Justin Mason | Sat, Jun 24th 2023, 9:55am EDT

Fantasy Baseball Two-Start Pitchers: Justin Verlander, Gavin Williams, Garrett Whitlock (Week 13)

Now that the season has really gotten going, it is time to start grinding the two-start pitchers to give you an advantage over your competition.

Each week, I will be giving you a breakdown of the two-start options for your fantasy leagues broken up into the following tiers:

Must Start: The guys that you have to start because of their talent and/or matchups.
Should Start: These are the guys that are rostered in most formats and probably should be in your lineup.
Here We Go: Pitchers that you are probably starting in most formats but have some level of risk to them.
Feeling Lucky: Pitchers available in less than 25% of leagues that are risky, but viable in deeper formats.
Desperate Measures: Pitchers you shouldn’t use unless you have no other choice.

Two Start Pitchers for June 26 – July 2

These are projected two-start pitchers and are subject to change.

Must Start

Zac Gallen vs TB, at LAA

Clayton Kershaw at COL, at KC

Kevin Gausman vs SF, vs BOS

Spencer Strider vs MIN, vs MIA

Sonny Gray at ATL, at BAL

Framber Valdez at STL, at TEX

Luis Castillo vs WAS, vs TB

Sandy Alcantara at BOS, at ATL

Should Start

Justin Verlander vs MIL, vs SF

Verlander has been struggling and at his age, you have to be worried about his overall health. However, I don’t know how you sit the reigning AL Cy Young winner, especially in matchups that aren’t overly scary.

Yu Darvish at PIT, at CIN

Darvish has been up and down this season, but I am not worried about him. He has almost always been a stable pitcher when healthy and in spite of the bumps in the road, he is healthy.

Gavin Williams at KC, at CHC

Top pitching prospect Gavin Williams has made his arrival and while he struggled in his first start versus a bad Oakland team, he gets a fantastic redemption two-start week versus two struggling offenses. He would be a top pick-up this week without the two starts and now he is a premier pick-up because of them.

Here We Go

Garrett Whitlock vs MIA, at TOR

The results may not be perfect, but Whitlock is a budding ace. His slider has been elite and he has done a great job at limiting home runs and walks since returning from the IL. I think he will be the kind of guy that wins people’s fantasy leagues down the stretch.

Tyler Wells vs CIN, vs MIN

In spite of a homer issue, Wells has been pretty great this season. However, when he has pitched in the comfy confines of Camden Yards this season, he has been elite, throwing 50 innings with a 2.25 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in Baltimore. The Cincy start is a bit scary, but he is at home for both of these starts.

Taj Bradley at ARI, at SEA

Bradley put up one of the best starts of his career last week and the most impressive part was the change in pitch mix. He stopped throwing his fastball as much and relied upon his secondaries which led to a lot of weak contact and a really nice line. If he can continue to do that he will emerge as a must-start type of guy.

Jaime Barria vs CHW, vs ARI

I really like what Barria is doing, but there is some risk. He is not known for throwing many innings in his outings so there is the risk that he does not qualify for a win in one or both of these starts. That being said, he has been a really stable ratio asset and he is worth using in a lot of formats.

Michael Kopech at LAA, at OAK

Kopech is the opposite of Barria. There is a ton of upside with strikeouts here and he should go deep enough to qualify for a win, but he tends to walk too many guys and give up home runs. The Angels start is a scarier one, but the A’s are so bad that it is too hard to pass up this one.

Feeling Lucky

Jhony Brito at OAK, at STL

Brito has been up and down this season but pitched really well in his return to the Yankees last week. He has a really nice two-step versus two struggling teams in really good parks.

Ranger Suarez at CHC, vs WAS

Suarez doesn’t deserve to be this low, but I have a weird feeling about this one. Washington actually hits lefties pretty well and while Chicago is struggling they have some pretty strong bats as well. I think you probably should roll with this one, but I do feel uneasy about it.

Julio Teheran at NYM, at PIT

Teheran is going to regress at some point, but you have to just enjoy what he has been doing since getting the call from the Brewers. His 1.53 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in 35.1 innings are pretty fraudulent as they come with a 4.68 SIERA and a 17.6% strikeout rate. However, no one is really that worried about the Mets or the Pirates, so he has a good chance at keeping it going.

Rich Hill vs SD, vs MIL

This one is a pretty big boom or bust. Hill has been up and down but he is solid for the most part. He faces the worst team in baseball versus lefties in the Brewers but also gets one of the better teams in baseball versus lefties in the Padres. This start is high risk for sure.