May 13, 2017

Jeff Kahntroff analyzes hitter streamers and starts for Week 7. These bats are potential fantasy baseball waiver wire adds to stream for head-to-head leagues.

Welcome back, RotoBallers! As a reminder, in this piece we're looking for weekly streamers, which means players who are 50% owned or less in Yahoo! leagues and who have seven games in the week.

To catch my streamers column each week, add me on Twitter @rotonails.

With that said, let’s dive into the stream(ers).

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Bats to Stream and Start in Week 7

Kevin Pillar (OF, TOR) - 42% owned

Pillar has been a regular on this list lately. So long as he remains under 50% owned and Toronto plays seven games, he will continue to be. As stated previously, he hit .272 with 19 homers and 39 steals over the prior two years, and he is off to an even better start this year. Facing favorable pitching matchups with an offense that has started to click, he is this week’s top streamer.

Joc Pederson (OF, LAD) - 50% owned

Joc’s stock has been a bit of a roller coaster. He goes from sleeper to fantasy bust and back quickly. And it makes sense why: he stole from 24-31 bases each of his four minor league seasons before coming to the bigs, and he had 73 homers over the last three of those. Yet, he is a .224 hitter who has stolen 10 bases in 330 games. Nevertheless, this should be a good week for him; he faces favorable pitching matchups and either five or six righties. For a player with massive splits (.829 OPS versus righties and .595 OPS versus lefties), this week could kickstart his season. Add him and be the benefactor of some power and run production.

Keon Broxton (OF, MIL) - 50% owned

Like Pederson, Broxton is another power/speed player who strikes out a lot and pays for it in the batting average department. However, unlike Pederson, his speed has translated to steals in the majors. In 113 major league games, he has 32 steals. In that limited time, he also has 12 homers. Add him for steals, and cross your fingers for a homer. The average likely won’t be great, and the pitching matchups aren’t extremely favorable, but the power-speed combo is too much to pass up.

Ryan Schimpf (2B/3B, SD) - 24% owned

Going with the trend this week, Schimpf represents another hitter who is prone to the strikeout. He has topped the others, with a 31.5% strikeout rate in his short career, which has led to a .205 average. However, he has 29 homers in only 122 games. Moreover, he has hit righties much better (.886 OPS versus .676 OPS), and he will face six of them this week. If you need homers this week, Schimpf is your best pure power play, although he is unlikely to help in other categories.

Manuel Margot (OF, SD) - 34% owned

Schimpf’s teammate is hitting .282 with all three of his homers versus righties this year. Margot, however, is more of a speed asset. After stealing 111 bases in his last three minor league seasons, he has six in his first 46 major league games. Margot could hang in there in batting average (.261 career hitter with good matchups this week) while stealing you a base and not killing you in run production. It is hardly a ringing endorsement, but if you need a balanced asset with the likelihood for a steal, he is not a bad choice.

Steve Pearce (1B/2B/OF, TOR) - 5% owned

I’ll admit off the bat that Pearce is a personal favorite of mine due to his time in Baltimore. But he is also a great hitter when he’s on. Over the last three years, he hit .267 with 29 homers per 162 games. He has started May off hot with a .250/4/4/9/0 line in his first eight games. It was expected that he’d start slowly coming off injury, and now that the bat is going, he’s worth a look. He is a gamble, but he has a lot of upside and should be available in nearly all leagues.

Tim Anderson (SS, CHW) - 35% owned

Anderson is my gut feeling pick of the week. He will miss the entire weekend series due to the death of a close friend, but he will return Monday and succeed. He has started the year a bit slowly, but he does have two steals and two homers, and his 24.4% strikeout rate is serviceable given his speed. Facing good pitching matchups, he’s my gut feeling pick of the week. I haven’t taken one all year, so I feel I’m entitled to one.

Also worth monitoring

Domingo Santana (OF, MIL) – Santana has a .235/5/17/13/4 line to start the year. If he faced better pitching matchups, he’d be higher on the list.

Devon Travis (2B, TOR) – Travis has been bad to start the year, hitting .174 with one homer and two steals in 30 games. But, he has a .209 BABIP, and his batted ball profile is in line with his career (which has produced a .283 average, 20 homers, and nine steals in 193 games).  He faces good matchups this week.

Danny Valencia (1B/3B/OF, SEA) – In 2015, Valencia hit .290 with 18 homers in 105 games. In 2016, it was .287 with 17 homers in 130 games. If you adjust his BABIP to what it was the last two years, he is on the pace for the same. He’d be higher if the matchups were better.

Jed Lowrie (2B, OAK) – Lowrie is off to a .283/4/20/8/0 start to the year. He has decent matchups (except for Chris Sale), and is worth a look if the others are gone.

Chris Taylor (2B/3B/SS, LAD) – Taylor is a real dart throw, but he is in a good lineup, qualifies at a few positions, and is off to a hot start. Yes, his numbers are inflated by a .424 BABIP, but he will face good pitching matchups and should be available in most leagues if the others aren’t available.

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