Jacob Lopez is an intriguing — but flawed — arm to monitor in fantasy baseball

Young pitchers such as Paul Skenes and Jacob Misiorowski create excitement by overpowering opposing hitters with their nasty stuff and triple-digit heat. 

Unfortunately, not every pitcher has those kinds of gifts — but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth noticing. 

To call Athletics lefty Jacob Lopez a flamethrower is like calling Katy Perry an astronaut. Despite throwing a 90.7 mph four-seamer — the 20th slowest fastball in the majors, according to Statcast — the 6-foot-4 lefty has generated some interest with his recent performance. 

In seven starts (he made four relief appearances), he is 2-3 with a 3.15 ERA, 10.7 strikeouts per nine, .225 opponents’ average and a 1.223 WHIP. In his past four outings, three of which were quality starts, he was 2-0 with a 0.39 ERA (1.99 FIP), a 31.5 percent strikeout rate, 7.6 percent walk rate, .173 opponents’ average and a 14.5 percent swinging-rate.