There's a scarcity of pitching in today's fantasy game. Top-tier talent is less often returning on the investment of fantasy owners.
An often overlooked, underappreciated statistic in finding fantasy return on investment (ROI) is innings pitched. Since 2014, only four starters have had three consecutive seasons of both 200 innings pitched and 200 strikeouts: Madison Bumgarner, Corey Kluber, David Price and Max Scherzer.
In 2014, 34 pitchers reached 200 innings. That went down to 15 pitchers in 2016. Meanwhile, ERA among starting pitchers has risen from 3.82 in 2014 to 4.