Welcome to your fantasy baseball starting pitcher happy place. This is a new column for me this year that will combine a few things I’ve done before. In this article, every Monday, you’ll not only get a list of my favorite streaming starting pitchers for the week, but underneath that is also a breakdown of a few pitchers making interesting changes to their pitch mix. For this week, I’m not going to do unique pitcher analysis underneath this because I wrote an entire article on pitch mix and usage changes last week that you can check out here.
We should note that we are entering the final two weeks of the season, which means that we need to treat these schedules with a HUGE grain of salt. Teams are going to change around the schedule mid-week, so you’re going to need to keep up on the news on Rotoworld during the week and also rely a little bit less on the Sunday streamers because they may lose those starts.
As far as which pitchers on this list you’ll want to stream, your decisions will change based on your league type and settings. Since I’m listing starters for the whole week, I won’t be able to provide a detailed analysis for each one; I’ll highlight the matchup and offer some quick thoughts. As is usual with my articles, a streaming starter pitcher is rostered in less than 40% of Yahoo formats, so just keep that in mind as we’re going through because I won’t be mentioning pitchers who are rostered in more leagues than that. I also won’t be mentioning pitchers that I would not start in any format.
Check out this week’s MLB Power Rankings!
Starting Pitcher Streamers of the Week
A Quinn Mathews two-step with your season on the line. Can you do it? I’m inclined to. I think both matchups are solid, and Mathews has been good enough over his last few starts. I think there’s more strikeout upside than he showed, but there is some risk worry. Landen Roupp is super inconsistent, and it’s hard to know if we can trust him, but the matchup is good. Sadly, Corbin Burnes just likely won’t go deep enough into this game, which means you’re hoping for four solid innings here. I would not trust Casey Mize, who has been struggling, to go on the road in Colorado.
Maybe people don’t know that Griffin Jax looked good in his last start? I know his first start off the IL was a disaster, but he looked much better here and is a solid two-start pitcher for this week. I love this matchup at home. Andre Pallante is also in a good spot against a Giants team that is without Rafael Devers and is looking towards next season. Ryan Johnson is a much bigger risk, but I think you can get a quality start here, and Michael Soroka just hasn’t been going deep enough into games, which worries me. Blade Tidwell is the ultimate risk, but I’m not opposed to you targeting the Cardinals offense.
I know Jared Jones is over the roster limit, but this is just in case you’re thinking that you need to bench him against the Brewers. I do like the Merrill Kelly start against the Marlins, even though Kelly has been tough to trust lately. Same goes for Jake Bennett, who is clearly running on fumes right now, but gets a good matchup. We’ve been waiting for Cristian Javier to ride this new pitch mix to better results, and it might finally be happening. Erick Fedde has been pitching solid as a bulk reliever, which gives him a good chance at wins, and Yusei Kikuchi has actually been pretty good since coming off the injured list.
Not a lot of games on Thursday, so not a ton of options. I think Dustin May has been getting pretty unlucky of late, so I can trust him here against the Pirates. Anthony Kay is a bit tougher to trust, but the Tigers haven’t been hitting the ball really well of late, so I can see rolling the dice.
Connor Prielipp is pitching better of late, but this is really about the matchup. The Angels are the worst team in the American League, and I think we can attack them with the majority of capable pitchers right now. I wish I knew what we’d get from Joey Cantillo, but he seems to be a conundrum every time out. I do love the matchup at home, though. Andrew Alvarez is risky, but he is pitching deeper into games, and I like the matchup here. I can’t trust Luis Castillo, and Shane Drohan has not been pitching deep into games, which dampens a lot of his upside here.
I know Andrew Painter hasn’t taken off like I expected because the fastball velocity and vertical movement have come and gone, but it was back in his last outing, and so I’ll trust him here. I’ll also trust Jacob Lopez because he’s on the road; his last two home starts were not great. I listed Cal Quantrill and Bubba Chandler here to show you that I’m a bit more tepid on them this week, despite them both being over the roster limit. I’m also tepid on Jackson Jobe despite his one good game against the Rockies at home because, well, it was the Rockies outside of Coors. Hayden Wesneski gets a tough matchup, but the Braves offense has also been struggling of late. It’s a roll of the dice, but I can see doing it.
Now we’re coming in with a lot of the two-start weeks. All of Patrick Sandoval, Brandon Young, Davis Martin, Jonah Tong, and Cody Bradford are tough to trust because of their schedules, so I would rather avoid those two-start weeks. Landen Roupp has a good first start, so I can see taking the gamble there, and Dean Kremer has this really nice start against the Angels if you wanted to chance it against the Yankees to start the week. Griffin Jax finishes off his solid two-start week, as does Quinn Mathews, with Ryan Johnson being a gamble against a Minnesota offense that does hit for power if they ever decide to wake up.
