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Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your daily source of waiver wire and streaming advice. Here are your pitcher and hitter streaming targets for Monday, April 10th.
It's a new week and a new opportunity for owners to build upon leads or dig out of the basement.
Let's get to it.
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Agenda
- Stacking
- Today's Weather and Updates
- Tomorrow's Picks
1. Stacking for Traditional Fantasy
"Stacking" is a common DFS strategy. The approach is simple. To maximize the volatility of your roster - that is to give your team a high floor and low ceiling - it's useful to combine players who depend upon each other. When Bryce Harper doubles home Trea Turner, you get twice the credit for that one run.
Stacking isn't a common approach in traditional fantasy leagues. There are a couple reasons. It's hard to actually roster a bunch of guys from a good offense. Sure, it would be wonderful to have Harper, Turner, and Adam Eaton working together, but you probably missed at least one of them during the draft. Volatility isn't always ideal for season long leagues. Stacks fail more often than they click.
However, when we're talking about stars like Harper and Turner, their performance on a given day isn't a big deal. You have them for the full season numbers. When looking at stack opportunities, focus on rosters like the Athletics, Padres, Reds, Rays, Phillies, Twins, and White Sox. These seven clubs may have enough players on your waiver wire to form a viable stack.
The next step is picking out a good matchup. For example, don't go stacking Phillies against Stephen Strasburg today. Do go back in time and collect the 17 runs they scored yesterday versus Jeremy Guthrie and friends.
2. Today's Weather and Updates
The weather is wonderful today - nothing cold, nothing rainy. Tomorrow's looking equally wonderful per this largely unhelpful weather map.
3. Tomorrow's Picks - Monday, April 10th
We're working with 10 games for Meager Monday. That should be more than enough for you to fill every lineup slot.
Pitchers to Use
Alex Cobb looked solid in his 2017 debut. His split-change was in top form, albeit with slightly diminished command from the 2014 version. Cobb continues to work right around 90 mph with a mediocre sinker and curve ball. He gets a re-match with the Yankees, and you can bet the split-change will feature prominently. Cobb is up to 62 percent owned.
Jharel Cotton's atrocious debut was an object lesson in the value of upside-y fliers. He was and always has been an interesting $1 option, somebody you should be able to find on the waiver wire. An offseason of hype had him going for as high as $10 in some leagues. Now owners are overreacting to one bad start. He has a solid matchup against Ian Kennedy and the Royals. He's currently 62 percent owned.
Prepare yourselves for Charlie Morton versus James Paxton, round two. They're both high ceiling breakout candidates although only Morton is actually available. Morton and his Roy Halladay cloned delivery looked sharp last week. His previously 12-6 curve looked a lot more slurvy this season. I thought, maybe, he had lowered his release point, but it's consistent with where it sat in 2016.
Brandon Finnegan will always be a risky play due to his between 40 and 50 grade command. At his best, like last week, he's effectively wild. Usually, he's just wild. Cavernous PNC Park should help him avoid home runs. His 51 percent ownership is right on the bubble.
If you want a widely available target, Alex Wood is filling in for the injured Rich Hill. He has a scary matchup against the Cubbies. Even if he pitches well, he might not last five innings.
Other Targets: Kennedy, Tyler Glasnow
Pitchers to Exploit
Michael Pineda is the ultimate fantasy headache. He's the Ricky Nolasco of the current generation (never you mind that Nolasco is still active). Pineda uses his elite slider very frequently to offset his impressive looking but poorly performing fastball. He'll also toss a minus changeup. Pineda has a bright future in the bullpen. His starts will continue to include frustrating results with high strikeout rates.
A Coors Field game between Trevor Cahill and Tyler Chatwood could get real sloppy. Then again, Chatwood actually has a tolerable track record at Coors. He might be in line for an easy win, albeit with unattractive ratios.
Other Targets: Anybody from the "to use" section.
Homers on the Wire
A visit to Coors Field means that you should absolutely select as many Padres as possible. And keep 'em through the next few days. The top power sources include Ryan Schmipf, Yangervis Solarte, and catcher Austin Hedges. Schimpf has maintained his absurd 60 percent fly ball rate through the first few games. Solarte is the steadiest performer of the bunch while Hedges is a nice patch at catcher if your primary guy is off.
The Mets stack confuses me. Jay Bruce is heavily owned, but Neil Walker and Lucas Duda - both superior hitters in my opinion - are widely available. They have a good matchup against slightly homer prone righty Jerad Eickhoff. Asdrubal Cabrera is also on the wire if you need a shortstop.
Corey Dickerson and Logan Morrison are high volatility plays versus Pineda. He allows far too many home runs for a pitcher of his quality, and both Rays lefties like to ambush fastballs. If Pineda gets ahead, he can plow through them with sliders.
Other Targets: Chase Headley, Corey Dickerson, Logan Morrison, Brandon Moss, Matt Joyce, Yonder Alonso, Mitch Haniger, Danny Valencia, David Freese, Josh Bell, Mark Reynolds
Steals on the Wire
Kevin Kiermaier remains underowned in Yahoo leagues (36 percent). While he's yet to make much noise in 2017, his mix of power and speed should have him rostered in upwards of 80 percent of leagues. Pick him up for Pineda and keep him.
Jose Reyes is available if you want a leadoff speedster. The Phillies catching situation is pretty ugly, giving Reyes a chance for multiple swipes.
More Padres at Coors include Manuel Margot and Travis Jankowski. They're both multi-steal threats, assuming they succeed at reaching base.
Other Targets: Brett Gardner, Leonys Martin, Jarrod Dyson
