Who doesn’t love a good streak? Hot streaks, cold streaks, it doesn’t matter. We love to identify them as they are impossible to predict, both when they start and when they end, but once we see one begin, we’re always locked in. Ever hear of someone with a 30-game hit streak? Immediately, their numbers are put side-by-side with Joe DiMaggio’s legendary 56-game hit streak. Maybe we just love to see records broken. Whatever the case may be, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the longest tenured streaks in MLB right now and see if us fantasy baseball folk can’t find some way to spin these to our advantage.

Chris Sale has not allowed a hit in the first inning in any of his last 10 starts dating back to April 5, 2017.

This was the longest active streak…until tonight, that is. If you listened to the show today, you would have heard us dismissing the narrative of this game and focusing on the fact that the White Sox are the top-hitting team against left-handed pitching this season with a .362 wOBA, a 129 wRC+ and just a 17.2-percent strikeout rate, second-lowest in the league. So when Melky Cabrera, arguably the hottest hitter in the league over the last seven days, picked up a cheapie infield single, it was just par for the course for what Loughy and I were expecting. It’s not that either of us were even remotely cutting down Sale, but we both just felt if there was a night for him to not be Chris Sale, it would be tonight.

Mike Fiers has allowed at least one HR in each of his last 9 games dating back to April 7, 2017.

I was heartbroken to see Miguel Sano as a late scratch tonight, but there are going to be more opportunities to stack against Dumpster Fiers in the coming weeks. The Astros were pulling him from the rotation last week after Brad Peacock fared well in his return, but injuries to Charlie Morton and Joe Musgrove, the team is forced to let him pitch. If you’re in a seasonal league, you should always make sure your players are active if they’re facing him. If it’s DFS we’re talking about, a stack opposite him is likely to be the chalk winner for cash games. The numbers are just mind-blowing at times. A 31-percent HR/FB would be understandable if you were a ground-ball specialist like Dallas Keuchel, but Fiers has a 39.2-percent fly ball rate which means one out of every 3.1 fly balls he induces, goes over the fence. That’s beyond atrocious. Expect the Astros to yank him as soon as they can and until they do, keep on stacking.

Chris Archer has thrown at least 100 pitches in each of his last 20 starts.

In this day and age where pitchers are coddled, this is probably considered a rather dubious streak. Archer has thrown the second-most number of pitches this season and has faced the second-most number of batters. The 10.95 K/9 and 12.9-percent swinging-strike rate has allowed him to minimize any potential damage, but the heavy workload makes you wonder if/when he’s going to hit that wall and start dealing with some tired arm issues. He hasn’t shown any kind of a notable slow-down as the season has waned on, but having followed three-straight seasons of 194 or more innings pitches, it just might be something to think about once your league’s trade deadline gets closer.

Dee Gordon has not drawn a walk in his last 92 PA's against a LHP dating back to August 12, 2016.

This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise as Gordon owns a 3.8-percent walk rate this season and just a 4.7-percent career mark. His contact rates is up and he’s keeping the strikeout rate below 15-percent right now, but as those numbers start to regress to the mean, you can expect that .330 OBP to start dropping. Success against left-handed pitching hasn’t exactly been his strong suit, so you may want to avoid him in DFS when facing a southpaw and you could even think about swapping him out in seasonal should he end up facing a few extra lefties in an upcoming week.

Anthony Rendon has not swung and missed a pitch in his last 30 PA.

While Melky Cabrera may be the hottest hitter over the past seven days, Rendon is pretty damn close. He’s batting .481 over these last 30 plate appearances with three doubles, four home runs, nine RBI and is ridiculously locked in at the plate. In fact, he’s gone from batting .278 with three home runs and 15 RBI at the end of April to slashing .291/.393/.517 with nine home runs and 32 RBI on the season. Kick in the three stolen bases he’s grabbed and you’ve got top-5 production among all third basemen. He doesn’t seem to command all that respect in the fantasy realm, so it might make sense to test the trade waters with the person who owns him in your league and see what the asking price might be. If it’s reasonable and you could use a corner infield boost, go get him.

