97 to 5.13. He’ll take on the Astros at home on Sunday.

Abbott surrendered five hits and two walks in the outing, including a homer off the bat of Tyler Freeman. This was his first quality start since Opening Day, ending a challenging stretch for the 26-year-old southpaw. Abbott’s whiff rate on his four-seamer has been down to begin this season, and that remained an issue against Colorado. The matchup likely helped his bottom line, but things will get tougher next time out against the Cubs in Wrigley.

The 26-year-old southpaw struck out four batters on the night while issuing a pair of walks. He struggled to keep the ball in the yard in this one, serving up solo homers to Riley Greene in the second inning and Javier Baez as part of a three-run uprising in the third. Abbott generated eight swings and misses on 89 pitches on the night, posting a CSW of 28 percent. He’ll attempt to put this one behind him and improve upon his disappointing 6.59 ERA and 1.78 WHIP when he takes on the Rockies at home on Thursday afternoon.

With the temperature below 40 degrees in this one, Abbott’s velocity was off by about one mph. He also walked three and threw just 52 of his 97 pitches. Given the conditions, it’s not a day for making any judgments about a pitcher. Abbott, though, doesn’t seem like a mixed-league guy right now. He’ll face the Tigers next weekend.

Abbott, now 0-2 with a 5.85 ERA, usually has had good fortune on balls in play, but not this season so far and especially not today, as he yielded eight hits despite giving up just five hard-hit balls to the Angels. Of course, it’s also not helping that he’s not missing bats. He struck out just one today and he’s fanned a total of 12 of the 90 batters he’s faced in four starts. While he’ll probably be better against the Twins next weekend, he seems very droppable in mixed leagues at this point.

Abbott allowed six hits, two walks and struck out two. It was far from a dominant effort from the 26-year-old with only six swing-and-misses generated, but a vast improvement from his scuffles against the Pirates on Wednesday (four runs, 5 2/3 innings). Abbott will look to continue to improve against the Angels over the weekend.

Abbott struck out five and walked three while registering 10 whiffs and a 27 percent CSW on the day. The Pirates hit his four-seamer hard, with a 95 mph average exit velocity on the pitch, and Abbott didn’t really throw enough strikes with the curve and changeup to keep the Pirates hitters guessing. He’ll look to bounce back against the Marlins next week.

Abbott gave up two singles in each of the first two innings, but he also generated double-play balls both frames. He ended up striking out four batters, and he retired the final five guys he faced in the fifth and sixth innings. He didn’t surrender anything even close to a homer today after giving up six in 17 2/3 innings this spring. Abbott is slated to take on the Pirates next time out, and he’ll likely face off against a rather ticked off Paul Skenes.

Abbott gave up a two-run homer in the second and then two more runs after being pulled in the fourth, which he would have been out of already if not for a Sal Stewart error. He came back out for the fifth and gave up one more run after a leadoff double, though he retired three straight afterwards. In all, it was a better night than the line suggests. Abbott ends the spring with a 12.74 ERA. He’s not someone we recommend, but that’s because he’s an extreme flyball pitcher with a middling strikeout rate in a tough ballpark for pitchers; it doesn’t have anything to do with the poor spring.

The positive news here is that these games don’t count. Abbott surrendered eight hits, including a two-run homer to journeyman backstop James McCann as part of a tough afternoon in the desert. He’ll take the ball for Cincinnati on Opening Day and remains a top-60 range fantasy starter following last year’s breakthrough campaign.