Two Start Pitchers for Week 8: Bumgarner, Price & More

Week 8, beginning with a full slate of games on Memorial Day, gives those of us who search for two-start goodness a nice set of options.

To help you prepare your rotations, I present the Two Start Pitchers as scheduled for the next week in MLB action. One caveat is that these charts assume that your fantasy week begins on Monday. I made that decision because I have no leagues that do not provide for a Monday start, and it seems to be the standard scoring system. Of course, if you have questions about starting pitchers who are going on Sunday and thus will presumably have another start during the week being profiled, do not be hesitant to drop me an e-mail (see my address at the bottom of the article) and I will attempt to get back with you in a timely fashion. Of course, you could also look to my Streaming Pitcher articles for additional SP suggestions.

The pitchers below are tiered, the first being no-brainers (in my opinion), the second tier being those I would consider adding to my roster and the final tier comprised of pitchers I do not trust at all. Of course, opinions differ and you can let us know if you disagree in the comments.

Let us move on to see who can provide those helpful two starts in next week's fantasy contests.

The top tier, as usual, contains those starting pitchers I consider to be as close to sure things as possible in fantasy baseball. Sure, things can go bad, pitchers that are solid game in, game out can get lit up, injuries on the field can take place. These SPs, however, are your best bets to provide a solid stat base for the scoring period. Wind them up and let 'em go.

The middle tier once again can be broken down into three sub-tiers. The first opens with Martinez and ends with Hahn. Martinez gets a couple of home starts this week. He comes off a couple of strong starts, and keeps putting up superior K numbers for his owners. The first Anderson has been pitching well, and even racking up some strikeouts over his past two outings. He just cannot buy any offensive support. The Dodger bats will wake up, and while I do not like his second match up all that much, facing Atlanta at home is a nice way to open the scoring period. Chen is certainly not an exciting option, but if he is on your league's wire, you would do well to snap up the solid performer as your SP5/6. His BABIP of .244 tells me his ratio stats are due for an adjustment, but he is a steady option, even if his home stats are not as good as he posts on the road. Happ had a bad rain-shortened two inning outing last week in Baltimore, but has put up a QS in six out of eight appearances this season. He gets to pitch in two good pitcher's parks this week, as a bonus. I give up and must accord Weaver his due. How he does it with a 84 MPH fastball is beyond me, but give him his due. He is working on a three game win streak and has a good chance to keep it going with two home starts in Week 8. Chavez sports a 1-4 record that does not properly reflect just how well he has pitched. His peripherals are excellent:  2.89 ERA and 1.10 WHIP over 43.2 innings with a tasty 3.15 K/BB ratio in 10 total appearance, six of those starts. While his home/road splits on the face do not speak well of two home starts, you have to consider that his home numbers are based on a small sample size. Yes, Oakland is not playing well, but I would roll with him this scoring period. The Diamondback's Anderson has been stingy with the earned runs lately, allowing just three over his past four starts. He has been excellent away from Chase Field, but do not expect much in the way of Ks. Hahn wraps up the top sub-tier, and he should benefit from two home starts. His ground ball inducing ways play well in Oakland, and both the Tigers and Yankees can be streaky offensive teams. Just do not bank on a boatload of strikeouts.

The second sub-tier begins with Phelps and runs through Hutchison. Phelps suffers from pitching for the struggling Marlins, although he had been coming off a string of six QS before getting roughed up by Arizona for four earned runs in five innings. He has been great away from home, so with two road starts, expect some good results this week for Phelps. Wada did not make it through five innings in his first start after coming off the DL, but did put up a 9:1 K/BB ratio. He gets to pitch at home in both his Week 8 starts, and Wrigley has been playing much more pitcher-friendly than I can ever remember this season. Grab him for the Ks. Elias just tosses up some junk, but has been generating swings and misses with his change, and getting more Ks as a result. As with his teammate Happ, his two starts are in pitcher-friendly environments. Lohse is a difficult pitcher to categorize this season. He shows signs of dominance, and his strikeout rate is the highest it has ever been in his career, but then he can go out and look terrible. He also has not been dominant at home so far this season, an aberration from prior seasons. He is a risky two-start option, but he does have a decent track record and I see him as being on a redemptive roll. Still, exercise caution and look for someone a bit higher in the tier if possible for your two-start streamer. Rodriguez seems to have rediscovered his mojo in Texas. He has had a couple of stinkers among his six starts, but the other four appearances show what kind of dominance he can display. He has been good on the road, so the Cleveland start looks promising, and the Red Sox are not all that scary for his second start of the period. Shoemaker is a pitcher I have faith in, although he has not been repaying that lately. I like his match up with San Diego at home, not so much his second start against David Price and the Tigers. I might sit him if I owned him for that second start. Hutchison completes the sub-tier, and he gets lit up too often to trust entirely. I do like his second start, as I do not think too much of his mound opponent and I do like the venue in Minnesota. Plus, the White Sox, his first opponent in Week 8, are not all exactly firing on all cylinders on offense.

The third and final sub-tier starts with Greene and winds up with Kelly. Greene can be a superb SP, and I would like to believe his last three starts are what we can expect but the prior three awful starts make me hesitate. He has not demonstrated a road warrior mentality so far this season, either. Maybe take a pass until he returns to Comerica Park. Locke is decent back of the rotation pitcher for both real and fantasy baseball. Just do not expect brillance. Instead, he will give you some decent numbers and will hopefully not damage your ratios too badly with a blow-up appearance. His match ups are good this week, though, so if you really must, you can use him. Tillman is not exactly looking like an ace although he was looking sharp in his last start against Seattle before a rain delay limited him to just three innings of one earned run pitching. He gets two starts at home this period, and he was dominant at Camden Yards in 2014. Still, there are better options out there to be found on the wire. Kelly finalizes this sub-tier, and while he is coming off a pair of decent starts, I still recall the prior four where he yielded 21 earned runs with four HR and 11 walks. Not a stellar recommendation, especially against a pair of teams that are doing well offensively currently.

It is time to stop blowing smoke with this final tier. I do not trust any of these pitchers to perform on a nightly basis, much less in two games in a single week. Of course, any one of them could simply shine in Week 8, twirling a couple of no-hitters, but I feel a lot better about my chances to compete by exorcizing this group from consideration. Charlie Morton is the only guy I will be keeping my eye on with a thought that he should move up a tier next time he is scheduled for a double dip in a scoring period. By the way, until Eovaldi stops being so hittable and yielding dingers, he is to be avoided. Even if in a sense of generosity I move him up the middle tier.

Should you have questions regarding fantasy baseball, especially starting pitching, you can reach me at ia@fantasyalarm.com to continue the discussion.