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Michael Pineda is a fantasy baseball waiver wire pickup for Week 18 of the 2021 MLB season. Consider adding the SP if he's free agent in your leagues.
BALLER MOVE: Add in leagues of 10+ teams
ROSTERED IN: 37% of leagues
ANALYSIS: Ever since joining the Twins, Pineda has been putting up the best numbers of his career — and 2021 has proven to be no different. While not flashy, Pineda has been a solid pitcher with a 3.93 ERA, 1.221 WHIP and 21 percent strikeout rate over 66 1/3 innings of work this season.
He'll have an interesting matchup to kick off the week when he goes against the Tigers at home, as they have gotten red hot recently with a seven-game winning streak in which they're slashing .295/.342/.525 and averaging six runs per game. There are a few factors that will help out Pineda though, starting with the fact that Detroit is hitting worse this year against righties (.236/.308/.395) than against lefties (.249/.313/.400). What should also really help Pineda is the home-road splits, as not only are the Tigers hitting worse on the road (.237/.302/.395) than at home (.242/.316/.398), Pineda has been pitching much better at home (3.75 ERA, 1.167 WHIP) than on the road (4.42 ERA, 1.364 WHIP).
Pineda will be on the wrong side of those splits though when he heads on the road to face St. Louis at the end of the week. Not only is Pineda pitching worse on the road, the Cardinals are also hitting better at home this year (.245/.312/.386) than on the road (.219/.293/.381). Plus, the Cardinals are slashing .254/.308/.429 and averaging four runs per game over their last 10 games. But that being said, St. Louis has hit worse against right-handed pitching (.230/.299/.379) than against left-handers (.236/.313/.401), which could help Pineda out some.
While Pineda will benefit from some of the left-righty and home-road splits, he'll still be facing off against two teams that are on a roll at the plate right now. At the very least though, he should get a good chance at some strikeouts against the Tigers, who own the worst strikeout rate in the majors at 26.5 percent.
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