Five Early Schedule Streamers to Consider
Schedule is obviously one of the biggest drivers for picking up a streamer. You can’t plan too far out because things can change on a dime, especially in cold weather spots this early in the season. But let’s see if the first few weeks can offer some worthy pickups.
Brandon Williamson – PIT, at MIA, maybe LAA
Injuries cleared a path for Williamson to sneak into the rotation and he sets up beautifully against two of the worst teams versus lefties last year. Pittsburgh was 29th in wOBA and Miami was 23rd. Pittsburgh did lengthen their lineup, but two of the three big adds are lefties (Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn). The Angels outing is a maybe as Nick Lodolo could be back, but then Williamson might shift into Chase Burns’s follower which is still a great role. Burns is slated to be part of the LAA series and then will pitch at MIN/at TBR if things hold, but that’s looking way too far out to have any real confidence in it. Pick him up for PIT/at MIA and we’ll go from there. The dream is Ryan Yarbrough 2.0 and they let him follow Burns (or Lowder) all year.
Eric Lauer 라우어 – ATH, at CHW, MIN
The Blue Jays early schedule was one of my favorite to target some late arms from, including Lauer. It seemed to really boost Cody Ponce 폰세’s late-draft season price, too (he opens COL, at CHW, MIN). Max Scherzer was the other but that was only for Colorado to start, as he gets the Dodgers in his second start. You might not be able to go for Lauer until Sunday bids which takes the Athletics out of consideration, but I’m not trying to tangle with them anyway. From there, I’ll take a shot on Lauer against the White Sox and Twins, with the Blue Jays supporting him. Lauer’s just a solid arm, too. He doesn’t overpower, posting just a 9% swinging strike rate while throwing 92 mph from the left side, but he’s crafty veteran with a career 4.13 ERA in 701 IP. It’s not an elite mark, but it takes a looooottt of good starts to put up that ERA in that many innings. If he keeps ’em in the game for five, a Win is on the table with this offense.
Noah Cameron – MIN, at CLE, CHW
I promise it’s not all just lefties! The young southpaw leveraged strong control of a solid 5-pitch arsenal to put 2.99 ERA/1.10 WHIP in 138 IP. The 4.33 SIERA suggests he’s not quite that good, but he’s good enough to stream against weaker lineups. The first of three AL Central endeavors isn’t a must start as Minnesota was 14th in wOBA with a broken-down lineup. Cameron did run a 100-point OPS split favoring his work against lefties and the Twins will likely only throw one at him with Austin Martin filling in for one of Matt Wallner or Trevor Larnach. Even if he’s not great against the Twins, I’m down to pick him up early and hold for the start at Cleveland and see how he rebounds. The Guardians start will likely determine my eagerness against the White Sox as they’ll likely run at least seven righties. I don’t think we should blindly pick on the White Sox this year until we see how they develop. To that end, you won’t see Janson Junk on this list!
Will Warren – MIA, ATH, LAA/KCR (2-step)
I crossed out the Athletics start because like I said earlier, I don’t love facing that lineup, even outside of Sacramento. But I’ll hold through that week to get a nice two-start setup the following week. I could even see using it if it’s a pure Win chase as Warren was markedly better at home last year and I still trust Yankee pitching over the A’s all day. Miami’s lineup might be improved, but certainly not enough to run from them with arms I like. The Angels are an obvious attack spot and the Royals have some threatening bats, but still only slotted 18th in wOBA against righties last year. I still like the Win upside even if the ratios aren’t great against them.
Walker Buehler – SFG, at PIT, COL, at LAA
I know, I knoooww. But it’s such a good schedule! He hasn’t looked right for a long time and peak Dodgers Buehler isn’t coming back, but can we squeeze out some solid five-and-dives to steal a win or two from this four-piece of cozy outings? He flashed some better skills in spring with a 16% K-BB, though he did give up 2.4 HR9 and a .405 BABIP so I don’t want to overstate the success. I’m moderately encouraged that he wasn’t getting pieced up in the Cactus League with 4% barrel- and 37% hard-hit rates (league avg: 8%, 39%), but let me be clear: there is huge risk with this one. Schedules can only take you so far. It might even be most prudent to hold through the San Francisco start and see how he looks. Well no, most prudent is just ignoring him, but in a world where we’re considering this, I like the immediate sit as the Giants are probably the best of this group (although we’ll see how Pittsburgh’s power additions alter their fate – Lowe & O’Hearn have 3 HRs already today!) and you still have three appealing starts if he looks good.