Chris is picking on the Arizona Diamonbacks again this week, including New York Mets Steven Matz at home Friday against the A.J. Pollock-less D-backs in his streaming pitchers week 7 picks.
Straight Cheese, the weekly streaming pitchers resource identifying less than desirable, questionably talented, low-owned starting pitchers that you can use for a spot start for your fantasy baseball team.
First, lets take a look back at my picks from last week.
Week 6 Review
| Name | Date | GS | IP | ER | H | BB | K | Dec | ERA | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Junior Guerra | 5/9 vs. CLE | 1 | 5.00 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 9 | L | 7.20 | 1.60 |
| Tanner Roark | 5/10 at ARI | 1 | 7.00 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 4 | - | 1.29 | 0.57 |
| Francisco Liriano | 5/9 at TEX | 1 | 4.00 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | - | 6.75 | 2.00 |
| Jeremy Hellickson | 5/13 at ARI | 1 | 5.00 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | - | 1.80 | 0.80 |
| Week 6 Total | 4 | 21.00 | 9 | 17 | 7 | 21 | 0-1 | 3.86 | 1.14 | |
| Running Total | 19 | 123.00 | 68 | 128 | 48 | 124 | 6-8 | 4.98 | 1.43 |
Now, that is more like it. The Nats really came through for me last week.
With that out of the way, let’s dance with the devil in the pale moonlight!
Pitcher Streaming Week 7
The pitchers are listed in order of appearance as of Tuesday. Ownership info from Yahoo! (Y) and ESPN (E) and all 2018 stats are through Monday, May 14th.
LHP Steven Matz, NYM
Owned Y17%/E10% · vs. Arizona Diamondbacks – Friday, May 18th
Remember last week when I picked on the Diamondbacks? Well, that was when they were home. This week they are on the road but there is still an opportunity to take advantage. Their currently posting a .288 wOBA (22nd), 30.1 K% (30th) and .204 ISO (6th) against LHP on the road. Yeah, the ISO is worrisome but it appears that lefty abuser A.J. Pollock will be out of the lineup for a while. He’ll be taking with him his 11 homeruns and .327 ISO (5 homeruns and .444 ISO vs. LHP) so far in 2018.
Matz comes into the matchup with a 3.86 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 34 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings. That all looks fine on the surface but he’s destined to crash at some point this season. His .238 BABIP, 22.6% HR/FB and 4.28 x FIP all point to doom. The thing is, the Diamondbacks are slumping and lost arguably their best player. Take advantage and trot Matz out there this weekend.
RHP Nick Kingham, PIT
Owned Y25%/E20% · vs. San Diego Padres – Saturday, May 19th
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Kingham is slated to start this Saturday. With only two major league starts on his resume, Kingham’s line looks like this: 2.92 ERA, 0.65 WHIP and 16 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings. One start was a thing of beauty (1 hit, shutout ball over 7 innings); the other was not (6 hits and 4 earned runs over 5 1/3 innings). What was consistent over the two starts were strikeouts with 9 in the shutout and 7 in the, um, non-shutout.
He draws a favorable matchup this weekend when the Padres come into Pittsburgh. San Diego has a .292 wOBA (26th), 28.2 K% (29th) and .114 ISO (29th) vs. RHP on the road. Kingham’s K% is 35.6% and he is currently holding opposing teams to a .221 wOBA. I know I’ve told you to be cautious with the unproven guys in previous columns but this matchup is too good to pass up.
RHP Trevor Williams, PIT
Owned Y51%/E52% · vs. San Diego Padres – Sunday, May 20th
Everything I said about the Padres vs. Kingham applies in this matchup with Williams. The difference, and it is a big one, is that Williams doesn’t strike out as many batters as Kingham. Williams comes into the matchup with a 2.72 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 35 strikeouts in 53 innings. His K% is at 16.6% while holding batters to a .282 wOBA.
A weak hitting team against a decent pitcher doesn’t put too much confidence in me. The extra nugget of info that does put more confidence in me is that Williams pitches better at home. In fact, he hasn’t allowed a homerun at home yet in 2018. His home ERA is 2.22 compared to 3.14 on the road. He’s walked over twice as many batters on the road (14) as opposed to home (6). This is a sneaky good matchup.
RHP Mike Foltynewicz, ATL
Owned Y51%/E49% · vs. Miami Marlins – Sunday, May 20th
NOTE: due to the rainout of Thursday’s game, Folty will miss this matchup on Sunday. Instead, Julio Teheran takes the mound. He’s owned in 77% of ESPN leagues, but if he is available it is a good matchup for him, also
Folty is coming off a very impressive outing against the Cubs on Tuesday night where he struck out 10 over 5 innings and didn’t allow an earned run. What is even more impressive is that outside of one awful start on May 4th vs. the Giants he hasn’t allowed more than 2 earned runs in a game. The knock against Foltynewicz is that he isn’t going deep into games due to high pitch count. He’s made it to the 6th inning only twice.
Simply put, he’s walking too many batters (4.60 BB/9 and 11.8 BB%). That being said, his numbers still look good after Tuesday’s start: 2.87 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and 57 strikeouts in 47 innings. He’s also striking batters out at a 27.9% rate and holding them to a .299 wOBA.
Enter the Marlins and their .247 wOBA (30th), 27.4 K% (27th), .104 ISO (30th) and 6.0 BB% (29th) vs. RHP on the road. Not to sound like a broken record but the Marlins on the road are a team to pick on if the pitcher has an ounce of talent. Folty has more than an ounce so feel confident streaming him Sunday!
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