Starting Pitcher Waiver Wire Pickups: Week 21

August 19, 2014

Harris Yudin analyzes three fantasy baseball MLB starting pitcher sleepers for week 21. These sleeper waiver wire pickups can have an immediate impact on your team.

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As you make your push towards the fantasy playoffs, you’re going to want all the help you can get. Pitchers who win are very valuable, and in many leagues, a win can make up for a mediocre outing. In this week’s column, I will be discussing three undervalued starting pitchers who will continue to pick up wins down the stretch as their teams fight for a spot in the real playoffs.

Jason Vargas - SP, Kansas City Royals

Owned in 35% of Yahoo! Leagues

The Royals have an MLB-best 13 wins so far in August, largely due to a strong showing from their pitching staff. In August, they've shut out the Giants once and the Athletics twice, one of which came in Oakland. Vargas has played a major role in Kansas City’s recent success, earning a win in each of his last two starts.

The 31-year-old righty went the distance on August 13 against baseball’s best team, the A’s, allowing just three hits and no runs and striking out four in the process. His ERA is down to 3.27, the lowest of his nine-year career, and he has grabbed nine wins. His 0.88 HR/9 ratio is his lowest since 2010, and he hasn’t allowed a longball in five consecutive appearances.

Through all this, Vargas is still owned in just 35% of Yahoo! Leagues. Thirteen games over .500, this Kansas City squad is the best team Vargas has ever pitched for, so he is likely to pick up a few more wins over the final month and a half of the regular season. Vargas has really cemented himself as a reliable fantasy option, with 15 quality starts in 22 outings to date, and owners in all AL-Only leagues and most mixed leagues should take notice.

Bud Norris - SP, Baltimore Orioles

Owned in 13% of Yahoo! Leagues

Bud Norris is another veteran enjoying the best season of his career. His 3.75 ERA tops that of any of the previous five years and his 10 wins ties the career-best mark he set last year, despite currently having tossed 56 fewer innings. Norris has posted an 8.5 H/9 ratio and a 2.9 BB/9 ratio, both of which are lower than they have ever been. As a result of his improved control, opposing batters are not making strong contact, as his 1.20 groundball-to-flyball ratio is miles better than it had been in past years.

Baltimore is currently atop the AL East, seven games ahead of the second-place Yankees. The O’s have not won their division since 1997, so there is no way manager Buck Showalter will allow his team to get complacent. They have a potent offense that allows guys like Norris to pitch with a lead quite often, and he is given a chance to pick up a win even when he struggles a bit. This is evidenced by his last two starts, in which the O’s won 9-3 and 11-3, despite Norris’s inability to nail down a quality start.

As he continues to pitch well and the O’s continue to win, Norris will find himself well above 10 wins by season’s end. He should be owned in all AL-Only leagues, and is worthy of consideration in deeper mixed formats.

Aaron Harang - SP, Atlanta Braves

Owned in 43% of Yahoo! Leagues

Like the others, Harang is giving the Braves possibly the best season of his career, with a 3.51 ERA and nine wins to date. Given the fact that he finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting in 2007, it is impressive that at age 35 he's managed the lowest ERA of his 13-year career. He is inducing more ground ball than fly balls (1.03 ratio) for the first time since 2005, perhaps due to his pitch selection.

Harang has relied much less on his fastball as of late, and is implementing his newly-developed cutter more often. Though his strikeout and walk numbers remain nothing more than mediocre, he is getting the job done and putting his team in a position to win games. With the help of Atlanta’s stellar bullpen, Harang has been winning close games all year. Even though he hasn’t registered a win since July 10, as Atlanta puts it all together in their attempt to lock up one of two wildcard spots, he should see that number in the win column begin to rise once again. Though he isn’t one of the most intriguing fantasy options, owners in NL-Only and deeper mixed leagues should definitely take a flier on a guy who will likely accumulate a few more wins before the fantasy season ends.

With only about a month remaining in the regular season of most fantasy leagues, now is the time to pull out all the stops. If that means streaming pitchers throughout the week, then you will definitely want to consider these pitchers to help earn you a few extra wins.