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Top daily fantasy baseball streamers and waiver wire adds for 5/1/21. Mike Marteny identifies MLB hitters and starting pitchers to stream based on matchups.
Welcome to the another edition of our daily fantasy baseball streamers! Are you playing in leagues with daily moves and looking to beef up those rosters? We here at RotoBaller are there for you and all of your streaming needs. Whether you are just trying to get that elusive category win or you are trying to give your pitching staff a lift because Max Scherzer got blown up at a minor league park, we can help. Each day RotoBaller will provide you with some of the best streaming options to consider in both shallow and deep fantasy baseball daily leagues. Streaming hitters and pitchers to exploit matchups are important to help you win your league.
It is important to know your league if you're going to stream. I'm not just talking about which teams your leaguemates root for. I'm talking about whether strikeouts count against you for hitters or if fielding stats are included. Most importantly, you need to know how many transactions you have per week. You don't want to blow your allotment within a couple of days. You can also use these recommendations to help build your DFS lineups. This article will use rostered percentages and position eligibility from ESPN leagues.
There are only 13 pitchers who are owned in less than 50% of leagues today. It's a little rougher day for streamers, but there's a couple of good ones out there. We can make do.
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- Who should I start? Fantasy baseball comparisons
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- Fantasy baseball closer depth charts
- Fantasy Baseball live scoreboard
- Fantasy baseball injury reports
Hitter Streamers for 5/1 - Shallow Leagues
Austin Hays (OF, RHB, BAL) - 47.8% Rostered
Matchup: vs. OAK LHP Jesus Luzardo
Hays has been on a bit of a heater since coming off the IL on April 20. He is hitting .400 with three homers and five RBI since then. Hays has only faced Luzardo once, but he homered off of him twice in that game. I'll take the hot bat and hope that Luzardo makes a mistake or two to Hays here.
Joey Votto (1B, LHB, CIN) - 39.4% Rostered
Matchup: vs. CHC RHP Zack Davies
Fantasy owners have been known to hold grudges. That's the only reason why Votto is still available in so many leagues. Votto is hitting .304 with three homers and 10 RBI in the last two weeks. Votto also helps in leagues that track on base percentage too. You may as well ride him until he cools off. Oh, and Votto is hitting .367 with a homer and two RBI in 30 at-bats against Davies in his career.
Justin Upton (OF, RHB, LAA) - 33.5% Rostered
Matchup: vs. SEA RHP Ljay Newsome
It may be time to pay attention to Upton again. He has four homers in the last two weeks and gets to take on a bad Seattle bullpen. Newsome isn't going to go very deep into this game and he might not be able to shut the Angels down anyway. This isn't a great hitter's park,. but sometimes the park doesn't matter if the pitching isn't that good.
J.D. Davis (3B, RHB, NYM) - 29.8% Rostered
Matchup: vs. PHI RHP Zach Wheeler
This is not a great matchup for Davis, but he is hitting .412 over the last week. Wheeler is a good pitcher, but he's not invisible. He gave up three homers to the normally light-hitting Giants two starts ago. I'm not expecting huge things out of Davis, but when streaming, ride the hot hand.
Hitter Streamers for 5/1 - Deep Leagues
Alex Kirilloff (OF, LHB, MIN) - 18.9% Rostered
Matchup: vs. KC LHP Danny Duffy
This is a tougher matchup for Kiriloff, but he hit his first two career homers last night. The Royals bullpen was taxed last night so Duffy's going to throw until he gets tired. The Twins don't have a lot of options outside of Kiriloff that can play first base. I think he'll get a start here, but don't expect miracles.
Guillermo Heredia (OF, RHB, ATL) - 13.2% Rostered
Matchup: at TOR LHP Tom Milone
The opener and the long reliever are both soft-tossing lefties, so I'm going after them with right handed power. Heredia isn't a power hitter per se, but he does have two homers and eight RBI in the last two weeks with a batting average that you can live with. I want as many right-handed Braves bats as I can get in this game. Go scour the waiver wire for them. They're playing in a minor league park!
Tyler O'Neill (OF, LHB, STL) - 11.6% Rostered
Matchup: at PIT RHP Trevor Cahill
O'Neill started slow, but he is hitting .360 with four homers, five RBI, and two steals in the last week. Cahill is off to a poor start with a 7.11 ERA in four starts. This is only his second home start so far, and he looked decent in his first game there. Still, I'm riding the hot hand of O'Neill in all formats. He's the perfect streamer tonight.
Rougned Odor (2B, LHB, NYY) - 4.8% Rostered
Matchup: vs. DET RHP Spencer Turnbull
Don't stream Odor if you're watching your batting average. Despite the four homers in the last two weeks, his average over that span is just .216. Still, Turnbull isn't great against lefties and the four homers and nine RBI are something to chase. Odor is in a potent offense that is starting to wake up. There's good potential for runs scored as well.
Pitcher Streamer for 5/1 - Shallow Leagues
Taijuan Walker (RHP, NYM) - 33.4% Rostered
Matchup: at Philadelphia
The fantasy baseball world has been pretty slow to come around to Walker. Walker was brilliant in six starts last year and his first four this year have been almost as good. He is striking out 26.4% of batters so far this year, which is well above his career mark of 21.9%. If you are in a league that counts walks, you may want to be careful. Walker is handing out the free passes this year, but hasn't been burned much because he's keeping bats off the ball. Opponents have yet to get a hit off his curve and they are hitting just .091 against the splitter. He has an excellent 34% whiff rate on his four-seamer and opponents are hitting just .143 against that. Enter the Phillies, who scored just 12 runs in the four games in St. Louis after leaving Coors Field. The current Phillies roster is hitting just .132 off of Walker with four runs and 15 strikeouts. Things are looking good for Walker here, but he could have trouble scoring the win against Zack Wheeler.
Pitcher Streamer for 5/1 - Deep Leagues
Matt Harvey (RHP, BAL) - 2.5% Rostered
Matchup: at Oakland
I know, I know. Hear me out though. Harvey's numbers aren't as bad as advertised. His velocity isn't back up to where it was when he was taking the baseball world by storm with the Mets, but it's back up from the last couple of years. He's also locating his pitches better than he did even during his best years. Harvey gets the added benefit of pitching in an extreme pitcher's park against a team that is hitting a dismal .207 against RHP and .207 overall at home this year. Did I mention that Oakland is without their best lefty hitter in 1B Matt Olson? Harvey will likely give up a couple of runs here. He doesn't dominate anymore. However, he should still be able to help your ratios here and has a puncher's chance at a win.
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