Top Hitter Streamers and Starts for Fantasy Baseball - Week 21

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Hey RotoBallers! It's Jon Anderson, taking over another weekly article for the rest of the season! Everybody is bailing on you to focus on fantasy football, but I am here for you because I love you. I can be your hero, baby.

We are getting very, very close to the fantasy playoffs. Chances are some teams in your league have given up home, and that will leave some extra value on the waiver wire for us to exploit. I will take us through this and find some streaming hitter options for week 21.

As always, check out the rest of our fantasy baseball streamers content after you read this piece! Here we gooooo!

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What Teams Offer The Most Streaming Value?

There are four teams scheduled to play seven games next week:

Arizona Diamondbacks
Boston Red Sox
Los Angeles Dodgers
Milwaukee Brewers

We don't have any Coors Field action, but we do two teams going into the bandbox that is Great American Ballpark. The Cardinals play three games at the beginning of the week, and then the Rockies have a three-game weekend set to close out week 21. We will give special attention to all of these teams mentioned here.

This Week's Streamers

Jake Fraley, Cincinnati Reds (21% Rostered)

Fraley and the Reds return home next week for six games. The first three are against the tough Cardinals pitching staff, but the last three see the Rockies – who do not pitch very well, even away from Coors Field.

Forget the week 21 schedule though, I am adding Fraley for the long haul.

xwOBA Leaders since All-Star Break

Player	PA	xwOBA
Aaron Judge	138	.517
Albert Pujols	63	.473
Trayce Thompson	76	.426
Yordan Alvarez	118	.422
Rowdy Tellez	103	.417
Juan Soto	124	.417
Lars Nootbaar	111	.405
J.D. Davis	59	.404
Jake Fraley	71	.404
Eloy Jimenez	120	.398

Now it's one thing to hit the ball well for 71 plate appearances out of nowhere, but the thing with Fraley is that I don't think is truly out of nowhere. He was a trendy breakout pick during the draft season after the trade that sent him to Cincinnati. However, he hasn't been able to stay healthy this year so we didn't see a ton from him in the first half.

For the season:

PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	HR	Brl%	K%	BB%	Cont%	xwOBA
119	.243	.336	.485	.822	7	8.5%	18.5%	11.8%	77.9%	.349

Fraley is just a good hitter, and he can be added for free in more than half of the leagues right now. I would add him now and ride the production for the rest of the season.

Lars Nootbaar, St. Louis Cardinals (27% Rostered)

I wanted to add Lars Nootbaar immediately upon his call-up this year just because his name is so stinking funny, but now I want to add him because he's been one of the best hitters in the league for several weeks now.

Since the All-Star Break, Nootbaar has slashed .289/.441/.530. That adds up to an OPS of .972 – which is the tenth-highest in the league during this time frame. He's hit *just* three homers over his 111 plate appearances, which isn't a great total, but he probably should have a few more with his elite 14.3% Brl% and tiny 14.4% K%. The .405 xwOBA was listed above in the Fraley write-up, that's a top-ten mark as well.

The biggest appeal is that Nootbaar's performance has him leading off for an elite Cardinals lineup, which has resulted in tons of opportunities for runs and steals. Get your noot-bars while you can!

Dylan Carlson, St. Louis Cardinals (47% Rostered)

It turns out that the Cardinals have the easiest schedule in the league next week. Right now they're slated to face this group of starters:

Date	Opponent	Probable
8/29	STL	T.J. Zeuch
8/30	STL	Justin Dunn
8/31	STL	Mike Minor
9/2	CHC	Drew Smyly
9/3	CHC	Adrian Sampson
9/4	CHC	Javier Assad

None of these pitchers are good save maybe Smyly. That makes Carlson a pretty nifty pickup as the Cardinals should have a nice week ahead of them.

Emmanuel Rivera, Arizona Diamondbacks (5% Rostered)

Rivera since joining the snakes:

63 PA, .296/.367/.611, 4 HR, 17.1% Brl%, 20.6% K%, 11.1% BB%, 75.7% Cont%, .379 xwOBA

He has become the Diamondbacks' #2 hitter, and he's scored 13 runs with eight RBI in his 15 games with his new team. He's just 26 years old and has shown some really positive signs this year. I think he is being way overlooked. For the year, he has a 10.4% barrel rate with a 76.4% contact rate.

Only 24 hitters in the league have cleared a 10% barrel rate and a 75% contact rate with a sample of greater than 200 plate appearances – it's not easy to do, and Rivera has convincingly done it. I think he's just a good hitter, and it helps that he has seven games on the schedule for next week.

Jake McCarthy, Arizona Diamondbacks (12% Rostered)

Quietly, McCarthy has hit .289/.344/.426 through 2o9 plate appearances, hitting four homers and stealing five bases in that time. The power isn't great (3.4% Brl%), but he makes a good amount of contact and has that steals ability as you can see there.

He is much less impressive than the names above, but he has a ton of opportunity next week with a game every day and is one of the few available options that can steal you a bag next week while not hurting your batting average.

Michael Massey, Kansas City Royals (2% Rostered)

The Royals rookie has a really impressive 16.1% Brl% and a 74.5% Contact%. Only six hitters in the league have managed a barrel rate above 15% and a contact rate above 70% over more than 75 plate appearances this year, that full list:

Aaron Judge (25.8% Brl%, 71.4% Contact%)
Yordan Alvarez (20.1% Brl%, 76.3% Contact%)
Danny Jansen (17.2% Brl%, 77.9% Contact%)
Shohei Ohtani (17.1% Brl%, 71.3% Contact%)
Austin Riley (16.3% Brl%, 72.6% Contact%)
Michael Massey (16.1% Brl%, 74.5% Contact%)

I doubt that Massey stays on this list for very long, but it's pretty impressive that he has made it even this far. He looks like a very mature hitter, and that's always exciting to see as a rookie. The schedule next week:

That's two good pitchers that have struggled this year, a "fine" veteran, and then three not-good pitchers to end the week. Stream in Massey, baby!

That's it for my first crack at hitter streamers, hope this helps! Peace out!

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