Streaming Hitters Today, 9/24/19

For those in daily transaction leagues, streaming hitters is a viable strategy, especially if you’re in a shallow league and have many reasonable options sitting in free agency. Today, I’ll be discussing the pitchers to stream against and why. However, I’m not going to identify specific hitters because I don’t know who’s available in your league. You could use the information I share to search the type of players and determine what, if any, transactions to make.

Twins lefties vs Spencer Turnbull @ DET

Turnbull has had a rather average first full season, sitting on a 4.66 ERA and 4.69 SIERA, with that ERA resulting in exactly a 100 ERA-. So he’s been perfectly league average so far, which has value for the Tigers, but not so much fantasy owners. That said, he’s been awful against left-handed hitters, who have teed off him to the tune of a .357 wOBAand 5.16 xFIP. His strikeout rate against lefties is below 20% at just 18.5%, and he rarely induces pop-ups (he doesn’t induce those from righties either). He has also allowed an inflated 44.8% Hard% against lefties.

Mets lefties vs Sandy Alcantara @ NYM

On the surface, it would appear that Alcantara has enjoyed a pretty solid first full season sitting with a 4.00 ERA. But this is FanGraphs, and we know that we need to look beyond the surface to the underlying skills and ERA estimators. Those skills are scary bad and his SIERA stands at a grotesque 5.38. Against lefties, he’s been brutal, striking out just 15.2% of opposing batters, while walking 11.6% of them. That has resulted in an xFIP of 5.81, which you don’t want anywhere near your team. But you do want hitters against those weak skills! Somehow, he has managed to limit the damage, so the results are far better than the skills, but that’s most likely a fluke.

Indians vs Hector Santiago @ CHW

Santiago still pitches?! He has now posted a SIERA over 5.00 in three of the past four seasons. How do teams keep giving him innings? The sample size against batters from each side of the plate are too small to be worth sharing, so we could just look at his overall skills to identify why he’s an obvious stream against target. His strikeout rate is below average, while he’s walking the farm. He allows too many fly balls, and given all those walks, that means lots of two-run and three-run shots. The only risk here is that Santiago stinks it up after just an inning or two and is removed from the game.

Giants righties vs Jeff Hoffman @ SF

While you could certainly argue Giants lefties should be streamed against Hoffman, it’s righties that have crushed the Rockies starter over his career. It’s not often you see a pitcher with reverse splits, but since he has stopped throwing his slider and has leaned on his curve ball as his primary off-speed pitch, followed by his changeup, he only has weapons against opposite-handed batters. So it makes sense that righties would eat him up. For his career, he has allowed a hilariously bad .409 wOBA (.454 this year!) and 5.37 xFIP (6.39 this year!) against right-handers. It’s unfortunate that you have to sift through Giants hitters to take advantage, but at least there’s a better chance they will be available!

Athletics vs Dillon Peters @ LAA

Peters is like a left-handed Hoffman, as he also relies on a curve ball and changeup. Sure enough, his career xFIP against same-handed betters is an absurd 6.19, while it’s 4.80 against righties. Basically, he stinks against all hitters, but is obscenely bad against lefties. In fact, he’s actually walked more lefties than he has struck out! If you do decide to go with a lefty against Peters, do check to make sure that left-handed hitter doesn’t struggle against lefties. I’m never sure what might happen when a hitter who stinks against lefties goes up against a left-handed pitcher who stinks against them.

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There are definitely more stream-worthy options, as today’s pitching slate is quite weak, but I couldn’t list ’em all!