If there’s less than two weeks to go and you’re noticing you have some catching up to do in innings pitched, you best get busy. I know in two of my high-payout standard roto leagues, there are four points separated by two wins, and at least a couple points to be had in strikeouts. As much as I hate the win category, I know I’m in win-chasing mode, and to that end, I’m looking at the most favorable matchups I can find.

There are a good number of decent options on the waiver wire as you head into the weekend, but I’m going to make a few recommendations based almost exclusively off of the fact that some starters are facing lineups that have been struggling to score runs. After all, if they don’t score, you’re in darn fine shape.

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I covered Erasmo Ramirez for the main site earlier this week, disecting his repertoire and comparing him to Kris Medlen. In fantasy leagues, I picked up Ramirez before his lastest start, an impressive eight inning, two runs allowed, six strikeout performance against the Orioles at Safeco Field on Tuesday night. He is owned in just 2% of Yahoo! leagues, so if you are still alive in fantasy or are looking to bolster your rotation at the end of the roto season, Ramirez has to be one of the top targets on the waiver wire.

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Weekly leaguers basically have one more chance to exploit matchups to squeeze out any remaining category points available. Depending on how your league site handles the short series of games in October, it’s possible you will have another shot. If you’re desperate for pitching, here are some pitching options to consider with their next expected starts that might be there for the taking.

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Today, two widely available starters are on the hill and could be in line for very impressive performances. I have essentially adopted a semi-streaming strategy in my head-to-head league and many others are in a similar situation, and after succeeding with Erasmo Ramirez last night I think John Lannan and Chris Archer are solid bets tonight.
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Streaming pitchers here at the end of the season can often be a treacherous affair.  You scout the pitcher, you check the match-ups, you pore over the data and then you bite your lip, close your eyes and pray that you didn’t make a mistake.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes…it rains.  But the bottom line is that the risk involved is usually pretty high because, well, if these guys that you’re sifting through were really that good, they wouldn’t be sitting out on your waiver wire here in mid-September.  So why not tap into some new blood?  Cast aside the tired, lower-tiered starters with their low-5.00 ERA and grab yourself something young; something fresh and exciting.  Get yourself some Jake Odorizzi. Read the rest of this entry »

As we head into the final weeks of the season, it’s nearly time to get a jump on next year’s research. One of the first exercises worth performing is comparing a pitcher’s actual ERA with his SIERA. While in some cases there are legitimate explanations for over or underperformance of SIERA marks, for the most part, you should treat SIERA as your baseline for your next season ERA projection, rather than actual ERA. Here are the five pitchers who have outperformed their SIERA marks the most this season.

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Let’s all go streaking! Streaming. Yeah, streaming. It might be useful for head-to-head playoff scramblers if we pointed out the nice matchups for the weekend. If the schedule holds, you might be able to get the jump on your competitor by picking up a good Saturday start today, for example. Good luck, and keep your clothes on, for the most part. Pants are overrated though.

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Similar to yesterday’s post in which I advocated picking up Lance Lynn and streaming him in daily leagues, I am going to touch on two pitchers that are owned in a majority of leagues that I am shying away from this weekend. There are of course leagues in which you simply have to start these guys, since you may find difficulty finding replacements or need every attempt at strikeouts and wins to keep you alive for another week, but if you have the ability to avoid starting these pitchers, I would advise to do so this weekend.
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The Athletics are trotting out pitchers who simply refuse to walk opposing batters. It’s getting crazy really. In fact, every member of their current rotation with the exception of Jarrod Parker, sports a sub-2.0 walk rate! That’s pretty amazing. Two of those pitchers have pretty much come out of nowhere this year. Let’s see what we can expect next season.

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I am more of a head-to-head guy than a roto player, and my main leagues over the years have mostly been daily leagues rather than weekly. That’s rather odd for the industry, but there are certainly a lot of leagues out there that are similar and sometimes get neglected in fantasy writing. One of the main reasons people run from these kinds of leagues are streams, but with weekly caps on player additions I feel these kinds of leagues are sort of “making a comeback.” With that said, there are still ways to stream pitchers and at this time of year, if you don’t have a strong pitching staff or one of your rotation members just got shut down – looking at you Jeff Samardzija and Stephen Strasburg – finding a replacement is extremely difficult.

One pitcher I would gamble on is Lance Lynn, who is scheduled to start this week in place of Jake Westbrook. Lynn has spent the past few weeks in the bullpen, so he is available in a lot of leagues and if any pitcher on the waiver wire has the upside of Lynn, I don’t know what kind of league you’re playing in. Sure there are guys with solid matchups, but Lynn has been pitching to major leaguers all year and for the most part was very effective against them. He sputtered after the All-Star break and his move to the bullpen as warranted, but if I am looking for one good start off of a waiver wire member I am most certainly willing to put my faith in Lynn against the Dodgers on Thursday.

Even in his struggles, he was still striking out batters at a decent clip. The 5.23 ERA over his last eight starts is ugly, but 39 strikeouts in 41.1 innings at least gives the ability to get a big strikeout night and could potentially push you ahead of your opponent in that category given the right circumstances. Most of the time when I look at the waiver wire this time of year I end a post with “this guy is probably not a team saver,” but I honestly believe Lynn could be that guy that saves your team. If you have an offense that should perform well against your opponent, streaming a guy like Lynn could provide you with enough juice on the pitching end to squeak by. That’s the situation I am in in my head-to-head league and I am confident Lynn succeeds against the Dodgers this Thursday. If you are looking for someone to stream, go with Lynn if he is available. If it doesn’t work, feel free to blame me. I think it will.