Best Streaming Options: Four Starters That Could Win Your League

If you read any of the other articles in the streaming series, you can skip the first section of this post and start to read where I go over the best streaming options.

From now till the end of the season, I will go over the best streaming options available for the upcoming week; Monday’s post will have the best options for Monday through Wednesday, and Thursday’s post will have the best options for Thursday through Sunday.

To make your options realistic and reach a wider range of players, we will keep the pool of players eligible to be streamed to those pitchers that are owned in 50% or less of ESPN leagues.

 (If you don’t know what wRC+ is, this is a link to the FanGraphs library definition)

Here are the best streaming options for Monday through Wednesday:

Monday:

Jose Quintana vs. Toronto (In Chicago)

ESPN Ownership: 11.3%

Opponent’s wRC+: 84 (27^th in MLB) 

The Blue Jays lineup that was a shell of a formidable unit against LHPs this year has lost most, if not all, of the firepower that made them competitive against southpaws. Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Melky Cabrera have all been lost to season ending injuries, and without the core of the lineup, the Blue Jays have posted a 97 wRC+ in September.

Yordano Ventura vs. Seattle (At Seattle)

ESPN Ownership:  0.7%

Opponent’s wRC+: 98 (15^th in MLB)

While Ventura showed the ability to throw three pitches against the Indians in his major league debut, it is clear that the young flame flower’s most valuable pitch is his fastball. Ventura averaged 97.2 MPH on his fastball, while he also plateaued at 101.9 MPH. For his second career start, Ventura will go against the Mariners who are average against RHPs, and love to swing the bat: 21.8 K% vs. RHPs (5^th in MLB).

Tuesday:

Tyson Ross vs. Arizona (In San Diego)

ESPN Ownership: 10%

Opponent’s wRC+: 96 (16^th in MLB)

Why has Tyson Ross so been effective this year? He’s striking out more batters than he ever has before; he’s gone from 5.65 K/9 in 2012 to 8.59 K/9 this year. How has he been striking more batters out? More fastballs, and more sliders. Ross threw a two-seam fastball on 27.2% of his pitches last year, but now only throws it 8.4% of the time this year, while he has also increased the usage of his slider to 32%, up from 25.5% in 2012. To add more of a reason to stream Ross, Tuesday’s start is in San Diego where he has allowed a .262 wOBA, compared to a .291 wOBA on the road.

Wednesday:

Danny Salazar vs. Chicago White Sox (In Cleveland)

ESPN Ownership: 14.7%

Opponent’s wRC+: 83 (29^th in MLB)

Wednesday is the last time you will able to stream Danny Salazar in 2013, so you better make use of it! In his last outing against the White Sox, Salazar managed to strikeout nine batters in 3.2 innings. For pitchers that have thrown a minimum of forty innings this year as starters, Salazar’s 95.9 MPH average for his four-seam fastball is the second highest average in the MLB, and after his last start, he owns the highest swinging strike rate among starters at 14.1%, even higher than Yu Darvish and Matt Harvey (rest in peace).

Devon Jordan is obsessed with statistical analysis, non-fiction literature, and electronic music. If you enjoyed reading about pitcher value in Fantasy Baseball, follow him on Twitter @devinjjordan.