I streamed Hogan Harris of the Oakland Athletics a week ago for his two-start week. He rewarded me with 13 innings pitched, nine strikeouts, and only three earned runs across those starts, which allowed me to feel like a genius for a brief moment or two.
Should anyone hang their genius hat on an Oakland A’s pitcher doing well twice in one week? No, I don’t suggest it. But am I here to fill in for the great Joshua Thusat for two weeks because of it? Again, no. I’m just the tribute that is elected to make sense of next week’s pitching planner and make suggestions for a streaming option for each day.
I’ll follow his rules. I have to pick a pitcher to stream every single day, no matter what, but I will tell you if it’s a tough day to stream so you can understand that I am not actually suggesting you do it unless you’re desperate.
I will also use the FantasyPros weekly scheduler for probable starters and try to stay under 50% rostership on Yahoo for my recommendations. Ready? Let’s do this.
Fantasy Baseball Pitching Streamers: June 26 – July 2
Monday, June 26
Brandon Williamson (SP – CIN) @ BAL: 2%
Monday’s small slate really challenges that old adage, “It’s better to have streamed and lost than never to have streamed at all.” It’s really not, I promise.
Williamson is the best of the bad options. In the seven games he’s started this season, he has gone five or more innings in five of them. With the way the Reds have been playing of late, this puts him in the vicinity of a possible win. The chance of this goes up even more when you consider Baltimore is trotting out Cole Irvin (assuming they don’t bring Grayson Rodriguez back up).
The bad news is that the Orioles have a .755 OPS against lefties, good for 11th in MLB, and the even worse news is that his Statcast page looks like the container of blueberries my wife brought home from the farmer’s market this morning. Honestly, it should come with a viewer warning.
I understand if you’re in a league that forces you to stream someone every day, but I would stay away if you can.
Tuesday, June 27
Bryan Woo (SP – CLE) vs. WAS: 17%
Bryan Woo, on the other hand, has an unseemly ERA of 5.09, but his xERA is 2.46, and his xFIP is 3.00. He has been unlucky thus far, but his 33.8 K% is attractive for streaming purposes. The Nationals have a poor .687 OPS against righties and Woo is the type of pitcher who should give them fits. Washington is also scheduled to throw Jake Irvin on Tuesday, putting yet another possible pitching win into play. The 23-year-old has a lot of potential and might even be worth an add-and-hold in deeper leagues if he is available.
Wednesday, June 28
Logan Allen (SP – CLE) @ KC: 32%
The Royals are not good in general, but they are particularly bad against left-handed pitchers, carrying an OPS of .695 and having the fourth-most strikeouts against them. The 24-year-old does not rack up a high number of strikeouts, but he does rank in the 57th percentile in chase rate and 58th percentile in exit velocity, so he does offer some upside in this regard. What makes him an intriguing streamer for Wednesday is an opportunity to help your ratios and, again, give you some possible win equity. The Guardians have come alive, albeit with a slow pulse rate, and they will likely be facing a bullpen game.
Other option: Kenta Maeda (SP – MIN) @ ATL: 26% – If you are chasing strikeouts and strikeouts alone, Maeda is in play.
Thursday, June 29
Brayan Bello (SP – BOS) vs. MIA: 49%
Brayan Bello’s improvements this season continue to be overlooked more than they should be. He has reduced his BB% from 10.1 to 7.4, while feeding a steady diet of sinkers and changeups to hitters, which have reduced the home run issues that had plagued him. More than that, if you remove Bello’s ugly first two starts of the season, his ERA drops to 2.45.
When looking at streaming pitchers, I like to aim for teams with an OPS of less than .700 against a particular subset of throwers. Miami’s OPS against righties is .698, and they lack hitters that scream, “Stay away!” Bello offers some good upside for Wednesday’s slate.
Other: Kyle Hendricks (SP – CHC) vs. PHI: 26%
Friday, June 30
Osvaldo Bido (SP – PIT) vs. MIL: 7%
What hobby do you have that you love the absolute most? I want you to close your eyes and picture it. Then I want you to triple that amount of enjoyment. And that is how much Milwaukee loves to strike out.
Bido has had two starts against the Cubs and one against the Marlins. He is striking out slightly more than one batter per inning, and he is also keeping the ball in the park and limiting hard contact. The Brewers are a free-swinging group of guys with the lowest oWAR and second-lowest team OPS+ of 87. They are one of my favorite targets for pitchers, be it streaming, DFS, or betting.
Because of his low rostership and the matchup, I think Bido is my favorite streamer of the week.
Other: Hogan Harris vs. CWS: 8% – I like to target the White Sox almost as much as the Brewers.
Saturday, July 1
Johan Oviedo (SP – PIT) vs. MIL: 19%
Look, I’m not going to lie. I’ve confused these two Pittsburgh pitchers multiple times and have definitely called them “Oviedo Bido” and “Johan Osvaldo” before. Even though I continue to mash both of these righties’ names together in my mind accidentally, I am more than happy to stream them on back-to-back days. And you should be, too.
Other: Aaron Civale @ CHC: 37%
Sunday, July 2
Julio Teheran (SP – MIL) @ PIT: 49%
Teheran isn’t as good as his ERA currently claims him to be. He sits at 1.53 with a 0.88 WHIP, and neither of them is sustainable. He’s not striking out many batters, but he never really did. He’s also not walking anyone, which might be the “Sunday ratio help” many of us need at the end of an H2H matchup. When he faced the Pirates on June 16, he threw six innings and allowed one hit (a home run), one walk, and two earned runs. I don’t know how long the Teheran train will keep going – he is a streamer only – but I think he offers up a good option this week against the Pirates.
If only he could throw against his own team…
That’s all for me this week! May all of your streaming pitchers hit and all your ratios stay low.
And, as always, good luck!
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