Archive for Streaming Two-Starters

Sigh. I suck. Now onto this week’s recommendations….

Here are the totals halfway through week 17 (with updates from previous listing):

26-44 record (2-3)
4.87 ERA (+0.24)
6.7 K/9 (no change)
2.2 K/BB (no change)
1.46 WHIP (+0.04)

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with (A CHANGE, SO TAKE NOTE!) team wRC+ in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandapPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Raisel Iglesias – 7.4% ESPN/5% Y! – v. KCR (101), v. ARI (98)

It’s pretty simple for me with Iglesias, a pitcher whom I think is criminally underowned. And yet, I think I get it, as nobody really wants to own a guy with a 4.70 ERA even if he is fanning a batter per inning. He’s on a pretty solid, though short stretch of pitching really well, as he’s allowed just six earned runs over his last three starts (2.89 ERA). He’s fanned 19 batters and walked just four in those 18.2 innings, including stymying a really good Diamondbacks offense at Chase Field. This is a good chance to get in on a guy at ground level, and he could prove worth keeping for the long haul. But for now, I really like him this week.

RHP Nathan Eovaldi – 42.1% ESPN/34% Y! – v. MIN (91), v. CLE (99)

Like Drew Hutchison last week, I like Eovaldi’s chance to steal a couple cheap wins. And beyond that, he’s pitched semi decently since July 1 (3.28 ERA in eight starts). Of note is that he’s coming off facing both of these teams in recent weeks. He dominated the Twins with eight strong innings to take home his 10th win, and he beat Cleveland last time out with a subpar effort for his 12th. He’s now 12-2, something I wouldn’t usually care about, but I think when you’re 18 games under .500 for the season, you gotta dig out somehow.

RHP Kevin Gausman – 15.6% ESPN/23% Y! – v. NYM (90), v. MIN (91)

Between Eovaldi and Gausman I feel like I’m playing with matches, and don’t get me wrong I don’t love it because they’ll provide the gas. And with Gausman, who has burnt me numerous times before, the talent is there to just be so, so much better than his 4.48 ERA indicates. Heck, that was under 4.00 after his first August start, before he allowed nine earned runs over his last two starts, spanning 12.2 innings. I think he can get back on track, especially against two of the shakier offenses in the game. But make no mistake, both offenses have made additions that make them better — specifically, Miguel Sano for the Twins and some of the Mets’ trade deadline acquisitions — but I still like Gausman’s chances of turning in a good start or two.

Also considered: Kyle Gibson, Carlos Rodon and Aaron Nola

Alright, now that we’re fully settled in the new place, I can try getting back to bringing you all the #content that you deserve in a timely fashion. And hopefully, we can get this thing turned around, a la Van Halen’s “Right Now.” I’ve got three recommendations this week that I’m pretty enthused about, so let’s get right to it.

Here are the totals halfway through week 16 (with updates from previous listing):

24-41 record (2-2)
4.63 ERA (-0.04)
6.7 K/9 (+0.1)
2.2 K/BB (no change)
1.42 WHIP (no change)

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @j_euerle, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Drew Hutchison – 26.1% ESPN/41% Y! – v. OAK (.303), v. NYY (.332)

I don’t love this any more than you do, but I’m going with Hutch over Jon Niese simply because I think it’s a way to (potentially) grab a couple cheap wins. I love the way the Blue Jays are rolling right now, and Hutchison has been the benefactor of insane run support all season long. That’s only bound to be better with Troy Tulowitzki now in tow, as the Blue Jays offense went from scary to absolutely terrifying with that acquisition. The latter game will be a slugfest, so I’m hoping Hutch can do a five and dive with say, two or three earned runs and a decent number of strikeouts. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, sorry for the late posting but I wanted to make sure we got through the trade deadline unscathed, and I’m also amidst moving into a new home over the weekend. As a result, those two things conspired to make this a late submission, but it’s the best I could do.

