Daily Starters – Friday, September 14

Tomorrow will be a horrible day to stream. I can barely recommend two pitchers.

All the pitchers were selected had a Fantrax ownership rate of 20% or less.

Eric Lauer vs Rangers (15%)

This game is the pillow fight of the day especially with Lauer facing Yohander Mendez. I could see some random one-out LOOGY get the Win in this game.

Besides Ross, Lauer is probably the day’s best strikeout option. What a bad day.

Jorge Lopez vs Twins (12%)

The 25-year-old righty was working on a perfect game this past Saturday but only struck out four batters in eight innings of work. There is nothing in Lopez’s profile which points to him coming close to his results.

Nothing has changed with Lopez since joining the Royals and his results have been consistently subpar.

ERA: 4.40
FIP: 4.41
SIERA: 4.57

He does face the Twins. For now, he’s just not the worst choice. That’s it.

Yohander Mendez at Padres (12%)

When has a low-strikeout, high-walk, high home run pitcher been successful? Mendez isn’t going to be the first.

The only way Mendez should be rostered is if an owner is in desperate need of a Win.

Hector Velazquez vs Mets (10%)

The 29-year-old right could be useful for an owner looking for a potential Win with a reasonable ERA. He’s a low-strikeout, low-walk pitcher with an over 50% GB%. While he’ll give up some groundball hits, he limits home runs

While the other starter is Noah Syndergaard, he’s facing a weak Mets lineup.

Luis Ortiz   vs White Sox (10%)

I’m not sure what to expect from Ortiz. He was productive with the Brewers (8.6 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 3.71 ERA). He’s been completely unproductive since being traded to the Orioles and their pathetic pitching pipeline.

In these uncertain instances I just go off the projections which have him at 6.6 K/9, 1.50 WHIP, and 5.50 ERA. Pass

Josh Tomlin vs Tigers (7%)

I saved Tomlin the embarrassment of being last on the list by just not including him. His 3.56 HR/9 over 55 innings would set an all-time record. No pitcher has posted a 3.5 HR/9 and thrown over 30 IP.

Time to focus on the 3.6 HR/9

Number of pitchers, besides Tomlin, who had a 3.5 HR/9 or higher and thrown …

55 IP: 0
50 IP: 0
45: IP: 0
40 IP: 0
35 IP: 2 (Zach Stewart (2012) and Mike Bynum (2003)

Congrats on the record breaking season Mike Tomlin

— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) September 12, 2018

Final rankings

1. Joe Ross
2. Eric Lauer
3. Hector Velazquez
4. Jorge Lopez
5. Yohander Mendez
6. Luis Ortiz