Welcome to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire. Use this column to improve upon your neediest categories.
Below are your pitcher and hitter streaming targets for Friday, July 28.
Let's get to it.
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Agenda
- Return to the Status Quo
- Today's Weather and Updates
- Tomorrow's Picks
1. Return to the Status Quo
Brad will be back with you in this space next week. It's been fun! Hopefully I didn't wreck up the place too much.
2. Today's Weather and Updates
Chance of thunderstorms in both New York and St. Louis today, though both should pass before game time. Friday could see a couple of rainouts, with a system on the East Coast threatening both Philly and D.C.
3. Tomorrow's Picks - Friday, July 28
Pitchers to Use
We're scraping the bottom of the barrel today, folks. Ariel Miranda is always a meltdown risk due to his inability to limit home runs. He's given up multiple bombs in five of his past seven outings, and 22 on the season in just 115 innings. He's had more success at home, though, and the Mets aren't a tough matchup.
Jaime Garcia's first assignment as a member of the Twins is a quite hospitable matchup with the Athletics on the road. The A's are a punchless bunch, particularly with Yonder Alonso and Jed Lowrie scuffling at the moment. Garcia is coming off back-to-back quality starts against top-10 offenses (the Dodgers and Diamondbacks), so he looks like a solid play here.
Other Targets: Dinelson Lamet, for the adventurous
Pitchers to Exploit
Chris Tillman pitched five shutout innings in his first start off the disabled list back on May 7. It remains his best performance of the season. Tillman was never really good from a fantasy perspective, but had frequent stretches of usefulness over the years. Not now. He's struggled in every conceivable way, posting a 7.01 ERA and 1.94 WHIP in 13 starts this season. The pedestrian strikeout rate is nothing new, but Tillman's been allowing a ton of homers, walks, and hard contact. His last couple of turns have been better, but he's still an easy stack target against the Rangers in Arlington.
Matt Moore hasn't been quite as awful, but still checks in with a 5.82 ERA and 1.62 WHIP on the year. He's allowed four runs or more in six of his last nine starts and will have to contend with the red-hot Dodgers.
Other Targets: German Marquez, Derek Holland, Andrew Cashner, Jordan Zimmermann
Homers on the Wire
Luis Valbuena has gone deep in three straight games and has six bombs in his last seven, entering Thursday's action. He's not rosterable even in the deepest or AL-only formats, but when you're hot, you're hot.
Lucas Duda hasn't homered in a week, but is still hitting .246/.347/.532 with 17 dingers in only 252 at-bats. He'll have a great chance to end that mini-drought against the gopher-prone Ariel Miranda.
Other Targets: Nicholas Castellanos, Matt Chapman, Mike Napoli, Josh Bell, Randal Grichuk, Lucas Duda, Hunter Renfroe, Joey Gallo
Steals on the Wire
Ben Revere doesn't play every day, but he's seen a spike in his playing time with Cameron Maybin sidelined and has taken advantage, at least on the bases. The veteran has swiped six bags in eight attempts this month. Just don't expect any kind of contribution otherwise.
Other Targets: Orlando Arcia, Rajai Davis, Manuel Margot, Mallex Smith, Bradley Zimmer, Cesar Hernandez
Skill Positions
Cameron Rupp has seen some of his playing time siphoned by Andrew Knapp, and Jorge Alfaro lurks on the farm. But Rupp's on a nice run at the moment, hitting .361 with four home runs over the last month.
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