Stream, Stream, Stream: 2x SP 6.3-6.9

Let’s first start with results:

Week 1: 1-3, 30 IP, 3.00 ERA, 5.4 K/9, 2.3 K/BB, 1.13 WHIP (Kevin Slowey, Ubaldo Jimenez, Joe Saunders)
Week 2: 2-3, 25.1 IP, 5.69 ERA, 6.8 K/9, 2.4 K/BB, 1.74 WHIP (Joe Blanton, James McDonald, Eric Stults)
Week 3: 1-2, 32 IP, 3.66 ERA, 7.9 K/9, 3.1 K/BB, 1.22 WHIP (Wade Davis, Carlos Villanueva, Patrick Corbin)
Week 4: 2-1, 22 IP, 6.14 ERA, 7.8 K/9, 2.1 K/BB, 1.95 WHIP (Julio Teheran, Jason Hammel, Garrett Richards)
Week 5: 2-2, 30 IP, 3.60 ERA, 5.4 K/9, 1.6 K/BB, 1.23 WHIP (Scott Diamond, Nick Tepesch, Andrew Cashner)
Week 6: 2-3, 32.2 IP, 4.96 ERA, 5.5 K/9, 2.0 K/BB, 1.44 WHIP (Justin Grimm, Juan Nicasio, Hector Santiago)
Week 7: 1-0, 29 IP, 3.41 ERA, 6.8 K/9, 1.8 K/BB, 1.34 WHIP (Julio Teheran, Phil Hughes, Scott Kazmir)
Week 8*: 1-0, 18.1 IP, 3.44 ERA, 6.9 K/9, 7.0 K/BB, 1.04 WHIP (Jhoulys Chacin, Kevin Slowey, Dan Straily)

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Total: 12-14, 219.1 IP, 4.19 ERA, 6.5 K/9, 2.3 K/BB, 1.38 WHIP

Slowly but surely we’ll get back to .500, and then after that start shooting for a sub-4.00 ERA or maybe a league-average strikeout rate. But until then, it’s been a pretty solid two weeks. Hopefully this week stands up.

Here are this week’s selections, with a tip of the cap again to Twitter pal @tlschwerz:

Andrew Cashner – 24.0% ESPN/40% Yahoo! – @LAD (.305), @COL (.332)

The Padres rotation has been incredibly bad, but it’s hard to pin much of that on Cashner, who’s carrying a pitching slash of 3.65/4.42/4.20. And while those aren’t entirely good looking numbers — at -0.2 WAR I might add — three Padres starters have been considerably worse than Cashner, with Jason Marquis (-0.9 WAR) and Clayton Richard (-1.2 WAR) being particularly bad.

Cashner is still pumping the heat pretty well, and has so far — knock on wood — remained healthy enough to make 13 appearances (eight starts) spanning 56.2 innings. He won’t be a great play as the season wears on, and wins might be hard to come by, but he should start racking up strikeouts and hopefully steal a win here or there to make him a sneaky play in most leagues.

Chris Tillman – 13.1% ESPN/35% Yahoo! – @HOU (.307), @TBR (.329)

Tillman has seen the strikeout rates go up, but the home run rate has absolutely skyrocketed. As a result, he’s a good but not really great play this week as the Orioles hit the road. The Astros have been better than most would expect offensively, but still present a good chance for an opposing pitcher to nab the ‘W’. The Rays are a much tougher match-up, but like most two-start types, you have to go with one who has a strong match-up and a shaky one. This has been true pretty much across the board this week.

John Danks – 1.8% ESPN/4% Yahoo! – @SEA (.306), v. OAK (.322)

I think of Danks as a lottery ticket this week. For one, he’s probably a better option than Joe Blanton (who gets Houston but also Boston) and Joe Saunders (Danks’ mound counterpart on Monday who also gets the Yankees on the back-end).

Secondly, Danks has pitched decently well on the whole since coming back — granted it’s only been two starts — and when he was healthy he was a darn good pitcher. Of course, that hasn’t been since 2011, so it’s a calculated gamble. Danks’ four-year run from 2008-’11 resulted in a 3.77 ERA, 7.0 K/9, and a WHIP of 1.26. At these ownership rates, it would be crazy not to give him a shot