May 8, 2017

Brad Johnson's fantasy baseball daily streaming picks for May 9th. 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. Use this column to bolster your neediest categories.

Below are your pitcher and hitter streaming targets for Tuesday, May 9th.

Let's get to it.

Agenda

1. MOAR Injuries
2. Today's Weather and Updates
3. Tomorrow's Picks

1. MOAR Injuries

I set you an important task yesterday - to determine which word is best used to describe a group of injuries (i.e. pride of lions). The results...

Which word to describe a group of injuries (i.e. a gaggle of geese)?

— Brad Johnson (@BaseballATeam) May 7, 2017

Frankly, I'm a little disappointed. The most commonly used saying won. I always root for the unconventional. Since I complained about injuries yesterday, Michael Brantley came up lame while running the bases (ankle sprain). At least we've received good news about Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. They're expected to return tonight.

2. Today's Weather and Updates

Storms be chillin' in Colorado. That sweet, sweet Cubbies lineup could be grounded. Keep an eye on it. Cincinnati, Chicago, and Denver are storm risks tomorrow.

3. Tomorrow's Picks - Tuesday, May 9th

Pitchers to Use

Yep, I'm obsessed with Charlie Morton. Get over it. There are red flags in the profile, but the pieces are there for an ace-like breakout. He just has to fit together a few more adjustments. Oh, and survive a starter's workload. Since his 2008 debut, Morton has only twice exceeded 150 innings in a season. While he's a great waiver wire acquisition, be careful paying for him via trade. Do you really want to bet he'll avoid the disabled list? Don't hesitate to use him tomorrow against the Braves.

Here's what I said about Alex Wood yesterday. It still applies. Wood may yet start tonight due to a weight room injury to Brandon McCarthy.

His ownership has climbed to 27 34 percent. This may be your last chance to acquire him cheaply. The southpaw uses a funky delivery to keep hitters uncomfortable. He has a high strikeout and ground ball rate coupled with a tolerable walk rate. His velocity is up two mph. He's an automatic start in all formats. Wood should receive run support against the Pirates. Keep an eye on how the Dodgers handle today's rainout - Wood could be bumped.

No, I don't believe in A.J. Griffin's early season success. There's no way he maintains a 10.18 K/9, 2.21 BB/9, and .220 BABIP. Regression will push him into the mid-4.00 ERA range. That doesn't much matter tomorrow. He's opposed by Jered Weaver and the Padres. If the Rangers lineup can't supply a victory, it's time for them to quit.

As a reliever, Matt Andriese is a poor man's version of Chris Devenski. As a starter, well, he's a rarely usable streamer. His stuff doesn't usually hold up to multiple spins through the lineup. I'm... hopeful... that the Royals crummy offense will let him cruise through six innings. Like many Rays pitchers, Andriese relies heavily on a plus changeup.

Other Targets: Ariel Miranda, Zack Wheeler, Dan Straily, Hector Santiago, Jharel Cotton

Pitchers to Exploit

Prepare for a rare Unbalded Jimenez sighting tomorrow. He finds himself opposite the Nationals juggernaut at Camden Yards. Too bad most Nats are highly owned.

I've been trying to squeeze quality starts out of CC Sabathia, but it's just not happening. The Reds offense has been remarkably productive. I'm not actually surprised, I thought they'd outperform preseason projections. With tiny Great American Ballpark in play, the Reds should post a few runs. You can still chase a victory with Sabathia since he only has to outpitch Tim Adleman. The Yankees bullpen will do the rest.

Mike Pelfrey is terrible. He hosts the Twins at former US Cellular Bandbox aka The GSpot.

Kyle Freeland has a shiny 2.65 ERA. He may be the Tyler Anderson of 2017. The actual Tyler Anderson has turned into a dumpster fire - a possible future for Freeland. With only 5.29 K/9 and 3.71 BB/9, he does very little to help fantasy owners. His success to date can be tied to a 64.2 percent ground ball rate and a 25.7 percent soft contact rate.

Other Targets: Jered Weaver, Adam Wainwright, Wily Peralta, Kyle Freeland, John Lackey, Alex Meyer

Homers on the Wire

We'll soon bid adieu to Yonder Alonso. He was seven percent owned last Thursday, 12 percent on Sunday, and now 30 percent this morning. Every site is talking about him today. He'll be over 50 percent by tomorrow. Grab him while you can. The production is (mostly) real. Matt Joyce and Jed Lowrie can be targeted too versus former prospect Meyer.

Bartolo Colon isn't getting his usual results. The Astros have a surprising array of options available. Josh Reddick is batting second the last few days. Nori Aoki and Yulieski Gurriel are farther down in the order.

Max Kepler, Kennys Vargas, and any other Twin you may possibly want are green lit versus Pelfrey and the Tigers horrific bullpen. Vargas is of interest if he can maintain his fluky low strikeout rate. Alas, I put the odds of that happening right around zero.

Aaron Altherr is banged up, but it didn't stop him from popping a pinch hit home run yesterday. Boomshakalaka. If Altherr wasn't playing semi-part time, he'd be getting the Alonso treatment from me. Grab shares if you can.

Other Targets: Andrew Toles, Mitch Moreland, Logan Morrison, Brandon Moss, Tommy Pham, Randal Grichuk, Zack Cozart, Didi Gregorius, Chase Headley, Chris Carter, Carlos Gomez, Shin-Soo Choo

Steals on the Wire

The door is closing on Brett Gardner. He's up to 46 percent owned. He has a pristine matchup against a bunch of bad Reds pitchers in a small ballpark. He'll probably sit one game due to the Yankees outfield logjam.

I'm tired of saying things about Jose Reyes. He's still sitting around, twiddling his thumbs at 31 percent owned. He'll face Samardijon mustard.

Try one or all of Taylor Motter, Ben Gamel, or Jarrod Dyson if you need a stolen base. The Phillies aren't the most stolen upon team, but their backstops aren't particularly talented. Motter has the best all-around ability of the group. The face Eickhoff.

Michael Taylor may or may not benefit from facing Ubaldo Jimenez. Who can say. Taylor has a nasty habit of swinging through everything. He'll also chip in with an occasional monster game.

Other Targets: Hernan Perez, Kolten Wong, Delino DeShields

Skill Positions

I issued a warning about Francisco Rodriguez yesterday. He promptly blew another save via a walk, double, and home run. Justin Wilson and Alex Wilson are the handcuffs to own. Rodriguez may yet take the bulk of the ninth inning action going forward, but there almost has to be a short term shift in usage. After all, he has a 8.49 ERA and four losses (plus a vulture win) in 11.2 innings. He's allowed runs in eight of 13 appearances.

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