Atlanta Braves right-handed starter Anibal Sanchez was rained out Wednesday night and now faces the New York Mets on Friday. He is the first of Chris’ streaming pitchers week 18 picks.
Fantasy baseball owners, this is the place where you come to get the straight cheese on less than desirable, questionably talented, less than 50% owned starting pitchers you can use for a spot start. Streaming pitchers is necessary to get those all-important counting stats for your roto league without drop-kicking your ratio stats into submission.
Before we dive into the dumpster looking for streaming pitchers week 18, let’s take a look back at my picks from last week.
Week 17 Review
| Name | Date | GS | IP | ER | H | BB | K | Dec | ERA | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Montgomery CHC | 7/27 @ STL | 1 | 5.00 | 5 | 12 | 1 | 3 | L | 9.00 | 2.60 |
| Nathan Eovaldi BOS | 7/29 vs. MIN | 1 | 7.00 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 5 | W | 0.00 | 0.57 |
| Clay Buchholz ARI | 7/29 @ SDP | 1 | 5.67 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 7 | W | 4.76 | 1.59 |
| Total for Week | 3 | 17.67 | 8 | 22 | 4 | 15 | 2-0 | 4.08 | 1.47 | |
| Running Total | 48 | 277.67 | 110 | 247 | 90 | 268 | 21-12 | 3.57 | 1.21 |
Well, a little bit of everything last week, huh? From excellent (Eovaldi) to awful (Montgomery) and a little somewhere in between (Buchholz). I’ll consider this the bucket of water to cool off the hot streak I was on in June and July – 17 starts, 10 wins, 2.42 era, 1.10 whip and 102 strikeouts in 104 1/3 innings.
Now did this bucket of water put the fire completely out? I think not as I’m really psyched about this week’s trio.
Streaming Pitchers Week 18
The pitchers are listed in order of appearance as of Wednesday morning. Ownership info from Yahoo! (Y) and ESPN (E) and all 2018 stats are through Tuesday, July 31st.
RHP Anibal Sanchez, ATL
Owned Y58%/E49% · @ New York Mets – Friday, August 3rd
The cagey veteran, Sanchez comes into the weekend series with the New York Mets carrying a 3.00 era, 1.09 whip and 74 strikeouts in 78 innings (23.4 k%). His start vs the Miami Marlins in Atlanta was rained out on Wednesday. Lucky for us because he should excel on the road against the Mets as they flat-out stink against RHP at home. Through Tuesday they ranked dead last in MLB in wOBA with 0.281, and ranked 25th in iso (0.140) and 22nd in k% (22.6%) vs. RHP at home. I’ll leave it for the talking heads on TV to figure out why they suck. I, personally, don’t care and just want them to continue performing sub-optimally this weekend.
RHP Freddy Peralta, MIL
Owned Y50%/E46% · vs. Colorado Rockies – Saturday, August 4th
The 22 year-old Peralta sports a 3.61 era, 1.08 whip and 63 strikeouts in 47 1/3 innings (32.8 k%) so far in 2018. Much like, Fried… Peralta throws some serious cheese. This might be the last week you’ll be able to stream him because it looks like he should put up some good numbers when the Colorado Rockies come into Milwaukee this weekend. The Rockies are bringing with them their 0.295 wOBA (26th), 0.158 iso (19th) and 24.8 k% (23rd) vs. RHP on the road. This matchup has all the makings of Peralta keeping the Colorado lineup in check and piling up the strikeouts. You know what to do. Now do it.
RHP Trevor Cahill, OAK
Owned Y20%/E19% · vs. Detroit Tigers – Sunday, August 5th
Cahill is not a young flamethrower like Peralta, but he has a favorable matchup against the Detroit Tigers this weekend that is of interest. Detroit comes into Oakland sporting a 0.276 wOBA (30th), 0.120 iso (29th) and striking out 23.7% of the time (17th) when facing RHP on the road.
Meanwhile through 69 innings, Cahill has a 3.39 era, 1.10 whip and 65 strikeouts (23.7 k%). You don’t need me to tell you those are good numbers, but… I’m going to tell you that those are good numbers. He probably needs to be owned in more leagues. Now, if you are on the fence about Cahill because his strikeout numbers aren’t what you are looking for, well check this out: dude is money when pitching at home. In 39 2/3 innings pitched at home, he has a 1.13 era, 0.86 whip and 40 strikeouts (27.2 k%).
Remember, these suggestions aren’t ludicrous. They’re @Roto_Chris.