RADIO
Week 9 of the fantasy baseball season is here and man, does it feel good to have it happen in mid-May rather than September. This time last year, fantasy playoffs were starting. This season, we've got a long way to go and I for one could not be more excited we still have over four months of baseball.
With so much time left on the calendar, there's still time for scuffling fantasy teams to pull things together and make a run in the summer months. This week's batch of starting pitcher waiver wire options are players that can help fantasy managers win now, but they could also have long-term upside.
Let's get into it, a fresh batch of starting pitcher waiver wire options for Week 9 (May 24-30) of the fantasy baseball season.
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Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Robbie Ray, Toronto Blue Jays (56% Rostered)
What happens when a three-true-outcomes pitcher stops walking hitters? You get the 2021 version of Robbie Ray who is putting together a career year for the Blue Jays. Ray has always had the talent. He was among the league leaders in strikeout rate in both 2017 and 2018. The issue for him has always been too many walks. Last season, his 17.9 percent walk rate was by far the worst mark of any hurler who tossed at least 50 innings.
This season, Ray is sporting a much more manageable 6.6 percent walk rate. He's still striking out batters at a healthy clip as his 48:11 strikeout-to-walk ratio is the primary factor behind his success this year, as is his 45 percent ground ball rate. He still gives up a lot of hard contact and his barrel rate isn't where you'd want it to be but, here's the thing, solo home runs here and there aren't hurting Ray. His 3.79 ERA is supported by a 3.44 xFIP and his 1.17 WHIP is easily a career-best. Funny what cutting back on free passes will do. Ray has burned fantasy managers before. His strikeout ability has long made him a magnet for strikeout-starved teams and those endeavors seldom ended well. This season feels different. As long as the walks stay at bay, you'll want to start Robbie Ray.
Brady Singer, Kansas City Royals (45% Rostered)
Ever have a song stuck in your head that you can't shake? Well, as a fantasy baseball nerd, I've had the Singer rather than the song stuck in my head. He hasn't fully broken out this season, but Singer has shown flashes of brilliance and all of his underlying metrics point to a breakout for the former first-round pick. The Royals righty is currently sporting a 4.00 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP while averaging over a strikeout-per-inning.
A look under the hood backs up his solid surface stats. Singer ranks top-25 in the Majors with a 30.9 percent called-plus-swinging strike rate, one of the most accurate advanced metrics for predicting future success. When Singer does give up contact, he's done a great job of avoiding the sweet spot of the bat as he's averaging just 1.6 barrels-per-plate appearance, best in the Majors so far this season. Singer has prospect pedigree, plays in a great pitcher's park, and is excelling at the aspects of the game that lead to future success.
Yusei Kikuchi, Seattle Mariners (47% Rostered)
Kikuchi is a repeat from last week but he's not rostered on nearly enough fantasy teams to escape the waiver wire column. Kikuchi has completed at least six innings in four straight starts and has allowed three runs or fewer in all of them. Coincidentally or not, Kikuchi's run-prevention success is syncing up with an uptick in strikeouts. The left-hander only struck out one in an April 23 start against Boston. Since then, he's struck out seven, seven, 11, and eight batters in his last four starts. An uptick in fastball velocity seems to be the culprit behind his recent success.
As we can see, Kikuchi's average fastball velocity in that April 23 start was his lowest this season. His velocity has increased since then and we're seeing how good he can be when his four-seam/cutter combination is working. There's no reason to expect his velocity to dip as the weather heats up, implying Kikuchi should be able to continue racking up the K's.
Pickups for Deeper Leagues
David Peterson, New York Mets (11% Rostered)
Peterson is listed in the deep league options as that's where his rostership percentage implies he should be, but honestly, Peterson is a great pick up for any fantasy team heading into Week 9. It may not be obvious looking at his pedestrian surface numbers, but there's a reason Peterson is the cover boy on this piece. Not much about his 4.97 ERA screams "add me" to fantasy baseballers, but overlook Peterson at your own risk, as he's been the victim of a lot of bad luck early in the season. The left-hander has a .311 BABIP allowed, a 26 percent HR/FB%, and has only stranded 63 percent of baserunners.
Assuming Peterson gets some luck-based regression, he's got the skill to be a quality option in fantasy. His xFIP (3.13) and SIERA (3.43) both imply his ERA should be much lower. He's struck out 28.9 percent of batters this season and is sporting a healthy 12.3 percent swinging-strike rate. When batters do hit the ball? How's about a 52.6 percent ground ball rate. Best of all for Peterson, he's got two juicy matchups this week. He'll start things off on Monday versus the Rockies in their first game away from Coors Field, a must-start spot for almost any pitcher. Later in the week, he'll face a Braves team that has struggled mightily with LHP. Pick up and start Peterson.
James Kaprielian, Oakland Athletics (12% Rostered)
Kaprielian is an older prospect, which may explain the lack of hoopla around him after back-to-back strong starts to begin the season. It took Kaprielian a long time to get to the Majors as he battled a myriad of injuries in his minor league career. However, this is still a former first-round pick who routinely was posting strikeout rates near 30 percent when he was healthy in the minors. He's made two starts for the A's and has been good in both. He held the Red Sox to one run in 5 1/3 innings with six strikeouts in his season debut. This past week, he posted another good start, allowing two runs in five innings against the Angels. He struck out nine in that game and generated a healthy 13 swinging strikes on 99 pitches.
This week Kaprielian gets the Mariners who have been no-hit twice this season and rank 27th in OPS versus RHP. Pick up Kaprielian for the good matchup, hold him for his long-term potential as a piece of an A's rotation that hasn't been overly reliable this season.
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