RADIO
Welcome to another edition of our daily fantasy baseball streamers! Are you playing in leagues with daily moves and looking to beef up those rosters? We here at RotoBaller are there for you and all of your streaming needs. Whether you are just trying to get that elusive category win or you are trying to make up for Yu Darvish or Max Scherzer getting trashed before the break, we can help. Each day, RotoBaller will provide you with some of the best streaming options to consider in both shallow and deep fantasy baseball daily leagues. Streaming hitters and pitchers to exploit matchups are important to help you win your league.
It is important to know your league if you're going to stream. I'm not just talking about which teams your leaguemates root for. I'm talking about whether strikeouts count against you for hitters or if fielding stats are included. Most importantly, you need to know how many transactions you have per week. You don't want to blow your allotment within a couple of days. You can also use these recommendations to help build your DFS lineups. This article will use rostered percentages and position eligibility from ESPN leagues.
We have ten pitchers going that are owned in more than 90% of ESPN leagues for the first day after the break. Seven more are owned in more than half of leagues. There are two double dippers today, so we have exactly half of the pitching pond to fish out of. Let's see what we can come up with.
Editor's Note: Our incredible team of writers received five total writing awards and 13 award nominations by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association, tops in the industry! Congrats to all the award winners and nominees including Best MLB Series, NFL Series, NBA Writer, PGA Writer and Player Notes writer of the year. Be sure to follow their analysis, rankings and advice all year long, and win big with RotoBaller! Read More!
Hitter Streamers for 7/16 - Shallow Leagues
Eric Haase (C/OF, RHB, DET) - 46% Rostered
Matchup: vs. MIN RHP Kenta Maeda; vs. MIN LHP Charlie Barnes
You can plug in Haase at catcher even though he will likely play in the outfield in both games. We are going to get at least six at-bats from a guy with five homers and 13 RBI already in July. Not only that, but Barnes is making his major league debut and Maeda has trouble keeping balls within the walls. There's a lot of potential for Haase here.
Jed Lowrie (2B, RHB, OAK) - 33% Rostered
Matchup: at CLE RHP Eli Morgan
Lowrie hit the break on a tear, riding a six-game hitting streak in which he hit .417 with two homers, six RBI, and three runs scored against the Rangers and Astros. Lowrie has back-to-back games with a homer and four straight games with at least one RBI. Will that carry through the break? It wont cost many of you anything to find out!
Luis Urias (2B/3B/OF, LHB, MIN) - 31.9% Rostered
Matchup: at DET RHP Jose Urena; at DET RHP Matt Manning
Arraez gets to bat leadoff against not one, but two pitchers in the same day with an ERA in the mid to high 6's. It almost doesn't even matter that Arraez is hitting .359 with nine runs scored leading off for the Twins in July. Almost. Of course it matters! It matters more because both pitchers that the Twins get to tee off on today are struggling. We should see Arraez cross the plate at least once in these two games.
Garrett Cooper (1B/OF, RHB, MIA) - 27.2% Rostered
Matchup: at PHI LHP Matt Moore; at PHI RHP Zach Eflin
Cooper should go on the IL more often. Since his return on June 25, Cooper is hitting .455 with four homers, ten RBI, and 13 runs scored. We have another guy who entered the break scorching hot that comes out the other side in a double header. As Jon Anderson pointed out yesterday, Cooper has a 19% barrel rate since June 1, which puts him among some elite names. Put that in a hitter-friendly park against one average pitcher and one below average pitcher, and Cooper should be in for a hell of a day!
Hitter Streamers for 7/16 - Deeper Leagues
Starlin Castro (2B/3B, RHB, WAS) - 22.3% Rostered
Matchup: vs. SD RHP Chris Paddack
We see this about once a year, don't we? Castro has a 14-game hitting streak and has at least one hit in all but three games over the last month. Not only that, Castro has nine multi-hit games in the streak and is hitting .455 in his current hitting streak with eight runs scored, a homer, and 11 RBI. As long as he keeps hitting for a high average, we can work with this. Castro is hitting an absurd .500 in July. Even if it is just average, that's a big boost to your team. Just keep in mind that Castro doesn't have much for power or speed left at the age of 31. He can help your average, runs scored, and RBI though.
Leury Garcia (2B/SS/OF, SHB, CWS) - 16.3% Rostered
Matchup: vs. HOU RHP Lance McCullers Jr.
Garcia is hitting .379 with two of his three homers on the season, 11 RBI, and six runs scored so far in July. Garcia is mostly known for his speed, even though his steal numbers are down this year. Right now he is driving in runs, which is the hope here with a guy running hot that can fill in at three separate positions.
Michael Taylor (OF, RHB, KC) - 13% Rostered
Matchup: vs. BAL LHP Keegan Akin
Akin has surrendered 27 runs in 21.1 innings pitched over his last five starts. Taylor entered the break with a modest five-game hitting streak and is hitting .359 with three homers, seven RBI, two steals, and seven runs scored in the last fortnight. The Royals haven't hat a lot to feel good about this season, but this kind of resurgence from Taylor is one of the few bright spots. Against a struggling pitcher like Akin, I'm in for tonight at least.
Elias Diaz (C, RHB, COL) - 10.1% Rostered
Matchup: vs. LAD LHP Julio Urias
Urias isn't an easy matchup by any means, but this is at Coors. Diaz has slugged five homers in his last ten starts with nine RBI and six runs scored. Diaz is a career .260 hitter against lefties and three of his seven homers on the season have come against southpaws. You aren't penalized if Diaz strikes out four times, so take a chance on his power surge continuing.
Pitcher Streamers for 7/16 - Shallow Leagues
Chris Flexen (RHP, SEA) - 48.3% rostered
Matchup: at Angels
We all know the knocks on Flexen. He doesn't strike out enough hitters. His control isn't great. He doesn't get deep enough into games. His bullpen blows leads for him. It's all just noise. Tune it out. Let's judge him like he should be judged: by results. Flexen has only allowed five runs in his last five starts. One of those games was at Buffalo. The one just before the break was a dominant performance against this same Angels team. Flexen has 27 strikeouts in 32.2 innings and won three of those five games. That's something we can work with.
Pitcher Streamers for 7/16 - Deeper Leagues
Keegan Akin (LHP, BAL) - 0.4% rostered
Matchup: at Kansas City
If you're beyond repair in WHIP/ERA, this might be a play for you to try and gain some ground in strikeouts. Akin has been so bad that any decent team would have demoted him back to AAA by now. As we all know, Baltimore is not decent and they really don't have a choice. So they further damage this kid's psyche by letting him get destroyed every five days. The only silver lining is Akin's 24 strikeouts in 21.1 innings over his last five starts. The bad news is that he's given up more runs than strikeouts in that span. The Royals don't hit well and strike out an awful lot, so there is some potential here if you can handle the risk. The bottom of pitching today is nothing short of terrible.
Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App
Like what you see? Download our updated fantasy baseball app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, sleepers, prospects & more. All free!
