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After a month and a half into this young baseball season, the team with the best record in the American League is….the Houston Astros!? Wasn’t 2016 supposed to be their year? Houston used a ten game winning streak a few weeks ago to catapult into first place in the AL West and have built a five-and-a-half game lead over the second place Angels. After Sunday’s 4-2 victory over Toronto, the Astros have built another solid win streak as their current one has hit five games.
Everyone knew that the Houston lineup featured a plethora of young studs that were able to shorten any ballpark and it has shown as they currently lead the league in homeruns with 57. The surprising part of Houston’s early season success is their pitching. Houston yields a 3.49 team ERA, good enough for eighth in all of baseball, and have struck out 293 batters in 346 IP, good enough for an eleventh-best 20.9% K rate. That might not seem impressive, but compare those numbers to last year when Houston ended with a 4.14 ERA and an 18.5% K rate. It’s still early in the season, but it appears the young pitchers of Houston are ready to take the next step.
Below are some of my starting pitcher streamer sleepers for the first half of Week 7 to consider adding off your league’s waiver wire. Some of these SP options can be considered sleepers for your team depending on the league format and depth, including NL-Only, AL-Only and head-to-head formats.
Monday Starting Pitcher Streamers
C.J. Wilson (LAA at TOR)
Ownership: 50% Yahoo!, 38% Fleaflicker
At first glance, this seems like a silly stream. Left-handed throwing Wilson goes up against the team that hits left-handers the hardest with a league-best 136 wRC+ against LHP. This year however, Wilson has cut that ridiculous BB rate nearly in half and is holding batters to a .207 BAA. He may get touched up a bit, but he’s not the worst streaming option out there in the early part of the week.
Matchup Rating: Desperate Stream
Kyle Lobstein (DET v. MIL)
Ownership: 3% Yahoo!, 6% Fleaflicker
Lobstein doesn’t exactly light up the radar gun, but he does have one quality that should give the Brewers all kinds of fits. He throws left-handed. Against LHP, Milwaukee owns the second-highest K rate at 26.2%, a league-worst .234 OBP and is second to last in run creation with a 57 wRC+. It’ll only seem like Lobstein is lobbing softballs on Monday, but the Brewer bats won’t be able to connect.
Matchup Rating: Solid Stream
Lance McCullers (HOU v. OAK)
Ownership: 11% Yahoo!, 2% Fleaflicker
A simple Google search of Lance McCullers’ name reveals that he is a 51-year-old former Major League Pitchers that played for seven years with the Padres, Yankees, Tigers and Rangers. He hasn’t pitched in the majors since 1992 and the game has changed quite a bit since his last appearance, so it will probably be tough going for him on Monday.
Clearly that is the father for the younger McCullers, who will be making his first Major League start on Monday. McCullers won the high school National Gatorade Player of the Year in 2012 and has been plowing down hitters in Double-A Corpus Christi. He has the talent, but Oakland’s bats have the patience to expand on his 9.5% BB rate from the minors.
Matchup Rating: Risky Stream
Tuesday Starting Pitcher Streamers
Jimmy Nelson (MIL at DET)
Ownership: 24% Yahoo!, 16% Fleaflicker
Nelson’s 3.74 SIERA is amongst the top of starting pitcher options off the waiver wire in most leagues. The number also proves that his 1-4 record and 4.22 ERA both do not show his true value as a pitcher. Unfortunately, he will be pitching against a power-heavy Detroit lineup and his 15.4 % HR/FB rate could make for good targeting among DFS plays.
Matchup Rating: Risky Stream
Jarred Cosart (MIA v. ARI)
Ownership: 9% Yahoo!, 8% Fleaflicker
It wouldn’t be a thorough streaming list with adding Cosart. As unsexy as his stats are, the dude just keeps getting it done at home. At Marlins Park, Cosart has been properly utilizing the dimensions as he owns a 1.89 ERA, a 0.89 WHIP, has yet to give up a homerun and is frustrating hitters to the tune of a 57.1% GB rate. His owners will probably not see any help in the K category, but every other pitcher category is gravy.
Matchup Rating: Solid Stream
Jon Niese (NYM v. STL)
Ownership: 28% Yahoo!, 17% Fleaflicker
In his last outing at Chicago, Niese was bombed by a Cubs team that was smack-dab in the middle of a six game winning streak. Other than that last start, Niese has been rather efficient as he has gone at least five innings in all of his starts and had only given up 1 ER in five of his previous six starts. His next start will be against the seemingly ageless Cardinals, but the good news is that the Redbirds are actually worse against LHPs this season.
Matchup Rating: Risky Stream
Nate Karns (TB at ATL)
Ownership: 21% Yahoo!, 20% Fleaflicker
With Alex Cobb out for the year, Karns and the rest of the rotation will have to step up big. And his 11.1% BB rate simply won’t cut it. The rest of his splits aren’t too shabby but his .224 BABIP and 4.45 FIP suggest that he is due for a regression. Of course his 23.3% K rate will keep him in any game and the Braves’ lineup doesn’t exactly strike fear into the hearts of starting pitchers. Karns is also our top rated matchup option off this list using the sweet Daily Matchup Streamers Tool.
Matchup Rating: Must Stream
Wednesday Starting Pitcher Streamers
Shane Greene (DET v. MIL)
Ownership: 32% Yahoo!, 28% Fleaflicker
Greene had himself a few rough starts at the end of April and the beginning of May, but he went five semi-strong inning in St. Louis in his last start to earn the win. His velocity is down from a year ago, possibly suggesting why he has seen a drastic decrease in strikeouts, but at the same time it appears his command has improved as his walk rate has dropped by over a point-and-a-half. Milwaukee has had some recent success at the plate against RHP, but that is mere spikes on a linear graph. Trust in Green on Wednesday.
Matchup Rating: Solid Stream
Joe Kelly (BOS v. TEX)
Ownership: 10% Yahoo!, 10% Fleaflicker
Which Joe Kelly will show up on Wednesday? Will it be the guy that went seven innings, yielded one run and struck out eight in his first start of the year against the Yankees? Or will he give up six runs in a little over five innings like he did in a May 9 start in Toronto? The Rangers are in the bottom five in BABIP, wOBA and wRC+ against RHP this season.
Matchup Rating: Solid Stream
Tim Lincecum (SF v. LAD)
Ownership: 45% Yahoo!, 29% Fleaflicker
The Freak appeared to be unleashed in May. Lincecum struck out 12 in 14 IP while not yielding a single run after the calendar struck May. Unfortunately he got worked by the Reds in his last start as his inconsistency woes continued. If he is going to get back on track, it certainly will not help that the Dodgers are coming to town next. He has already faced the Dodgers twice this season and given up five earned runs in 10 IP while striking out seven. Honestly, his next start could go either way. More likely than not, however, it will not go well.
Matchup Rating: Risky Stream
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