Daily Starters – Monday, September 17th

by
September 17, 2018

For today’s limited game slate, I pushed my normal Fantrax’s ownership rate to 23% to snag a few more arms.

Ryan Borucki at Baltimore (23%)

The 24-year-old lefty is not a bad option considering he’s facing the Orioles with Andrew Cashner on the mound. Borucki isn’t going to provide a ton of strikeouts (5.9 K/9) but his low HR/9 (0.6) has kept his ERA reasonable (4.26).

Trevor Richards vs Nationals (22%)

Richards is the day’s best strikeout option (8.9 K/9) but he’s ratio killer (1.46 WHIP and 4.85 ERA). He gets a small boost since he’s a flyball pitcher (35% GB%) throwing at home where he HR/9 is 0.9 while 1.3 on the road. There are worse options like ….

Andrew Cashner vs Blue Jays (21%)

No way. The only possible desired outcome will be a Win since he is going against Ryan Borucki. Of the pitchers with at least 150 IP, his K%-BB% is the league’s lowest at 5%. Just stay away.

Erick Fedde (21%) at Marlins

While Fedde’s matchup and profile aren’t great, he’s the day’s best option. In just over 40 IP, he has a strikeout rate over 8.0. The Miami matchup provides a chance for a Win. Finally, he may also be in line for some ERA regression with a 5.12 ERA with his ERA estimators under 4.00. Stream away.

Bryan Mitchell vs Giants (8%)

No way. How about a little math?

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4.1 K/9 + 6.1 BB + 1.5 HR/9 = 6.07 ERA + 1.84 WHIP

Kohl Stewart at Tigers (4%)

Why are teams having to roll out the dregs? Another pitcher with more walks (15) than strikeouts (14). At least he’s not giving up the home runs (0.4 HR/9, 59% GB%) like Mitchell.

Adrian Sampson vs Rays (1%)

After examining his current profile, he at least doesn’t walk many hitters. Never has. This trait is better than some other pitchers throwing today. He doesn’t strike anyone out and has been home run prone. Even though he’s better than a few of the other arms throwing today, that doesn’t make him startable.

Final Rankings

  1. Erick Fedde
  2. Ryan Borucki
  3. Trevor Richards (K’s only)
  4. Adrian Sampson
  5. Andrew Cashner
  6. Kohl Stewart
  7. Bryan Mitchell





 

Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.

4 Comments
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Jackie T.
7 years ago

What’s wrong with Fedde’s matchup? The Marlins have scored the fewest runs in baseball this season – and the fewest runs at home of any team.

0
AnonMember since 2025
7 years ago

Curious if you would pick up Fedde given the following scenario: I am in a weekly HTH league and made it thru the 1st round of the playoffs (yayy!). However, our league has a season-long waiver limit and I have blown through all but 1 remaining move. Uno. There are no more trades and I can make 1 move the rest of the way. My pitching is better than my opponent’s, but he is currently projected for 14 pitcher starts this week while I have 9 (just bad luck on my part that I have only a single 2-start guy). He also has 4 waiver moves left so he can stream in a few starters if need be. Finally, I have a skinny roster on offense with only 1 more hitter than daily slots (but I do have good positional flexibility and have quality backups at every position except C).

Do you burn that 1 remaining waiver move on a 2-start guy like Fedde (@MIA, NYM) or do you hold it for a better late week stream? Actually my bigger concern is what happens if I have 2 position players go down? Now I’m a man short on hitting every single day. Hate to give away that many AB.

Leaning toward saving it as a hitter security blanket and seeing where I am at the end of the week and using it if I need a desperation stream. Unfortunately there is that small part of me that says “What if that 2nd Fedde start is the one that makes the difference? You don’t have a 2nd waiver move to stream a 2nd guy in. . . .”

1
DarthSader9Member since 2025
7 years ago

Dropping Brad Hand in favor of Aaron Sanchez in a H2H league, final week of the playoffs. Have Kimbrel, Vasquez, and Leclerc. He has Wade Davis and Minter. So I already have a closer more than him.

-1
DarthSader9Member since 2025
7 years ago
Reply to  DarthSader9

^this is supposed to be a question lol

-1