Stream, Stream, Stream: #2xSP (7.20-7.26)

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:

RHP Mat Latos – 28.5% ESPN/46% Y! – @AZ (.317), @SDP (.291)

Latos famously blew up in his first start of the season — two outs recorded, seven earned runs against the Braves — but has generally been decent the rest of the way. In fact, he has a 4.10 ERA, .683 OPS against and 67-22 K/BB ratio in 74.2 innings since that blowup, and his FIP for the season is 3.49 — his sixth straight year of a sub-4.00 mark. The Diamondbacks aren’t the easiest matchup — they’re top 10 in team wOBA — but the Padres matchup is the one to watch here. No team has a worse home wOBA than the Pads (.287), so that should be a good visit to Latos’ old stomping grounds. I think Latos is bordering on mixed league relevance.

RHP Kyle Gibson – 40.9% ESPN/34% Y! – @LAA (.309), v. NYY (.326)

Gibson’s non-ERA numbers on the whole look pretty uninspiring — 6.2 K/9, 4.00 FIP, 54% groundball rate — but it’s the whiff numbers I’d like to hone in on. Gibson has fanned six or more batters in six of his last eight starts. Oddly, he fanned six batters in the entire month of April (22.1 innings). But since June, Gibson has allowed opponents to hit .226/.280/.353 with a 48-15 K/BB ratio (8.4 K/9). That seems to be a guy on the cusp of mixed league relevance as well, especially with the heavy sinker he throws in addition to a developing changeup and a very good slider. Get on the Gibson train before it’s too late.

RHP Kendall Graveman – 22.4% ESPN/21% Y! – v. TOR (.336), @SFG (.322)

My faith in Graveman will be put to the test this week, but he’s simply been too good to not take this chance. These are a pair of really tough matchups for the 24-year-old rookie right-hander. Toronto has the No. 1 team wOBA, and the Giants aren’t too terribly far behind. Graveman has been fantastic since being re-inserted into Oakland’s rotation in late May: 2.17 ERA, .652 OPS against and 44-18 K/BB over 66.1 innings. That’s lowered his season ERA from 8.27 to its present mark of 3.38, and he’s allowed more than three earned runs just once in that stretch — last time out against Cleveland. Pitchers like this pop up in baseball quite frequently, but when they’re with Oakland, I tend to give them a little better chance at keeping it up.