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Season five of HBO’s Game of Thrones is about 10 months away so there’s no excuse for fantasy baseball not to consume you every day now. Below are some of my Week 13 picks for starting pitchers to consider streaming off the waiver wire. Some of these pitchers may be two-start pitchers, and all of these SP options can be considered sleepers for your team depending on the league format and depth including NL-Only, AL-Only and head-to-head formats. I categorize each of the streaming options as either Desperate, Risky, Solid or Must Stream.
Monday SP Streamers
Nathan Eovaldi (MIA at PHI)
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Ownership: 38% Yahoo!, 34% ESPN. Eovaldi is coming off two shaky starts in which he gave up a combined 19 hits in 10.2 innings. Yikes. If there is good news, it’s that he has maintained consistency in the strike zone and hasn’t issued a lot of walks.
The Phillies have struggled to create runs against right handers, but they have considerable success against Eovaldi (.288/.349/.417 slash line against him).
MATCHUP RATING: Risky Stream
Marcus Stroman (TOR vs. NYY)
Ownership: 14% Yahoo!, 2% ESPN. Stroman had been efficient since being promoted from the bullpen…until he couldn’t get out of the fourth inning in his last start. Which was against the Yankees. This time he’ll see the Yankee lineup in Toronto, which has more pitcher friendly dimensions in the outfield. Of course that may not be a good thing as Stroman hasn’t seen much defensive help at home. The Yankees are in the bottom third of the league in run creation and isolated power away from Yankee Stadium.
MATCHUP RATING: Solid Stream
Tuesday SP Streamers
Jeff Locke (PIT at TB)
Ownership: 5% Yahoo!, 3% ESPN. Is Jeff Locke back for good? He just may be. He also just may be the starting pitcher “Locke of the Week.” I guarantee his name has never, ever been used in a pun like that. As for baseball, the resurging leftie is forcing batters to swing at pitches outside the zone an incredible 36.1% of the time (league average = 29.3%), which has helped translate to a 12% swinging strike rate. Velocity on his fastball is up from last year and he’s hitting the strike zone 50% of all pitches. Perhaps most important, Locke is not walking batters since his return. Tropicana Field is left handed pitcher friendly and the Rays, though hitting better than the start of the year, are still sluggish offensively.
MATCHUP RATING: Must Stream
David Buchanan (PHI vs. MIA)
Ownership: 0% Yahoo! and ESPN. About the only sure thing involving Buchanan is that he should be an easy pickup due to his ownership numbers. Everything else about him is extremely risky. Against right handers the Marlins have the highest K rate (24.2%) so Buchanan could put up some good strikeout numbers. Of course he could also give up two home runs just to Giancarlo Stanton.
MATCHUP RATING: Desperate Stream
Jake Arrieta (CHC vs. CIN)
Ownership: 37% Yahoo!, 31% ESPN. Bearded Arrieta just may make the NL All-Star squad. He’s had that type of year. He’s too good to pass up, but Cincinnati’s bats are starting to wake up.
Arrieta’s cutter has been his strongest pitch and Cincy has struggled against the cutter. It’s worth mentioning again that Cincinnati’s bats are starting to wake up and could bring Arrieta back down to earth.
MATCHUP RATING: Risky Stream
Wednesday SP Streamers
Kevin Gausman (BAL vs. CHW)
Ownership: 18% Yahoo!, 8% ESPN. Baltimore’s gloves are sure to help any Oriole starting pitcher- as shown by Gausman’s 3.95 xFIP- which is music to fantasy owners’ ears. The Sox have a few guys that can absolutely mash the fast ball and split finger, Gausman’s best pitches, thus rendering any glove useless.
MATCHUP RATING: Risky Stream
Collin McHugh (HOU vs. ATL)
Ownership: 37% Yahoo!, 27% ESPN. We’ve reached the “take any right hander against the Braves” portion of the article. It just so happens that this right hander facing the Braves has been better than just okay. McHugh has a high K-rate, low WHIP and is yielding a .191 BAA. Atlanta has stunk it up against right handers and there is no indication that they won’t against McHugh’s slider on Wednesday.
MATCHUP RATING: Solid Stream
