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Brad Johnson's fantasy baseball daily streaming picks for June 16, 2018. Pitcher and hitter streamers for MLB DFS games, and head-to-head (H2H) waiver wire targets.
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire. This article, which began last season, runs seven days a week. We are always ready to stream.
For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be available on your waiver wire.
Below are your pitcher and hitter streaming targets for Saturday, June 16. Let's get to it.
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Agenda
- In Case You Missed It
- Today's Weather and Updates
- Tomorrow's Picks
1. In Case You Missed It
Perhaps you heard tell of a certain viral video featuring a very calm umpire and a very irate Terry Collins. Perhaps you also heard that Rob Manfred has personally scrubbed the video from the entire internet. Quite the feat. Anyway, in case you missed it, here's the supposedly scrubbed video.
Here's the terry collins rant/ejection reuploaded pic.twitter.com/Uv6supZrwe
— Bring Rajai Davis Back (@DaTornadoz) June 14, 2018
2. Today's Weather and Updates - Friday, June 15
Should be all clear this evening. Just keep half an eye on Atlanta in case of pop up storms.
3. Streamer Picks - Saturday, June 16
Pitchers to Use
Kyle Freeland possesses the following positive attributes for his matchup versus the Rangers: a 48.4 percent ground ball rate, 8.04 K/9, 2.99 BB/9, a basically luck neutral 3.68 ERA, and a start away from Coors Field. Oh, and the Rangers are possibly the most strikeout prone team in the league. Additionally, he is left-handed which renders several notable Rangers (i.e. Joey Gallo and Rougned Odor) terrible. Alas, Freeland is only available in 57 percent of leagues.
Alternatively, Zach Eflin is visiting Junior Guerra at Miller Park. This is not an ideal pairing based on the venue, and both pitchers have some meltdown risk. However, they also typically toss something approximating a quality start. The Brewers are a good if sometimes strikeout prone offense. The Phillies are an adequate if extreme strikeout prone offense. However, Eflin seems to have better strikeout stuff, hence both pitchers project quite evenly.
Other Targets: nope
Pitchers to Exploit
Jordan Zimmermann is bad. We agree right? Do I need to elaborate? No? He's visiting Lucas Giolito, a pitcher who makes Zimmermann look like a respectable workhorse. Giolito was once talked about as a possible top pitching prospect in baseball. His name was invoked in the same sentences as Tyler Glasnow... oh, he's not a good starter either? In any case, Glasnow seems to be holding his own as a reliever. Giolito is drownin as a starter. He's allowed a roughly luck neutral 7.09 ERA backed by 4.64 K/9 and 5.86 BB/9. Yuck.
Wade LeBlanc has a shiny 3.00 ERA. He's also a soft tossing lefty with merely above average command (the bar to cross is "elite" for a pitcher of LeBlanc's profile) and ERA-estimators in the mid-4.00s. He doesn't induce strikeouts, and it's unclear if he can continue to induce soft contact. One notable change is a shift to fly ball contact. A matchup against the Red Sox is disadvantageous for multiple reasons of which I need not enumerate.
Other Targets: Wei-Yin Chen, Alex Cobb, Mike Minor, Marco Estrada, Wade LeBlanc
Homers on the Wire
It's a surprisingly shallow day for power bats. As always, the options listed below represent a range of choices with guys like Derek Dietrich and Aaron Hicks available in shallow leagues while deeper formats may need to reach for a John Hicks or Jake Marisnick. In each case, the player in question as a strong matchup. Deitrich is by far my favorite opposite Alex Cobb at power friendly Camden Yards.
Lineup role matters too. If you're hunting RBI Daniel Palka versus Zimmermann and Colin Moran against Luis Castillo could both benefit from batting cleanup. Moran doesn't escape the yard all too often, and PNC Park doesn't help matters. Palka has the opposite problem. He hits for plenty of power but struggles to make contact.
Other Targets: Yolmer Sanchez, Danny Valencia, Mark Trumbo, Ian Desmond, Matt Adams, Nick Williams
Steals on the Wire
Leonys Martin bats leadoff versus the catastrophic Giolito. When it comes to stealing bases, reaching base is round one-tenth the battle. Martin should reach base multiple times tomorrow. Or at least once. Preferably with nobody in front of him.
As a splitter ball pitcher, Guerra is quite stolen base prone. Brewers catchers also aren't the sharpest at controlling the running game. Scott Kingery happens to be the player likeliest to attempt a steal. He even profiles a solid matchup versus a ground ball pitcher.
Other Targets: Delino DeShields, Jose Peraza, Manuel Margot
