Down here, where we stream pitchers rostered in 30% of Yahoo leagues or less, it can sometimes feel post-apocalyptic. The film is grainy, every movement is a menace, and we pray for supplies. Sometimes, on the horizon, a good guy appears.
This week, that good guy is Jose Quintana. He’s our steady hand rostered in only 33% of Yahoo leagues, he plays for a good team, and he has two good matchups.
Except for Thursday and Saturday this week, we have acceptable options for streaming our way to victory.
Monday, September 5
Marco Gonzales (SP – SEA) vs. CWS: 30%
Gonzales is the definition of a low-rostership streamer. He is a possibility throughout the entire season, largely because he can give you innings and limit (usually) the damage. His 4.94 FIP is scary, but the 3.99 ERA is acceptable. He’s striking out fewer guys this year, with a 4.91 K/9. But he’s keeping the ball on the ground as well as he did in 2018, and he often limits home runs. Gonzales has a 1.29 HR/9. Gerrit Cole‘s HR/9 is 1.26. Triston McKenzie has a 1.30 HR/9. The White Sox are 21st in runs scored in the last month, so they’re not exactly lighting the league on fire.
Other options: none
Tuesday, September 6
Jose Quintana (SP – STL) vs. WSH: 33%
Hopefully, Quintana can give us two solid starts this week. We don’t need him to go deep, but hopefully, he’ll go longer than he did in his last matchup, which saw him pitch 4.2 innings against Cincinnati. He gave up two runs in that one and wasn’t terribly efficient. His 3.47 ERA is not something that you find very often on this level of streaming. And the FIP agrees with it: 3.28. Quintana is throwing his changeup more this year, and the spin rate has increased a little. It’s generating softer contact. He has an 18.6% Soft% versus the 12.5% Soft% from last year. In 2021, his HR/FB% was 21.4%, but this year it’s a whopping 6.6%. Washington is 27th in runs scored in the last two weeks.
Other option: none
Wednesday, September 7
Domingo German (SP – NYY) vs. MIN: 41%
He’s a little outside my 30% range, but at 41%, it might be time to consider picking him up and holding. In the last 36.1 innings, he has pitched to a 1.98 ERA against teams like the Mets, Athletics, Rays, and Red Sox. The concern earlier in the season was his ability to pitch deep into games, but now he has pitched more than six innings in each of his last three starts. The WHIP is a tell-tale sign more often than not, and it sits at 1.12 in nearly 50 innings. Let’s see if he can go five, and the Yanks can give him some early runs.
Other option: none
Thursday, September 8
Clarke Schmidt (SP – NYY) vs. MIN: 9%
I don’t feel good about today at all. Draw a line through it. The matchups are scary, and the available pitching is too mediocre. But the other unwritten rule of this article is that I must choose a guy. So here goes nothing. I’ll cross my fingers and hope Clarke Schmidt can go five innings. I’ll also hope that he can give us an outing that is closer to his first start (against the Mets, 3 IP, no runs) than his second (against the Athletics, 4.1 IP, four runs). The silver lining is that he struck out seven hitters in Oakland. He has a 2.89 ERA and a 3.50 FIP. He walks guys (4.58 BB/9), but he can strike them out, too (8.68 K/9). He throws his slider the most, to the tune of 37.6% CSW and an xAVG of .126. He throws five pitches that can get hitters out, so it’ll often come down to sequencing.
Other option: none
Friday, September 9
Austin Voth (SP – BAL) vs. BOS: 22%
Sears may be safer in some ways, but we might not get as much run support. Baltimore is 15th in runs scored over the last month. Good enough. Voth held the Astros to one run in six innings on August 28th, which makes me feel a little better about playing him against Boston. He has had a 2.57 ERA in the last month, and the WHIP is 1.00. He has a 20.3 K%, and he’s creating weaker contact, perhaps by throwing that cutter more. And we learned in last week’s article that he has been working to study his opponents more consistently, and a student of the game who is showing success and is rostered in 22% of Yahoo leagues is the perfect fit for us.
Other option: JP Sears (OAK) vs. CWS: 17%
Saturday, September 10
Matt Manning (SP – DET) at KC: 24%
Manning hurt me last week. He gave up seven runs to the Mariners. And this is where I cringe while saying, with a true gambler’s heart, that just makes him available this week. We are banking on a rebound. The 24-year-old pitched 85.1 innings last year and managed a 5.80 ERA, 5.27 xERA, and an 8% SwStr%. This year, in 40.1 innings, he has managed a 3.79 ERA, 3.54 xERA, and 12.3% SwStr%. He’s throwing his off-speed stuff more (slider and curve). The slider, in particular, is turning in a much higher CSW (28.3% last year and 40.3% this year). Let’s hope for a solid matchup.
Other option: none
Sunday, September 11
Jose Quintana (SP – STL) at PIT: 33%
Everything from Tuesday’s blurb applies. I should just add that Pittsburgh is 28th in runs scored on the season (29th in the last month). They are 3rd in strikeouts and 29th in batting average. Only five teams have failed to reach 1,000 hits at this point of the season, and Pittsburgh is right in there. I don’t mean to beat up on them, but given the situation and the fact that this is a streamer article, we can’t ignore these numbers. When scanning the list of probable starters every day, I won’t lie: I look to the Pirates.
Other option: none
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