13 hours Ago
We’re now into the final month of the fantasy baseball season and that means we need to shift the way we manage our starting pitchers. In truth, we really should have been doing that for a few weeks now, but with most starters only set to make four or five more starts in the 2024 season, we need to be managing on more of a week-to-week mindset rather than a Rest of Season mindset. To help you do that, I’m going to rank and break down my favorite streaming matchups each week from here until the end of the year.
Below you’ll find multiple tables that rank streaming starting pitchers based on those I have a strong preference for, those I’m fairly confident in, those I have some hesitation about, and those I’d only stream if I’m desperate. Within the tiers, you can make some changes based on your own needs. If you need strikeouts more than ratios, you can bump up the two-start pitchers over the pitchers with one good matchup, etc.
Some of the rankings will also be influenced by future matchups. For example, if I have two starters really close for this upcoming week, but one of them gets an elite matchup the following week and the other is in a matchup I want to avoid, then I’d prefer to add the pitcher I’ll use for two straight weeks because that makes my team better in the long run. This is the time of year when we need to be ruthless.
If you’re not going to start a pitcher for two weeks, move on. If a pitcher has been great for you but now has bad matchups (hello Bowden Francis), move on. Your decisions will change based on your league type and settings, but I’ll do my best here to give you the information that will help in your formats.
As is usual with my articles, a streaming starter pitcher is rostered in less than 50% of Yahoo formats, so just keep that in mind as we’re going through. Offenses to Attack Before we get into our rankings, just a quick note about the offenses we want to attack. I used FanGraphs team stats over the last month, searching for metrics like wRC+, strikeout rate, OPS, etc.
, and narrowed down the list of offenses to the ones that have struggled in those areas. To stream starting pitching, we want to target pitchers going against the White Sox, Angels, Marlins, Pirates, Mariners, Rays, and Rockies on the road only. Think of these as HIGHWAY OFFENSES - not stopping at all.
I also am more than comfortable using pitchers against the Tigers, Giants, Cardinals, Nationals, and Reds when they’re on the road only. Think of these as GREEN LIGHT OFFENSES - you can’t open it up like you can on a highway, but you’re good to go. Lastly, some offenses that have been solid over the last month but won’t scare me off of a good streamer are the Cubs, Athletics, Blue Jays, and Mets.
Think of these as YELLOW LIGHT OFFENSES - some hesitation but still good to go. Now for the rankings. Pitchers within the same tier can be treated almost interchangeably.
JUST A BIG NOTE FOR THIS WEEK THAT THE FINAL WEEK OF THE BASEBALL SEASON IS USUALLY CHAOTIC WITH TEAMS CHANGING THEIR LINEUPS AND STARTING PITCHERS ONCE THEY GET ELIMINATED OR CLINCH A POSTSEASON BIRTH, ETC. MAKE SURE YOU CHECK EVERY DAY TO ENSURE THE PROJECTED STARTER IS STILL SET TO START None of these names should come as a surprise. Most of the offenses they’re facing are in my HIGHWAY tier, as offenses we really want to attack, and the two pitchers who face the Athletics are guys who I think have the potential to put up solid lines and get you wins.
Cody Bradford has a 3.68 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, and 33 strikeouts in his last 36.
2 innings. I’m not overreacting to a poor start against the Diamondbacks, so I’m happy to roll out Bradford in a great matchup. Same for Kumar Rocker , who looked great in his debut.
He may be limited to just five innings, which saps some of his upside, but the strikeouts should be there. I guess I should shout out what Brant Hurter has done for the Tigers of late. Over the last month, the Tigers have been using him as a bulk reliever, which has enabled him to secure wins in FIVE STRAIGHT STARTS.
Over that span, he has a 2.19 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, and 24 strikeouts in 24.
2 innings. He gets a matchup here against a bad Rays offense, and so I love using Hurter if you’re trying to grab a sneaky win in your leagues. I mentioned Jack Kochanowicz last week, and he delivered by allowing one run on five hits over seven innings while striking out five against the White Sox.
He gets another shot against them next week and then a matchup with a Rangers offense that lacks the punch we’re used to seeing. I wouldn’t start him against the Rangers in an isolated start, but the White Sox start is too good to pass up in two-team leagues. Michael Lorenzen is scheduled to come off the IL to make this start, but who really knows if he will.
He went four innings in his last rehab outing, so he should be able to go five innings here, at least, which gives him a chance for a win, but first starts off the IL are always extremely risky. Same goes for Reese Olson , who has already made one start off the IL, but it wasn’t great. He gets a really solid matchup here, and I think he has a good chance for a win, but I’m just not sure if we’re going to see the version of Olson that we loved so much early in the season.
Rhett Lowder has been pitching above his head, in my opinion, and I don’t think he has any truly elite pitches; however, he has an arsenal full of average to above-average offerings, and that slider flashes plus, so I believe in him enough to hold his own against a Cubs team that will be eliminated by then. JP Sears dominated the Astros and struggled in starts against the Mariners and White Sox. Cool.
That does make him a little bit hard to trust, but I believe in him as a pitcher enough to face a Mariners team that should also be eliminated from playoff contention by the time this game is played. You can kind of say the same thing about Reid Detmers , who is capable of being tremendous against the Dodgers and also imploding against the White Sox. You can gamble with him against the Rangers because, you know, on any given Sunday.
Zack Littell hasn’t allowed a run in his last 11 innings and that came in starts against the Guardians and Orioles. Not bad. However, he also doesn’t typically rack up lots of strikeouts and his team is unlikely to win this game, so there is some minor hesitation.
Then there are the pitchers who I’m less confident in, like Colin Rea, Simeon Woods-Richardson, Chris Flexen, and Joey Estes , but I like their matchups enough to throw them into this tier. Flexen may be the worst of the bunch if you’re strictly hunting for wins because, well, he pitches for the White Sox. There are a lot of names on here, so I’ll just quickly address that, I love Casey Mize’s matchups, and we can feel confident that his team will be playing for something in those games, but he himself has been hard to trust with his performance.
Davis Martin is in a similar boat with great matchups and uneven performances, but his team won’t be playing for anything other than to avoid the distinction of being the worst team ever, which I guess is certainly motivation. Sean Burke looked good in his debut, but it’s one start and his team is not likely to win that game. Jose Quintana has been great and the Brewers have clinched a playoff spot, so they may sit guys, but the Brewers are also good, so I’d prefer to avoid that.
Edward Cabrera is unhittable when he’s on, and the Twins have really been struggling, but the Twins are also a good team and Cabrera can implode at any moment, so it’s a risky bet on a bad team. There are some notable names on here, but given the matchups or return from injury ( Ryan Weathers) , I’m going to avoid everybody on this list unless I’m in a super deep league and am desperate for strikeouts or maybe wins..
