Justin Mason | Sat, Aug 12th 2023, 9:50am EDT

Fantasy Baseball Two-Start Pitchers: Braxton Garrett, Graham Ashcraft, JP Sears (Week 19)

Now that the season is over halfway finished, it is time to start grinding the two-start pitchers to give you an advantage over your competition.

Fantasy Baseball Two-Start Pitchers

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 that are 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.

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

Must Start

Nick Pivetta (RP,SP – BOS) at WAS, at NYY

Logan Gilbert (SP – SEA) at KC, at HOU

Max Scherzer (SP – TEX) vs LAA, vs MIL

Max Fried (SP – ATL) vs NYY, vs SF

Yu Darvish (SP – SD) vs BAL, vs ARI

Should Start

Braxton Garrett (SP – MIA) vs HOU, at LAD

Outside of two really bad starts, Garrett has been excellent this year. He has especially been good on the road which is a really good sign that he can continue to be an elite pitcher from a skills perspective. I know these matchups are tough, but you should start him.

Graham Ashcraft (SP – CIN) vs CLE, vs TOR

Ashcraft has been fantastic since the All-Star break, throwing 38.1 innings of a 2.11 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP. Now, he has gotten very lucky on balls in play and he doesn’t strike out a lot of batters, but Cleveland isn’t an offense you are worried about and Toronto has not played well lately.

JP Sears (SP,RP – OAK) at STL, vs BAL

Sears has been fantastic and from a straight skills perspective, he should be in the Must Start tier. However, his major flaw is not of his own making. He has just two wins on the season because he pitches for the worst team in baseball. So, if you are looking for wins, you may want to look elsewhere, but if you want strikeouts and great ratios, he is one of the best options this week.

Brady Singer (SP – KC) vs SEA, at CHC

Singer has been up and down this season, but he has been on an upswing recently. Since the All-Star Break, Singer has made five starts with a 2.94 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 33.2 innings pitched. There has been a small uptick in his changeup usage, but nothing that tells me that there is a massive change in his profile. Singer has hot and cold streaks that you want to take advantage of, so he should be utilized in most formats this week, but keep in mind that it could all regress pretty quickly.

Here We Go

Bobby Miller (SP – LAD) vs MIL, vs MIA

Miller has been decent in his rookie season, but he has done a lot of his best work since the All-Star Break, throwing 25.1 innings over six starts with a 2.84 ERA and 24 strikeouts. He has two middle of the road matchups, but he also has one of the better teams in baseball supporting him. I think I would roll with this one.

Miles Mikolas (SP – STL) vs OAK, vs NYM

Mikolas has been up and down this season, posting a 4.20 ERA with 99 strikeouts in 141.1 innings. He is very dependent on his team’s defense because of his extreme ground ball tilt, but that is helped by the Cardinals being a very good infield defense. He has the easiest of matchups versus the worst team in baseball in the A’s and a bad offense in the Mets.

Wade Miley (SP – MIL) at LAD, at TEX

Miley has been really good this season, but a lot of it is built on luck. He has gotten lucky on balls in play and his strand rate. His xERA is 4.68 which is almost two runs higher than his actual ERA.

Emerson Hancock (SP – SEA) at KC, at HOU

Hancock has a decent debut and is a highly regarded prospect. He has a similar profile to teammates George Kirby and Logan Gilbert as a finesse pitcher that gets people out. The first part of this two-start week is really nice in Kansas City and becomes much harder at the end of the week in Houston, but I think I would roll with him in a lot of formats.

Feeling Lucky

Merrill Kelly (SP – ARI) at COL, at SD

Kelly may not even have a two-start week if the cramp he had in his right leg turns into something more than originally reported, but even if he does, he has to go to Coors Field and then face a really good Padres offense which means, I would pass unless I was out of other options.

Dakota Hudson (SP,RP – STL) vs OAK, vs NYM

Do I think Hudson is a good pitcher? No. Are these two of the best possible matchups you can get? Yes. There is a ton of risk here, but if you can’t use him here, you can’t ever use him.

Logan Allen (SP – CLE) at CIN, vs DET

Allen has quietly pitched really well in his last two outings, but when he has struggled this year, it has been in large part because of the home run ball. He is facing a Reds team that is crushing the ball in Cincinnati and I just don’t know if the Guardians new look offense will be able to keep up to give him a shot to win. I don’t think the risk of the first game is outweighed by a nice second start.