A little tougher week to find some good streaming options, but Chris’ Stream-O-Matic 2000™ spit out a few chumps to help your counting stats, like Washington Nationals Tanner Roark at Arizona on Thursday.
Straight Cheese, the pitcher streaming 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 5 Review
| Name | Date | GS | IP | ER | H | BB | K | Dec | ERA | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Junior Guerra | 5/4 vs. PIT | 1 | 5.00 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | L | 9.00 | 2.00 |
| Zack Wheeler | 5/4 vs. COL* | 1 | 6.00 | 8 | 10 | 3 | 3 | L | 12.00 | 2.17 |
| Tyler Mahle | 5/5 vs. MIA | 1 | 6.00 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 4 | L | 4.50 | 0.83 |
| Trevor Cahill | 5/5 vs. BAL** | 1 | 6.00 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 12 | - | 0.00 | 0.83 |
| Week 5 Total | 4 | 23.00 | 16 | 25 | 8 | 23 | 0-3 | 6.26 | 1.43 | |
| Running Total | 19 | 102.00 | 59 | 111 | 41 | 103 | 6-7 | 5.21 | 1.49 |
* Start bumped up from Saturday 5/5 ** Start bumped back from Friday 5/4
Thank you Trevor for salvaging the week! And thank you, Zack, for reintroducing me to hard liquor.
With that out of the way, let’s flip over the sofa cushions looking for some loose change!
Pitcher Streaming Week 6
This is a tough week to find low-owned pitchers in really good matchups. My Stream-O-Matic 2000 (patent pending) really likes the guys owned in just about every league. Scherzer, Strasburg, deGrom, Verlander, Severino and Wood all have great matchups this weekend. Luckily, I was able to unearth four chumps to stream in the coming days.
Ownership info from Yahoo! (Y) and ESPN (E) and all 2018 stats are through Monday, May 7.
RHP Junior Guerra, MIL
Owned Y40%/E32% · vs. Cleveland Indians – Wednesday, May 9th
Why in the world would I suggest streaming Guerra again after warning you last week that the wheels will come off soon and then he went out and gave up 5 earned runs in 5 innings last week? Two reasons. One, the Indians have a .277 wOBA (29th) and 26.2 K% (26th) vs. RHP on the road. Two, in their last 7 road games vs. RHP that have put up only 13 earned runs and struck out 49 times in 45 innings. That’s a 2.60 ERA and a 9.8 K/9. That’s gold, Jerry. Gold!
Through 5 starts, Guerra has a 2.33 ERA, 4.52 xFIP, 1.15 WHIP and 25 strikeouts in 27 innings. Don’t be scared off by his last outing. Trot him out there again.
RHP Tanner Roark, WAS
Owned Y67%/E51% · at Arizona Diamondbacks – Thursday, May 10th
The humidor effect in Arizona is real. From 2015-2017 visiting pitchers sported a 4.83 ERA and allowed a .339 wOBA. So far in 2018, visiting teams are posting a 3.85 ERA and holding hitters to a .306 wOBA.
So, we now know that Chase Field isn’t a nightmare for pitchers anymore. What we also know is that the Diamondbacks with their .274 wOBA (29th) and 26.8 K% (28th) vs. RHP at home aren’t so scary, either.
Roark comes into Arizona carrying a 3.65 ERA, 4.13 xFIP, 1.08 WHIP and 41 strikeouts through 44.1 innings. He gives up too many homeruns (15.9% HR/FB) but that’s okay because Arizona doesn’t hit too many dingers at home (10.1% HR/FB, 20th). Where Roark could get into trouble is walks. The Diamondbacks and their 11.0 BB% (3rd) at home vs. RHP could take advantage of Roark’s 9.0 BB%.
All in all, he is in a good spot in Chase Field this weekend.
RHP Francisco Liriano, DET
Owned Y22%/E25% · at Texas Rangers – Wednesday, May 9th
He may be a shell of his former self but Liriano is still dealing at 34 years old. But instead of poker he’s dealing hands of Gin Rummy. Through 6 starts he has a 2.97 ERA, 4.64 xFIP, 1.07 WHIP and 26 strikeouts in 36 1/3 innings.
At home vs. RHP, the Rangers with their .283 wOBA (28th) and 26.3 K% (27th) aren’t exactly playing Texas Hold’em. Their game is quite suitable to Liriano’s. Also at home vs. RHP their slash line is .211/.297/.335 (28th/28th/29th). Isolated Power (ISO) is a stat used to measure the power of a hitter. It is basically a hitter’s extra bases per at bat. You simply subtract a hitter’s average from his slugging percentage. The entire Texas team is putting up a collective .124 ISO (29th) at home vs. RHP. There’s a power outage in Arlington and Liriano is someone that can benefit.
RHP Jeremy Hellickson, WAS
Owned Y14%/E8% · at Arizona Diamondbacks – Sunday, May 13th
Everything I said about the Diamondbacks vs. RHP at home applies here for Hellickson too. The main difference being that Hellickson doesn’t get the strikeouts like Roark but he also doesn’t walk as many batters. Through 4 starts he has a 3.00 ERA, 4.03 xFIP, 1.05 WHIP and only 13 strikeouts in 21 innings.
There’s a reason he’s the last guy I’m hyping to you this week. He isn’t sexy and he isn’t all that good at baseball but he’s in an advantageous situation that can be exploited.