RADIO
Players to target or add from the waiver wire in Week 9 for fantasy baseball H2H (head-to-head) leagues. Zach Alexander identifies the top pickups of the week based on rising fantasy value.
There are plenty of strategies that fantasy managers explore in hopes of getting an advantage over their opponent. Heavy lineup, heavy starting pitchers, no catcher, all (or mostly) reliever staff, no reliever staff, etc. Even if you play a balanced lineup, injuries can cause holes. A few weeks without a key player won’t kill a season, but why accept losing when you can stream?
Streaming can be a risky business. If you do it right and check the necessary boxes, you can win the week. This column will do most of the work for you. It’ll cover weekly recommendations for when you need: steals, home runs, average, strikeouts, wins, and/or ratios (ERA/WHIP).
All position eligibility and ownership percentages are based on Yahoo! Fantasy leagues.
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Steals – Head-to-Head Category Streamers
Jarrod Dyson (OF, ARI) - 24% Owned
Keep going back to the well. Dyson likely won’t move from this spot unless he becomes more widely owned. He is the very best shot (at under 40 percent ownership) to get fantasy teams a stolen base. Pretty simple.
Kevin Kiermaier (OF, TB) - 11% Owned
In his past five games Kiermaier is 5-for-15 with three home runs and a stolen base. There’s not much more to it than the fact that he’s feeling it right now. The Rays have the 10th most stolen bases of any team this season, so he’s got a good shot of grabbing a bag. He’ll see the Blue Jays at the beginning of the week, who allow the 13th most stolen bases in the league so far.
Home Runs – Head-to-Head Category Streamers
Tyler Austin (1B, SF) - 0% Owned
Home run streamer directions: type in “Orioles schedule” on google, find a player on the opposing team with anything resembling power and stream them. Seriously, the Orioles have allowed 107 home runs this year, which is 18 more than the next closest team (Seattle with 89). Austin is zero percent owned, meaning people in your league may look at you funny when they see that you added him. Good news is he’s available everywhere and he’s got three homers in the past three games, which will force the Giants to stick with him for now. There’s not much data on him, but he hit lefties (.245) a bit better than righties (.206) last year for what it’s worth.
Renato Nunez (3B, BAL) - 6% Owned
How about a guy who has a six game slate, all at Camden Yards. We streamed against the Orioles, so let’s have some fun and stream an Oriole too. Beside the park factor, Nunez will square off against the Tigers and the Giants who are seventh and eighth in most home runs allowed this season, respectively. Nunez also is much better at home with a slash of .261/.323/.534 with seven home runs and a .193/.237/.375 slash with four home runs away. Note that’s he likes hitting lefties better than righties, but the power is just about equal against each so far.
Batting Average – Head-to-Head Category Streamers
Harrison Bader (OF, STL) – 24% Owned
His elbow X-rays came back negative from a hit-by-pitch, but make sure that situation is all set before making this move. Bader was looking like a bust to begin the season and a recent injury didn’t give fantasy managers reason to hang on to him. However, he’s hitting a .440/.481 double slash in the past two weeks and he starts this upcoming week against the 23rd worst ranked team in batting average against (Philadelphia). The Cubs will be the weekend series, but Bader has been a historically better hitter against lefties (.292/.370/.517 slash in 2018 against lefties), and the Cubs have plenty of those.
Asdrubal Cabrera (2B/3B/SS, TEX) – 42% Owned
Cabrera’s batting average has been a weak spot this year, but don’t let that keep you from streaming him against the second and fourth worst pitching staffs in batting average against (Seattle and Kansas City, respectively). He could also fit in the power department with these matchups, but this is a great time for him to start to pull that batting average out of the depths. Sometimes a weak opponent is all a hitter needs to get back on track. Cabrera is a switch hitter so don’t worry about the handedness of the pitcher he’s facing.
Strikeouts – Head-to-Head Category Streamers
Lance Lynn (SP, TEX) – 20% Owned
Lance “win” Lynn has been a pleasant surprise over the past month, posting a 3.18 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 34 innings. The 2015 through 2017 Lance Lynn seems to be gone, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be useful this upcoming week in which he lines up for two starts. The first one will be against Seattle who he just faced, striking out 11 over seven innings of work. Later in the week he’ll see a Kansas City team who is better, but should be good for about a strikeout per inning.
Dylan Bundy (SP, BAL) – 9% Owned
Remember when Bundy was supposed to be the Orioles ace? Those times have come and gone, but Bundy has been flying under the radar with a 3.14 ERA in the past month and 26 strikeouts in 28 innings. He’s still been up and down but flashed brilliance in starts against the Indians, Rays, and Twins. This upcoming week he’ll face a Detroit lineup who is second to last in runs scored this season.
Wins - Head-to-Head Category Streamers
Yonny Chirinos (SP/RP, TB) - 46% Owned
Chirinos has thrived in the bulk role for the Ray this year posting five wins and a 3.20 ERA. The risk is limited here because he gets the lineup the second time around, which makes it harder for the batter to adjust. He’ll likely get a bulk appearance against the Blue Jays who have the 26th best offense in runs scored this season. Vlad Jr. is really the only threat there, so if he can get around him he should enjoy some solid run support and get a win.
Tyler Mahle (SP, CIN) - 21% Owned
There should be confidence from Mahle’s last four starts. He had a bit of a rough outing against the Giants, but surrounding that were two one-run starts against the A’s and Mets and a third six inning shut-out of the Dodgers. The Nationals are still near the low end of the pack at 20th in runs scored this year. A 3.46 FIP and 3.56 SIERA support Mahle’s 3.51 ERA this far and he may be a guy that jumps in ownership with a couple more good starts. Get him here with a win and likely good ratios.
ERA/WHIP - Head-to-Head Category Streamers
Jose Urena (SP, MIA) – 5% Owned
I laughed a little inside when I found myself picking up Urena for a stream this past week. I’ll bet the majority of fantasy managers don’t know that he’s posted six quality starts in his last seven games. Three of those games he threw seven full innings and six innings in the other four. These weren’t all bad lineups either, he faced the Cubs, Rays, Braves, and Phillies (twice). He also has a two-start week on tap with the 20th run scoring lineup in Washington, as mentioned above, and the 23rd run scoring lineup in San Diego. It’s unclear how far this will go, but he’s going deep into games against good teams right now. Ride it.
Sonny Gray (SP, CIN) – 34% Owned
There is clearly still skepticism with Gray on the fantasy market. Why? I’m not sure. A 3.78 ERA with 57 strikeouts in 50 innings seems to be a pretty solid bench arm if not SP4 to me. Especially with a lineup behind him that looks to be heating up a bit. His last outing was at Milwaukee in which he struck out nine over six scoreless innings. Does that not intrigue you? Not only has he been rock solid, he also has a 3.11 FIP and 3.74 SIERA to back it up. A two start week against the Pirates and Nationals may be the antidote to get his ownership over 50% and out of streamer territory.
More Streamers and Head-to-Head League Columns