Here are the totals halfway through week 15 (with updates from previous listing):

22-39 record (1-3)
4.67 ERA (+0.13)
6.6 K/9 (+0.1)
2.2 K/BB (no change)
1.42 WHIP (+0.01)

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @davidwiers, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Ervin Santana – 47.3% ESPN/50% Y! – @TOR (.337), @CLE (.310)

Big Erv’s been good in three starts and brutal in a pair over his first five starts with the Twins. Still, he’s the kind of talent that is rarely available in these sorts of things, as he is rarely owned in under 50% of leagues. Having watched all five starts so far, I’m not quite sure what to expect from Santana this week. At times he’s flashed a good penchant for inducing grounders and getting strikeouts, and and at other times he’s struggled to work within the strike zone while relying heavily on fly balls. Santana is a gamble this week — especially in Toronto — but it’s one I’m oddly more comfortable with than most over the course of this rough season. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, we’re coming at you live from a week prior to the trade deadline. We’re not really dealing with any trade candidates this week, but if these teams were to acquire additional pitchers, it could jumble some rotations and move some guys around. Additionally, if you opt to use Kevin Gausman — who is allegedly on the block — next week, you should keep that in mind. He just missed the cut here due to a tough Detroit matchup on the back end. Good luck, and happy streaming.

Here are the totals halfway through week 14 (with updates from previous listing):

21-36 record (1-2)
4.54 ERA (+0.07)
6.5 K/9 (+0.1)
2.2 K/BB (no change)
1.41 WHIP (no change)

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

LHP Robbie Ray – 17.1% ESPN/13% Y! – @SEA (.299), @HOU (.320)

Ray’s improvement across the board has been marked and impressive, as he’s fanning 7.5 batters per nine and has cut his walks by more than one. His home run rate is flukishly low — especially considering his 35.1 percent groundball rate — but I’m happier to see him throwing at Safeco rather than his home park for the first start, though I think Houston could get a bit dicey. His strand rate has been a not-so-nice 69 percent, so while he isn’t exactly pitching like a guy with a 2.72 ERA, he’s not really evading peripherals like Bonnie and Clyde, either. A big key to Ray’s revival is two added ticks to his fastball, as he’s now pumping heat at an average of 93.3 mph. For a lefty, that’s really something. The slider (13.1%whiff rate this year, 5.3% last) has also improved greatly. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been awhile since we’ve convened in this space, and this week’s edition was pushed back because some teams were slow to post their rotations out of the gates in the second half. Anyway, onto the matchups and recommendations.

As an aside, I’ve decided — at least for now — to stick with team overall wOBA in my citations below. The reason for that is because I could do home/away wOBA, or I could do it by handedness of the opposing pitcher, but I honestly don’t know which is more important. So we’ll just stick to the bigger sampling until someone suggests they prefer otherwise — and for good reason.

Here are the totals through week 13:

20-34 record
4.47 ERA
6.4 K/9
2.2 K/BB
1.41 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @eblack35, whom you should give a follow:

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been banging this drum for weeks, but continued progress is the goal here. I’ve also added a week-to-week change meter on the numbers so you can get a feel of how things are progressing. Similarly, how else can I better justify a collective 4.78 ERA? Ha.

Here are the totals through half of week 11 (with week-to-week change listed):

15-30 record (+ 1-0)
4.78 ERA (-0.31)
6.2 K/9 (no change)
2.2 K/BB (-0.1)
1.43 WHIP (+ 0.02)

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Nate Karns – 19.3% ESPN/20% Y! – v. CLE (.315), @NYY (.331)

Karns doesn’t really have easy matchups this week, but the pickings aren’t great across the board. I also considered Colby Lewis, Mike Pelfrey and Wandy Rodriguez before settling on these three. Karns has had a nice run with the Rays, with a 3.28 ERA and 8.2 K/9, though he oddly leads the league with 10 wild pitches. C.J. Wilson also has 10, and only one other pitcher — Sonny Gray with eight — has more than seven in the AL. Karns’ mix of strikeouts and grounders (45.4 percent) is solid, though his control teeters on the brink of being troublesome (3.6 BB/9), though he has done a fairly good job of not having any games where he comes completely unraveled in that respect. He has three four-walk games, but also importantly has yet to go an entire start without issuing a free pass. Karns’ last three starts have been really good, resulting in a 1.04 ERA and 17-5 K/BB ratio in 17.1 innings. Opponents have hit just .246/.300/.292 off him in that span, which includes team wins over the White Sox and Indians, and a tough 1-0 loss to Toronto. Shutting down the Jays offense for six innings is no small task, but he did just that last time out. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, we’re still making progress. And thanks for the “you suck” comments. I get it. But I’m working hard to try keep moving forward. The last two years were really good. But above all, thank you for reading regardless of if you love or hate the advice. That goes for all of you.

