We’re starting to get on a roll in this corner of the internet now, with a 60% success rate overall and back-to-back weeks going 3-for-4. We also haven’t had a blow up in two weeks, meaning at the very least I haven’t been destroying your teams.

Let’s jump right into it – we have a Friday/Saturday set with 27 probable pitchers owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues, giving us a deep pool to select from. But are there any arms worth trusting?

Dan Straily (3.5% owned) – No love for my guy? I’ve held Straily since draft day in the league I care about the most (small cash but big bragging rights among friends, including a trophy). While he’s rewarded me with 21 strikeouts in 16.2 innings, he’s posted just one quality start and a 5.94 ERA. Fortunately, a 2.94 FIP, 3.12 xFIP, and 5.25 K:BB ratio all lie below that unsightly ERA, making him a solid add while he remains in the rotation. Even better, Straily draws the Mariners at Safeco Field. The Mariners walk less than almost any other team and also sport just a .298 wOBA against righties. Buy, buy, buy.
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Hey, bounce back week! After a split week with two very bad suggestions, we rebounded a bit and only Anthony Rizzo kept the streamers from being perfect (sorry about Wade LeBlanc). It’s a bit of a stream-heavy weekend, with 28 of the 60 scheduled starters on Friday and Saturday sitting below the 50% ownership tag, but they’re a bit light on upside plays. Nonetheless, let’s dive in. As always, I aim for 50/25/15/5 ownership, roughly, when the streamers available allow.

Carlos Villanueva (48% owned) – Nope, he’s not as good as the numbers suggest right now. He’s got a 2.29 ERA and 0.82 WHIP, neither of which will last too long. But this shouldn’t be the weekend it corrects – the Reds can’t hit righties right now to save their lives, and their whiff-heavy ways should allow ‘Loso to continue to rack up a surprising number of strikeouts. I understand some trepidation here with Votto and Choo stroking northpaws well, but the lineup has been struggling a great deal beyond that pair and Todd Frazier in the early going. I wouldn’t stake my reputation on this one, but five innings and seven strikeouts is a reasonable expectation.

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Another mixed bag with the streamers this past week. If you avoided the Kazmir/Humber showdown, good for you, as it wasn’t pretty. I apologize. If you rode with me on Jarrod Parker and Bronson Arroyo, you came out alright, as they both looked stellar in their respective outings. Not to make excuses, but last weekend’s Friday and Saturday streaming options were straight-up terrible, though being 6-for-12 through three weeks probably hasn’t won me any ardent followers regardless of weekend.

Still, onward we move, to our Friday and Saturday streamers for this week. As always, I’ll try to hit the 50/25/15/5 ownership levels, though some weeks won’t allow for it. This week is one such week where we’re going deep streaming, because the middle-ownership names like Jake Westbrook and Josh Beckett don’t offer a tonne of upside if they’re available.

As for the start-quality metric I’ve been toying with, I’m still playing with it. So far results haven’t been very conclusive, likely because a) starts are a bit fickle/random anyway, and b) we’re dealing with early-season, small-sample values for opponents. I’ll keep playing with it.

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Alright, we went 3-for-4 with our Friday and Saturday streamers last week! Things are looking up after a rough first weekend. Let’s dive right in for this weekend’s potential streaming candidates, and look forward to an update on how that “stream quality” metric looks after we have another weekend to work with.

As usual, I aimed for a 50/25/15/5 percent ownership streamers to play to all league types. Unfortunately, it’s a terrible couple of days for streaming, so we’re going a little deeper (and therefore a little riskier) for these ones.

Jarrod Parker (35.5% owned) – I don’t feel great about this one, so if you’re going to avoid one of these, let this be it. But there aren’t many great options this weekend, and I’m going to give Parker one more chance to show us something, despite the 10.80 ERA and 2.66 WHIP. The Rays strikeout 20.5% of the time, slightly above this year’s league average, and have a terrible .277 wOBA so far which only rises to .282 against righties. The Rays aren’t much more potent than their state counterparts so far, it seems. Plus, Parker has far more talent than he’s shown in three starts – he’s walking a lot of guys and striking out very few, possibly due to pitch mix changes post-Tommy John and some trouble with his change-up. But I’m willing to give him one more chance. Call it the Eno Sarris Effect, I guess. Or the Chris Cwik Effect. Just don’t blame me, is what I’m saying.

