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We're nearly two weeks into the regular season and injuries, game delays, and general roster shuffling have already taken their toll on fantasy rosters. In leagues with daily lineups, fantasy managers can navigate those pitfalls and take advantage of favorable matchups with help from RotoBaller's daily MLB streaming articles.
Each day, RotoBaller will provide you with some of the best streaming options to consider in both shallow and deep fantasy baseball daily leagues. All rostered rates and positional eligibility is based on Yahoo! leagues.
Tuesday's slate features 16 games, including a doubleheader between the Mets and Phillies. The full schedule gives fantasy managers plenty of streaming options, many of which are discussed below.
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Hitter Streamers for 4/13 - Shallow Leagues
Cedric Mullins (OF, LHB, BAL) - 46% rostered
Matchup: vs. SEA LHP Nick Margevicius
Tuesday’s matchup against the Mariners isn’t particularly attractive for Mullins in a vacuum, but it is extremely attractive for Trey Mancini and Pedro Severino (more on that later), boosting Mullins’ likely run and RBI production. Plus, although hitting against Nick Margevicius isn’t a matchup that’s tailor-made to Mullins’ strengths (and Mullins hasn’t hit well against lefties in the past generally), Margevicius just isn’t very intimidating and Mullins is still likely to bat leadoff on Tuesday. Overall, Mullins should provide fantasy managers with multiple categories of production on Tuesday (with the very real potential to be a five-category contributor), making him worth consideration as a streamer.
Joey Wendle (3B, LHB, TB) - 25% rostered
Matchup: vs. TEX RHP Kyle Gibson
For his career, Wendle has slashed .323/.365/.463 against who Baseball Reference considers finesse pitchers -- pitchers who tend to rank near the bottom of the league in strikeouts + walks. Wendle also significant righty-favored platoon split for his career, with a .759 OPS against righties compared to a .652 OPS against lefties. Fortunately for Wendle, Kyle Gibson generally falls into both of those categories, making Gibson an attractive matchup for Wendle that fantasy managers should take advantage of.
Jorge Polanco (SS, RHB, MIN) - 44% rostered
Matchup: vs. BOS LHP Martin Perez
The value proposition here is pretty straightforward: Polanco is a hitter who puts the ball in play very frequently going up against a pitcher who struggles to induce strikeouts and a defense that currently ranks 27th in DRS. Polanco should reach base multiple times on Tuesday as a result, and his value is boosted further by the fact that he’s likely to lead off for the Twins against the left-handed Perez.
Brandon Nimmo (OF, RHB, NYM) - 28% rostered
Matchups: vs. PHI RHP Chase Anderson, vs. PHI RHP Aaron Nola
Nimmo is the best outfielder available in more than 50% of leagues by projected rest of season xwOBA, and he’s slated for at least 14 innings of baseball on Tuesday. Further working in Nimmo’s favor is that both legs of Tuesday’s doubleheader are scheduled to be started by righties, making both games platoon-friendly for Nimmo. Streaming Nimmo (or anyone, for that matter) against Aaron Nola isn’t usually a great idea, but with a matchup against Chase Anderson first, Nimmo is worthy of fantasy consideration on Tuesday.
Hitter Streamers for 4/13 - Deep Leagues
Jurickson Profar (2B/OF, SHB, SD) - 19% rostered
Matchup: @ PIT RHP Chad Kuhl
Since Statcast began tracking the stat in 2015, the league has posted a combined .294 xwOBA against sliders and sinkers -- two pitches that account for the vast majority of Chad Kuhl’s pitches. Over that same time, Profar has posted a .391 xwOBA against those two pitches (250 pitch sample), better than any other current Padres hitter. It doesn’t hurt that Kuhl is a righty, either, and Profar should manage to produce at a high level for fantasy managers on Tuesday as a result.
Joey Votto (1B, LHB, CIN) - 18% rostered
Matchup: @ SF RHP Kevin Gausman
Votto may not be playing at home on Tuesday, but he still gets to go up against a righty in Kevin Gausman (.818 OPS against RHP since 2019). Additionally, Votto has been productive against splitters over his career with a .343 xwOBA against the pitch for his career (.381 since the start of 2018, though in a small 47 pitch sample), taking away some of the intimidation of Gausman’s best pitch. Votto should enjoy a productive game as a result.
Pedro Severino (C, RHB, BAL) - 9% rostered
Matchup: vs. SEA LHP Nick Margevicius
Only three qualified pitchers threw their four-seam fastballs more frequently than Margevicius last season, and Severino is one of the better Baltimore hitters at doing damage against four-seamers. Since joining the Orioles in 2019, Severino has posted a strong .398 xwOBA against four-seam fastballs, and he should capitalize on Tuesday’s matchup as a result. Additionally, Severino owns a pronounced career platoon split, hitting capably against lefties (.754 OPS) while struggling against righties (.632 OPS). Severino is one of the best catching options available as a streamer on Tuesday, and fantasy managers should keep that in mind when making roster decisions. It’s also worth noting here that Trey Mancini (68% rostered) is rostered in too many leagues to be considered for this article, but Mancini has the fourth-best xwOBA against four-seam fastballs since 2015 at .452 (min. 2000 pitches) and should be streamed in all leagues where he’s not rostered.
Kike Hernandez (2B/SS/OF) - 20% rostered
Matchup: @ MIN LHP J.A. Happ
Hernandez leads off for what should continue to be a strong (though maybe not as strong as they have been lately) Red Sox offense, and he gets a favorable matchup in J.A. Happ on Tuesday. Hernandez has always had a pronounced platoon split, and although that hasn’t forced him into a platoon-only role with the Red Sox this season, it makes him less appealing for fantasy managers in weekly leagues. Hernandez owns a .820 OPS against southpaws for a career, so fantasy managers should consider streaming Hernandez against the left-handed Happ on Tuesday.
Pitcher Streamers for 4/13 - Shallow Leagues
Matthew Boyd (RHP, DET) - 55% rostered
Matchup: @ HOU
Two starts into the 2021 season, I’m tentatively buying the Matt Boyd comeback/belated breakout. Boyd is using his slider and changeup much more frequently than he did last season (at the expense of his fastball), fueling his strong 2.75 FIP for the young season. Facing a strong Astros offense generally isn’t ideal, but Houston was surprisingly poor against Boyd’s two leading secondary pitches last year with a .272 combined xwOBA that ranked 23rd in the league, making them a quietly decent matchup for Boyd. There’s certainly some risk involved in streaming Boyd on Tuesday (there always is), but he’s been encouraging so far this season and warrants consideration from fantasy managers as a result.
Pitcher Streamers for 4/13 - Deep Leagues
Taijuan Walker (RHP, NYM) - 33% rostered
Matchup: vs. PHI
Walker displayed an impressive 2.1 mph increase in average fastball velocity in his first start of the season last week, and he made encouraging pitch mix adjustments that included the elevated usage of a slider that led his arsenal in swinging-strike rate last season. Those improvements are enough to make Walker streamable against a Phillies lineup that projects to rank in the middle of the pack in potency over the rest of the season. Admittedly, Walker’s 33% rostered rate is a little high for a streaming option in deeper leagues. Fantasy managers who can’t stream Walker should consider streaming Chase Anderson (1% rostered) -- Walker’s opponent on Tuesday -- instead, as Anderson ditched his sinker and curveball in favor of his changeup and cutter in his last start that should help him perform significantly better than last season’s ugly 7.22 ERA. Streaming Anderson is less than ideal, though, as are the other widely available starting pitchers on Tuesday.
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