As an aside, do you all think I should start using team wOBAs against that pitcher’s handedness? I never know what’s an adequate sampling for that sort of thing. Your input is welcomed in the comments below!

As for this week, it’s an all-lefty trio of guys who aren’t terribly risky, but should provide decent results.

Here are the totals through half of week 10:

12-30 record
5.09 ERA
6.2 K/9
2.3 K/BB
1.41 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @Jake_in_MN, whom you should give a follow:

Read the rest of this entry »

We continue to make headway in #2xSP with almost 0.30 sliced off the ERA, 0.2 added to the K/9 swiped from the WHIP and another 0.2 added to the K/BB as well. The record made a lateral move, but so far this at least represents progress. This week we’re bringing you three righties that are pretty far off the radar, in hopes that you can actually use them for a competitive advantage. We’ll see, huh?

Here are the totals through half of week seven:

10-28 record
5.14 ERA
6.2 K/9
2.3 K/BB
1.42 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Trevor May – 9.5% ESPN/7% Y! – @STL (.314), v. CHC (.311)

May has quietly been brilliant for the Twins, pitching to a 4.16 ERA backed by a 2.80 FIP and 3.61 XFIP. He’s bumped his groundball rate into the 40s and has absolutely slashed his walks without letting it hurt his bottom line — the strikeout — too terribly much. The purveyor of a pretty good changeup (16.8% whiff rate, .654 OPS against), May has been beaten up a bit by a rough strand rate (69%, not nice) as well as a .335 BABIP, which is especially odd for a guy who is more fly ball-centric, though the Twins outfield defense isn’t exactly adept at chasing ‘em down. That’ll improve in short order — envision an outfield of Byron Buxton, Aaron Hicks and Eddie Rosario — and may in fact help May move even further towards his peripheral ERA marks. Interleague play allows May to see a couple teams he’s never seen before, and it’s my general perception — feel free to differ in the comments — that this usually benefits the pitcher at first. Read the rest of this entry »

Well we’ve made some headway in the ERA department, but the record is going to be a season-long battle and ideally we’d get the rates to about league average. At this moment, that’d be a 7.7 mark in K/9, 2.6 K/BB and a WHIP of 1.28. In short, there’s still a lot of work to do around here. This week’s recommendations each have a really tough start right out of the gate, so here’s to hoping that’ll bring out the best in their competitive spirits.

Here are the totals through half of week seven:

8-26 record
5.42 ERA
6.0 K/9
2.1 K/BB
1.44 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Mike Foltynewicz – 16.2% ESPN/11% Y! – v. SDP (.296), @NYM (.298) Read the rest of this entry »

Well after taking a verbal tongue lashing — deservedly so, don’t get me wrong — in the comments last week, we managed to shave almost a full run off the ERA. So I got that going for me, which is nice. The won-loss record will be an all season thing to try get back to even, but for now we appear to be moving in the right direction….until you get a look at this week’s recs that is. But hey, this’ll be a week where these guys should almost certainly be available and at your disposal (insert trash joke here).

Here are the totals through half of week seven:

6-23 record
5.80 ERA
6.2 K/9
2.1 K/BB
1.47 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Ryan Vogelsong – 14.9% ESPN/11% Y! – v. PIT (.306), @PHI (.284)

Vogelsong gets a pair of really nice matchups this week, which should prolong what amounts to a really solid streak that he’s been on. In fact, it coincides exactly with the calendar flipping to May, as Vogelsong posted a 9.31 ERA in April, and will conclude May with a 1.14 mark. Opposing batters have hit just .184/.244/.281 against the 37-year-old righty this month, as he’s allowed just four earned runs in that five-start span. Read the rest of this entry »