Whit Merrifield has a 14-game hit streak, starting on May 13, 2017.

Make that 15-straight games as Merrifield just picked up a hit in the fifth inning of tonight’s game. Before coming into tonight, the Royals second baseman, over the last seven games, is batting .478 with two home runs, three RBI and two stolen bases. He’s done a rock-solid job since taking over for Raul Mondesi Jr. who won the job out of spring training, but Merrifield’s .289 average with six homers, 12 RBI and five stolen bases has him ranked just inside the top-10 second baseman with no fewer than 130 plate appearances.

Eric Thames is hitless in his last 19 AB's dating back to May 23, 2017.

Well of course we should follow the longest hit streak with the longest hitless streak and those poor fantasy owners of Thames continue to take a beating for trusting in this guy. Actually, this streak came to a close tonight as Thames was 2-for-3 at the time of writing this, but we should still note what’s been going on lately with April’s hottest hitter. Over the past two weeks, Thames was batting just .074 with one RBI and a 26.5-percent strikeout rate which brought his numbers in May to a highly disappointing .186 average with just two home runs and seven RBI. He’s dealt with some injuries to his legs and battled strep throat for about a week, so I’m not quite yet ready to give up on him, but if he doesn’t heat up in early June, we just might be able to categorize him with the likes of Chris Shelton soon.

Danny Santana is hitless in his last 22 AB's against LHP dating back to August 1, 2016.

I threw this one in here for shits and giggles as I am on record for saying that Santana might be a sneaky add after he was dealt to the Braves. Unfortunately, that didn’t come to pass as Dansby Swanson finally found his stroke and Santana has just four hits here in the month of May and is batting a cool .161 on the season. He’s been better as of late as these four hits have all been in the past week, but unless there’s another major injury on the Braves roster, he’s just not going to see enough playing time to matter. If you picked him up as a potential stash, I’m sorry you wasted that bid dollar. I owe you one.

Kenley Jansen has not walked a batter in his last 25.1 innings pitched.

He is a man alone on an island with regard to the closers of Major League Baseball. Of the top closers coming into the season, Jansen is the only one who hasn’t spent time on the DL, lost his job or been beaten up on the field. While he’s only notched eight saves on the year, he’s posted a 16.11 K/9 with a 1.42 ERA and an insane 0.13 FIP. This has been an absolutely dismal season for bullpens in general, but Jansen has at least provided his owners with some strong stability. Expect this level of play to continue moving forward.

Michael Fulmer has thrown 40.2 innings without allowing a HR dating back to April 29, 2017.

This is the longest active streak for starting pitchers as Zach Britton has gone 46.1 innings without allowing a home run, but this is an impressive feat for the former Rookie of the Year. He had some slight issues with the long ball in the minors, but managed to post a 0.91 HR/9 last year, a number he has almost cut in half this season. He shown some real nice improvements on his changeup and his slider has always been strong. Couple that with a slight uptick in velocity on his fastball and you’ve got repeat performance written all over this year’s stats, especially when all of his peripherals are well in-line with last year’s numbers as well.

Ben Zobrist has a 24-game streak of reaching base safely, starting on April 28, 2017.

Until tonight’s game is complete, this is technically the second-longest streak of its kind as Mitch Haniger, who is currently on the disabled list, has reached safely in 25-straight games. Still, the fact that Zobrist continues to perform should not go unnoticed. He’s not as sexy a pick as he once was while he was hitting 20 home runs, but he’s really been as steady as they come. The current .259 average will eventually creep back up to his usual .270-ish mark, but he continues to post a strong OBP, offers mid-level production in the counting stats and still owns multi-positional eligibility. He’s more of a set-it-and-forget-it type of player these days, but if you didn’t invest in one of the top at the position, there are few I’d rather use over him.