Bartolo Colon, starting pitcher, Atlanta Braves
Bartolo Colon, or as he is so properly nicknamed, “Big Sexy,” seems to be unstoppable. The fact that he’s 43 years old and still dealing on the mound makes him extra special.
He wasn’t throwing his slider that much last season, but he was throwing more ground balls. Fewer balls were getting hit in the air, so he wasn’t showing any signs of regression.
That ended up making the Braves signing him to a one-year, $12.5-million contract.
FanGraphs Steamer has him increasing ERA slightly in 2017, but it’s a brand new field he’s throwing in. And even though his groundball rate tends to increase as time goes on, that’s not a bad thing considering he has a possible National League Rookie of the Year behind him in Dansby Swanson.