BALLER MOVE: Add in leagues of 12+ teams
ROSTERED IN: 13% of leagues
ANALYSIS: While he may not have high strikeout numbers, Houser has been having a good month in July where he's gone 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA, 1.273 WHIP and 16.7 percent strikeout rate over 22 innings of work. He'll look to kick things off in August with his fifth appearance of the season against Pittsburgh, after going 2-0 with a 0.77 ERA, 0.771 WHIP and seven strikeouts over 11 2/3 innings of work against the Pirates in July. The Pirates had been hitting well recently, but their offense has come to a grinding halt over their last three games where they are slashing .158/.216/.253 and averaging 1.3 runs per game. They are also hitting worse on the road (.235/.298/.361) than at home (.240/.319/.375) this season, which is another point in Houser's favor.
He'll close out the week against the Giants, who have struggled over their last 10 games by hitting .222 while averaging 3.7 runs per game. On top of that, they have been hitting considerably worse on the road (.235/.311/.430) than at home (.252/.343/.436).
The only real concern with Houser is that he has not reached five innings pitched in two of his last four starts, so there's the potential that he could put up good rate numbers but miss out on wins. That matchup with the Pirates should be about as sure a thing as you can predict in fantasy, and if he can put up even an OK performance with the Giants, he should provide solid value in Week 19.
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