If you haven’t noticed, there’s an arms race going on in baseball right now. Just in the past couple of days, players such as Nathan Eovaldi, Cole Hamels, and J.A. Happ have been traded to contenders, with potentially even bigger names set to move before the deadline. While that level of pitcher probably isn’t available for you to stock up on in your fantasy league, there are still plenty of interesting names sitting around on the waiver wire for you stream when the right matchup comes around.
To determine the pitchers eligible for consideration, I looked at players who were owned in less than 30 percent of ESPN leagues.
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Monday, July 30
Ryan Borucki (TOR) @ Oakland Athletics (3.7%)
Borucki makes this list for the second week in a row, and he rewarded owners who streamed him last week with six innings of no-earned-run baseball. Of course, that was against the Twins. The Athletics will likely present more of a challenge, but Borucki can still be a useful streaming candidate. His ERA and FIP both still sit below 3.00, and even his 4.24 xFIP isn’t all that bad. The truth is that there aren’t a lot of high-quality options taking the mound Monday, but Borucki has the best numbers of the bunch.
Tuesday, July 31
Tanner Roark (WSH) vs. New York Mets (19.4%)
Roark is coming off his best game of the season, an eight-inning, 11-strikeout gem against the Brewers. He probably won’t do that again, but against the Mets, he may come close. Roark’s 4.55 ERA for the season isn’t superb, but it’s also nowhere near the worst of what you’re able to find among the eligible players. Against a Mets team that had the ninth-worst offense against righties by wRC+ heading into Thursday, Roark is one of the better options to stream this week.
Wednesday, August 1
Steven Matz (NYM) @ Washington Nationals (22.9%)
To honor the flipping of the calendar, I’m flipping the team of the pitcher I’m taking from the previous day (not great, I know). Like Roark, Matz is also coming off a game in which he set a season-high in strikeouts, fanning nine Pirates despite allowing four runs in six innings. Looking at his supporting metrics, he’s certainly gotten a little lucky this season, but how lucky depends on which number you’re looking at. Fortunately, the Nationals have struggled against lefties, as they had the 18th-lowest wRC+ and 18th-highest strikeout rate going into Thursday.
Thursday, August 2
Trevor Richards (MIA) @ Philadelphia Phillies (3.2%)
Richards has back-to-back quality starts after failing to record one in any of his previous three outings, so it appears he’s over his short rough patch that culminated in him walking seven over three and two-thirds innings. Other than that game, he’s only walked more than three batters once all season, so despite a walk rate over 10 percent, his control’s actually been quite good. He’s also striking out more than 20 percent of batters, always a good benchmark to clear. The Phillies struck out the second-most-often against righties coming into Thursday, so expect a decent amount of whiffs in this one.
Friday, August 3
Jake Odorizzi (MIN) vs. Kansas City Royals (23.8%)
Odorizzi was also recommended last week, and like Borucki, he rewarded owners who streamed him, going six innings and fanning eight while allowing just one earned run. Now, he’ll get to face that same team that he just dominated, and the expectation should be more of the same. Odorizzi’s 4.37 ERA on the year is representative of his overall skill level, at least according to his ERA estimators, and his strikeout rate of 24.3 percent was 26th highest among qualified starters before Thursday’s games. Meanwhile, the Royals haven’t gotten any better-they’re still a bottom-five team against righties by wRC+.
Saturday, August 4
Clay Buchholz (ARI) vs. San Francisco Giants (23.1%)
Just looking at his ERA, Buchholz should be owned in a lot more leagues than he is. Nowadays, though, fantasy owners are smarter than that. He owns a 2.38 ERA for the season, but also a 3.67 FIP and 4.11 xFIP. That isn’t to say that either of those numbers are bad-they’re still certainly in the ownable territory, which means he’s also a worthwhile candidate to stream. The Giants have been below average this year against righties and are one of the more strikeout-prone teams, so don’t expect Buchholz’s ERA to regress to his peripherals in this one.
Sunday, August 5
Jordan Zimmermann (DET) @ Oakland Athletics (24.0%)
Just a year after his ERA was on the wrong side of 6, Zimmermann has some of the best numbers you can find among low-owned players: a 3.97 ERA, 3.69 FIP, and a 23.1 percent strikeout rate. Admittedly, he’s struggled in each of his past two starts, but his numbers for the season should outweigh any doubts that have arisen because of that. Before those two starts, he had allowed one run or fewer in five of his previous six. As mentioned earlier, the Athletics (surprisingly) are not an easy team to face this year, but when comparing him to the alternatives pitching Sunday, Zimmermann’s quality should take precedence over any concerns about the matchup.
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Brian Reiff is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Brian, check out his archive and follow him @briansreiff.