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I guess I owe some of you an apology. Last week’s streamers went 1-for-4 in terms of successful starts. Doubront was mediocre, Tillman was lit up, and Fiers (who, you’ll remember, was more of a “buy” recommendation than a stream) was terrible. Luckily, my “deep” stream, the one most of you could have streamed due to ownership levels, was a treat. Dan Straily struck out 11 Astros, furthering the “Streaming ‘Stros” strategy until Brandon Maurer ended it on Tuesday.

Anyway, let’s hope for a better turn this weekend. Based on some feedback, I’ll ditch the spreadsheet since it’s available elsewhere in a cleaner format. I’m also working on some sort of “start potential” metric but it’s a bit early to employ without testing it out. And finally, I’ll try to make one recommendation at each of the 50, 25, 15 and 5 percent ownership levels to appeal to all league depths.
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Streaming is a bit of a funny proposition this early in the year. Less than a week in, you’re probably not ready to cut bait on any players on your roster to take a flyer on a single match-up. After all, you drafted these guys for a reason.

But perhaps a player has hit the disabled list, or a prospect you were sure would make the team has been sent down. If you find yourself with a roster spot in hand and a desire to Stream, Aim, Fire, then by all means, read on.

The following streaming options are owned in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues, with an extra deep streamer tucked away at the bottom.

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Batting towards the end of the week with 10 Bold Predictions is a tough spot – I don’t want to duplicate what’s been said already, but I also don’t want to go down the depth chart to my 17th and 18th boldest predictions. It’s also my rookie season making bold predictions here, so I’m hoping I can have an impact similar to that of the first guy on my list, a repeated prediction I can’t avoid.

1) Jedd Gyorko is the real deal.
Seriously, if you have drafts remaining, go buy this guy. I’ve got shares of him everywhere. Projection systems see him as a .270-15-5 type but he’s flashed much more power at times, as well as 10-steal wheels in 2011. I’ve got Gyorko pencilled in for .275 with 20-plus home runs, and Chase Headley’s injury should give him ample time to prove he’s worth keeping at the major league level. Add in some likely position flexibility, and you’ve got a stud being selected outside of the top-200.

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Our Depth Chart Discussions are just about wrapped up here at RG, but plenty could have changed since the start of March. So I’ve doubled back to some of the more intriguing position battles for fantasy purposes, and we’ll hit on some of the others in the near future, too. Today, we look at the American League.

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At what point does a “closer in waiting” become just another reliever if he doesn’t eventually take over the closer mantle? Bobby Parnell is going to try to make sure we don’t find out this year, as a Frank Francisco injury (surprise, surprise) has opened a window for him to claim the throne that has been waiting for him since at least 2010.

After Francisco Rodriguez filled the Billy Wagner gap for three years, the position was supposed to smoothly transition to Parnell. Instead, Parnell struggled with consistency and made it difficult for the franchise to give him a long-term vote of confidence. Parnell, though, has strung together three very good seasons spanning 163 innings, settling in as a reliable bullpen hand. And Parnell thinks he’s ready now.

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In 2012, the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen proved two things: the closer job is, as always, subject to change; and it’s not especially difficult to protect a three-run lead for three outs.

When the Jays dealt prospect Nestor Molina to the Chicago White Sox for Sergio Santos in the offseason, the closer job looked to belong to the former Blue Jays’ minor league shortstop. Five innings and two blown saves later and Santos was done for the year due to shoulder surgery. Enter Casey Janssen, a perfectly adequate but unsensational reliever to that point in his career (he was coming off a 2.26 ERA/2.45 FIP season in 2011 but had been merely league average across four seasons prior to that).

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