Marco Estrada (SP, TOR) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in AL-Only and Deep Mixed Leagues

Ownership: 26% of Fleaflicker Leagues

ANALYSIS: Marco Estrada made headlines this past week with his perfect-game bid vs. Tampa Bay. He ended up with 8.2 scoreless frames with two hits, no walks and 10 strikeouts. Estrada now has a 3.45 ERA and 1.10 WHIP with a 63/23 K/BB ratio over 73 innings. He has allowed one earned run in his last 15.2 innings, and has a 3.10 ERA over his last six starts.

Estrada was last fantasy relevant in 2013 for the Brewers, when he posted a 3.87 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over 21 starts. The AL East is not the ideal situation for pitching; the Yankees and Orioles join Toronto in the top four of runs per game. That said, Estrada’s ability to limit base runners in his career (1.17 WHIP) should help him avoid big innings. In addition, his changeup has been extremely effective to this point, limiting hitters to a .159 AVG while producing a Pitchf/x value of 7.7.

I’m buying Estrada in deeper leagues, although I caution using him in his next start vs. Boston. He threw 129 pitches his last outing and 118 in the one before, so Estrada may see his pitch count limited to reduce his workload. Also, the BoSox are the only team to rough him up in the month of June (5 IP, 5 ER). Regardless, he should be added in 12-team leagues and larger.