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Baseball is back, and fantasy managers in daily leagues no doubt already have holes to fill with streamers. Fortunately, RotoBaller has you covered with daily streaming picks.
Each day, RotoBaller will provide you with some of the best streaming options to consider in fantasy baseball daily leagues. Additionally, these recommendations can be useful for fantasy managers setting DFS lineups.
We have a massive 8-game slate Thursday, and it’s an unusual one in that there is a double-header. That naturally means lineup decisions have to be made early in the day. Fortunately, there are quite a few streamable players with 30 teams taking the field. This article will use rostered percentages and position eligibility from Yahoo! leagues.
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Hitter Streamers for 4/22 - Shallow Leagues
Joey Votto (1B, CIN) -42% rostered
Matchup: vs. RHP Taylor Widener
Votto changed his approach and swing last season. The change brought on a boost in power, as shown by his jumping by nearly 4-mph. In unison, his batted ball quality took massive leaps as well. This trend has continued into 2021, with his barrel% soaring to a career-high of 13.7%. Added to those numbers, his xwOBAcon, which is a metric that weights how well a player is doing on just balls put in play, is off the charts at .501. I would venture to guess that Votto is over 50% owned next week and no longer a streamer, sadly.
Evan Longoria (3B, SFG) - 32% rostered
Matchup: vs. LHP Daniel Castano
The ball is jumping off the bat for Longoria as well. His 19.5% barrel rate is elite, and he is making pitchers pay-especially southpaws. In only 16 at-bats, Longoria has four taters and a 6:2 K/BB rate. All I can say is he is locked in. He also draws one of the more enticing matchups on the day against southpaw Daniel Castano, who relies heavily on ground balls in play to make outs. In Castano's previous start, he failed to record a single strikeout. Let's hope Longo can elevate a mistake into the bleachers.
Bryan Reynolds (OF, PIT) - 29% rostered
Matchup: @ RHP Jose Urena
Reynolds had a disastrous 2020 season that sent his draft stock in a tumble. He touts a very high BABIP, well over .350, closer to his normal watermark than we saw in 2020(.227). BABIP is a wonky metric that needs far more than a short season to stabilize. To sum that all up, his .308 batting average is closer to what we should expect. What makes him intriguing is his 86th percentile in sprint speed to go with an 89 xwOBA percentile. Power plus speed players that face off against the HR machine Jose Urena need to be rostered more.
Adam Frazier (2B/OF, PIT) - 24% rostered
Matchup: @ RHP Jose Urena
Frazier is your typical pesky leadoff hitter with light power. His career .414 slugging% suggests if you're trying to stream for HRs, this isn't your guy, but he can help in other ways. As I mentioned, he is the leadoff hitter for the Pirates. So for any OBP leagues, Frazier is currently on base at a .403 clip. By putting up 20 hits through 65 at-bats, the batting average will also be happy. He's already swiped one base on the season, so maybe we get lucky, and Frazier gets another while on base.
Hitter Streamers for 4/22 - Deep Leagues
Corey Dickerson (OF, MIA) - 6% rostered
Matchup: @ RHP Aaron Sanchez
Another leadoff hitter rostered under 10%. The man difference is that Dickerson is a platoon bat from the left side of the dish. So anytime a right-handed pitcher faces the Marlins, he steps in. When facing a right-handed pitcher during his career, the wRC+ soars to 123, and he slashes .288/.323/.505 with a .853 OPS. Now that is very useful! He also holds an above-league average sprint speed, so streaming him today could get you HRs or an SB.
Rougned Odor (2B, NYY) - 2% rostered
Matchup: @ RHP Aaron Civale
Odor was sent packing by the Rangers and then scooped up by the Yankees as a bench bat. In fact, since joining the Yankees, Odor has found fairly regular plate appearances. It's no secret, the Yankees lineup is very right-handed heavy, so they needed some left-handed pop. Odor can add that to your team today, but the profile will come with a bunch of swing and miss. From 2019 until now, Odor touts a barrel rate over 10%, which is terrific, but that comes with a strikeout rate over 30%. Civale likes to pitch in the zone a lot, so many Odor can get ahold of one.
Pavin Smith (1B, ARI) - 1% rostered
Matchup: @ RHP Jeff Hoffman
Pavin Smith is the beneficiary of an injury to Christian Walker and Ketel Marte. Both starters go down, and full-time at-bats open up. In the past three games, Smith has been slotted in the one or two-hole. The Diamondbacks may not be the cream of the crop offense, but any batter in this deep of a format slotting in that spot needs to garner focus. Small sample size, but Pavin has a 52% hard-hit rate and 7.9% barrel rate. Good things happen when he puts the ball into play, as shown by his .412 xwOBAcon.
Pitcher Streamers for 4/22 - Shallow Leagues
Alex Cobb (SP, LAA) - 15% rostered
Matchup: @ HOU RHP Cristian Javier
The move to the Los Angeles Angels has looked great for Cobb. Through two games started, Cobb boasts 17 strikeouts in only 11.2 innings pitched. The ERA tips the scales at 4.63, but the 3.01 xERA suggests maybe he was a bit unlucky with the contact made against him. A good indicator for how a pitcher is performing is their K-BB%. Well, Cobb has an amazing 30.6% K-BB rate, which may or may not be sustainable given his 10.5% rate. But as I noted, this may be a new pitcher as he cut back the sinker and throws the splitter as his main offering. The Astros can be a rowdy bunch at the plate, but Cobb looks like he is taking his play to a different level.
Pitcher Streamers for 4/22 - Deep Leagues
Aaron Sanchez (SP, SFG) - 6% rostered
Matchup: vs. MIA LHP Daniel Castano
Streaming this deep for a pitcher that can scrounge together a win is very difficult. Sanchez actually has a decent shot at making this work. He is showing an elite 57% ground ball rate to go with a 2.46 ERA. The underlying metrics like his 3.62 xERA, which measures ERA based on exit velocities and launch angles, back up what we have seen. The main this to consider is this is not a viable source for strikeouts because he has never had a season with a K% over 20 percent. We need him to keep the ball slow and low, get the Marlins to wear out the infield.
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