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This weekly piece focuses on the best two-start pitchers and streamer waiver wire pickups for the upcoming week of fantasy baseball. These under-the-radar, two-start pitchers can be sleepers off the waiver wire depending on your league format, including NL-Only and AL-Only formats, and you can consider adding them to your head-to-head and daily-league lineups. These pitchers are near or below 50% ownership in Yahoo! leagues, some ideal for shallow leagues, some ideal for deep leagues.
Jake Arrieta, Chicago Cubs – 56% Ownership
Projected starts: Monday @BOS, Saturday @ WAS
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Jake Arrieta has been on fire lately. In his last four starts he is 3-1, he has gone at least six innings in each of those starts and has only allowed three earned runs in total. He also has a whopping 36/2 K/BB ratio over that span. Yes, 36 K and 2 BB; those numbers are correct. Overall, he supports a stellar 2.10 ERA and a .235 batting-average-against. His BABIP, .315, is also relatively high, meaning that he’s actually getting a bit unlucky with balls hit in play, which makes his recent numbers even more impressive. Next week, Arrieta will have two road starts against Boston and Washington, both have below average offenses on the season (both are bottom third in the league in runs scored and total hits). Arrieta’s 56% ownership will soon balloon, especially with one more good start, so go grab him now.
Zack Wheeler, New York Mets – 56% Ownership
Projected starts: Monday @ATL, Saturday vs. TEX
Zack Wheeler has been a bit of a disappointment in 2014, as he and the Mets came into the year hoping he would take the next step forward to lead New York’s rotation, especially with Matt Harvey sidelined this season and recovering from Tommy John surgery. It really has not worked out so far for Wheeler, however, his strikeouts are up, he is averaging better than a strikeout per inning, and he has mixed in some great performances along with some duds. Just two starts ago, he tossed a complete-game, three-hit shutout against an unproven Miami offense, but followed it up with a two-inning, six earned run clunker. I can’t blame you if you’re hesitant to roll with Wheeler next week, but a plus match-up with a weak Atlanta offense and a home start against Texas makes him somewhat appealing, especially if you are in need of strikeouts, which he is almost guaranteed to provide you with.
Jake Peavy, Boston Red Sox– 40% Ownership
Projected starts: Monday vs. CHC, Saturday vs. BAL
This is more or less a gut call. Jake Peavy, quite frankly, has not been very good this season. He only has one win on the year, he’s given up a lot of hits, and he no longer pitches with the velocity necessary to be a consistent strikeout guy. But if the Red Sox are going to make any type of run in the AL East, someone besides Lackey and Lester is going to need to step up, and Peavy has two home match-ups next week to try and prove that he is that someone. In addition, Peavy’s last two home starts have been good, as he’s thrown a quality start in each. Only two teams, San Diego and Atlanta, score fewer runs than the Cubs, and while the Orioles’ offense is pretty good, I have a feeling Peavy will pitch well next week, and could be a decent streaming option.
Jesse Hahn, San Diego Padres – 20% Ownership
Projected starts: Monday vs. CIN, Saturday vs. SF
Jesse Hahn got called up a couple weeks ago, and he has been really good so far. Over his first four starts, he is 3-1 with a 2.38 ERA and 1.06 WHIP. He also has a strong 10.7 K/9 rate and a nasty .190 batting-average-against. So it’s pretty clear that Hahn has major league stuff, it’s just a question of whether you are buying into it yet. Two starts at Petco next week makes Hahn a very attractive streaming option for next week, especially going up against a Reds’ offense that has struggled most of this year (albeit has been a little better lately), and a Giants team that has only scored 87 runs so far in June, which is just 20th best in the league. I’d feel good about Hahn next week.
Jarred Cosart, Houston Astros – 11% Ownership
Projected starts: Tuesday vs. SEA, Sunday @LAA
Full discloser, I haven’t been able to see Jarred Cosart pitch a ton this year, but I’ve been stat scouting him pretty closely the last few weeks, and it’s time for him to make an appearance on this list. He recently had his best performance of the season, where he pitched eight shut out innings of six hit ball, and he now has seven wins on the season, which is fairly remarkable given the Astros aren’t very good and do not score many runs. Cosart has thrown four straight quality starts and, even though he only has a K/9 rate of 6.1, he has a nice 20/5 K/BB ratio over his last four starts. Next week, Cosart will pitch against two division opponents, Seattle and Los Angeles, two teams he has already faced this season, and despite losing both starts, he pitched two quality starts in those outings.
