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Richie Smith breaks down the top 5 starting pitching sleeper options off your waiver wire to start two games in week 5 of fantasy baseball action.
This will be a season-long, weekly piece on under-the-radar, two-start pitchers whom you should consider picking up for the following week of play. In weekly leagues, we know your attention turns to the next week as soon as lineups lock on Monday – this post will always be published well enough in advance to give you ample time to prepare for the coming week.
The names that will appear on this list will not be your obvious, must-start guys who are likely already owned. It does you no good for me to tell you to start Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg; instead, I’ll look at starting pitchers who are less than ~50% owned in Yahoo! These arms are worth taking a look at if you’re investigating two-start options for the following week.
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Two-Start Starting Pitcher Streamers for Week 5
Jason Vargas - KC, 38% Owned
Projected starts: Tuesday vs. TOR, Sunday vs. DET. I guess it’s time to start paying attention to Vargas. After tossing seven scoreless and getting the win last Friday against the Twins, he now holds a 1.24 ERA and an outstanding .204 batting average against. Vargas gets two home starts next week, and has only given up one run all season at Kauffman Stadium. While the Blue Jays and Tigers both flaunt good “name-brand” offenses, they are actually both below the league average in runs scored per game this year. So rolling with a hot Vargas for two home starts should be a solid play for next week.
Alfredo Simon - CIN, 43% Owned
Projected starts: Monday vs. CHC, Saturday vs. MIL. Simon has had the chance to see consistent innings because of Mat Latos’s prolonged DL stint and has Simon sure made the most of the opportunity so far. His first three starts have been as good as any in the league. He currently holds a 0.86 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP, while earning the win in two of his three starts. The Cubs offense is pretty atrocious, and Milwaukee’s bats have cooled off since their long winning streak earlier this April, so Simon and his .173 batting average against is a strong two-start option next week.
Wade Miley - ARI, 24% Owned
Projected starts: Monday vs. COL, Sunday @SD. I’m not really sure what it says about the Diamondbacks rotation when Wade Miley is technically the number one starter. Well, actually I do know what it says…the D'backs are a very bad team. But somebody has to pitch for them, and Miley hasn’t actually been terrible. In fact, he was decent last Friday against a good Dodgers lineup, giving up only one run over six innings. He has two favorable match-ups next week. He first gets the Rockies, where last outing against Colorado he threw eight innings and allowed only two runs in a win, and then over the weekend he’ll face San Diego at Petco (insert weekly comment about how bad the Padres offense is).
Franklin Morales - COL, 1% Owned
Projected starts: Tuesday @ARI, Sunday vs. NYM. Morales is the super deep league streamer selection. He came over to Colorado from Boston in the Jonathan Herrera trade this past winter. And so far, Morales really hasn’t been anything special. He is pretty inconsistent, as he’ll have some good starts mixed in with some terrible ones. I definitely don’t recommend him as anything more than a streaming option. But two-start streamers are exactly that: streamers. So a start against a struggling Arizona offense, and a Sunday matinée at Citi Field serves as two chances for Morales to put together a couple of decent outings. But beware, he’s just as likely to labor through four innings and lack command as he is to throw six scoreless.
