Rangers right-hander Lance Lynn is rarely considered among the best pitchers in the game, but he’s usually a lock for double-digit wins and eats innings. Here are two props available to wager at Mybookie on Lynn’s 2020 MLB season – assuming there is one – and an overview.
Lance Lynn MLB Awards Odds & Analysis For 2020 Season
- Most wins of any pitcher: Lynn is +2500
- AL Cy Young Award: Lynn is not listed
The veteran right-hander Lynn spent the 2018 season with both the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees and was rather mediocre. The Rangers took a risk in signing him in December 2018 to a three-year, $30 million contract. That ended up being a bargain.
The 32-year-old posted a career year in his first season as a Ranger in 2019, earning him a fifth place finish in American League Cy Young Award voting and teamed with rotation mate Mike Minor to form one of the most productive starter duos in Rangers history. Lynn finished 16-11 with a 3.67 ERA. He recorded the 3rd-highest single-season strikeout total in team history with 246 and one of the highest pitching WAR figures ever by a Ranger at 7.6.
Lynn has now posted at least 10 wins in each of his seven big-league seasons beginning 2012 (he missed all of 2016 after undergoing “Tommy John” surgery), one of 11 major league pitchers with at least seven 10-win campaigns in that span, and one of just nine to post 7 seasons of 29+ starts since 2012.
It was Lynn’s 3rd career season of 200+ IP (career-high is 203.2 IP in 2014) and first such season by a Rangers right-hander since Colby Lewis (204.2 IP) in 2015. His team-high 8 outings of 10+ strikeouts ranked fourth in the American League and were the most by a Ranger since Yu Darvish in 2013 (12).
Lynn won 6 straight decisions (6/1-7/11) and 5 consecutive starts (6/17-7/11) before a loss on 7/16 vs. Arizona, both the longest streaks by a Ranger since Martin Perez (7 straight from 8/9-9/8/17). Lynn became just the 10th pitcher in club history with 11-or-more wins prior to the All-Star break and first since Matt Harrison (11-4) in 2012.
Finally, Lynn threw at least 100 pitches in 30 of 33 starts, the most such games in MLB. He matched the most outings w/ 100+ pitches by a Ranger since pitches were 1st tracked in 1988 (also Nolan Ryan, 30 in 1989). Overall, Lynn averaged 107.9 pitches per game in 2019, 2nd in MLB to Trevor Bauer (108.4).
Lynn’s 28.1 percent strikeout rate was in the top 20 in baseball and also good for the highest rate in a full season in his career. His 9.9 percent HR/FB rate was the second-best in baseball among qualified pitchers, and in total Lynn gave up 21 home runs in 2019, which was 14th-lowest in baseball. But he did it while facing 875 batters, the second-highest number last season.
His release point is farther to his arm side than the first seven years of his career, and he uses his cutter much more often than he used to. After years of throwing mostly his four-seam fastball and his sinker, his cutter usage has increased to almost match his sinker.
There was one negative stat: Lynn led Major League Baseball last year with 18 wild pitches. Lynn’s previous career high in wild pitches was five the year prior. Even with that huge number, he was still able to keep the number of walks surrendered extremely low, boasting a 4.1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and only allowing 3.5 free passes per nine innings.
Lance Lynn made two starts this spring before things were shut down. He gave up two runs over 2 2/3 innings in a loss to the Angels and four runs over four innings against the Rockies.
