2017 Fantasy Baseball SP Streamers: Week 1

So real and fantasy baseball are finally back and I couldn’t be happier to bring you some starting pitcher streaming options to start the year. Streaming pitchers is a method I’ve been using the last three years in all of my leagues and it continues to yield great results. It allows you to focus on getting big bats early in your draft and getting value at pitching later on. Keep in mind, you don’t necessarily need to stream a pitcher every day, but there are usually a couple of matchups for players on waivers that are ideal options.

Week 1 is always a little difficult for streaming pitchers. Early in the opening week you’ll see a lot of starters who are not necessarily streamers. You don’t need me to tell you to start Clayton Kershaw. So because some of the higher-owned guys go earlier in the week, most of the players I’ve recommended below don’t start until Wednesday at the very earliest. Most of these guys will be towards the end of the week. I’m also not too keen on focusing too much on spring training numbers. Often times, pitchers will focus on just one pitch during their start, just to work specifically on said pitch for a few innings. Hence, why they may get knocked around a little bit. But as long as a pitcher is healthy through spring and on the opening day roster, I’ll give anybody consideration if he is available in my league.

10-12 team Leagues

Francisco Liriano (TOR):  It was a tale of two seasons for Liriano as he started 21 games for Pittsburgh and built up a 5.46 ERA. Not even Ray Searage could work his magic on Liriano. However, a change of scenery seemed to help as he built a 2.92 ERA over 10 total appearances, eight of them being starts with Toronto. The deceiving factor about his ERA though, is that he actually had a FIP of 3.98 in his introduction with the Blue Jays last season.  Despite his FIP, Liriano was still significantly better in Toronto where he also had a 9.5 K/9 and a walk rate of 2.9 BB/9 as opposed to the 5.5 BB/9 he had in Pittsburgh. If I’m streaming a pitcher, I look for strikeout upside. Liriano is slated for an April 7^th road matchup against Tampa. Tropicana is one of the more pitcher-friendly ballparks in all of baseball and the Rays ranked towards the bottom offensively in 2016. Liriano has a history of inconsistency, but he gets a very friendly matchup and the Jays offense could put him in a good position to get a win.

Robert Gsellman (NYM): Gsellman has officially been named the 5^th starter for the Mets, but won’t get his first start until the sixth game of the season. The Mets are letting Noah Syndergaard start their first and fifth games, so Gsellman will take the mound for a home Sunday night baseball matchup against Miami. He does have some strikeout upside at 8.5 K/9. In 24.1 innings pitched at home last year opponents batted just .231 against Gsellman and he gave up just four extra base hits at home, none of which were home runs. Gsellman is coming off a decent spring where he posted a 1.56 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP. It’s hard to put a lot of emphasis on spring training numbers so take it with a grain of salt, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he fared much better at home last year than he did on the road. Take a look at the table below for further proof. *Update* Gsellman's start has been moved up 1 day to Saturday and he now faces Adam Conley. He's still worth streaming if he's available in your league.

As you can see he had a better ERA on the road, but the FIP indicates he may have had better luck at home, where he was a much better pitcher. If you find yourself in a close match-up in a points league format, look to Gsellman in a favorable home matchup a week from Opening Day.

Jerad Eickhoff (PHI): Eickhoff gets the start for Philadelphia’s second game of the year on Wednesday in Cincinnati. On paper this isn’t ideal. Great American Ballpark was a top-5 ballpark in terms of home runs and Eickhoff gave up 30 bombs last season (more on those shortly). The upside is that this start is early in the year. Typically Great American becomes a favorable hitter’s park once the weather warms up. It’s still somewhat cooler in Cincinnati during April and it’ll be worth monitoring the weather next Wednesday because it projects for rain right now. Although Eickhoff got absolutely lit up in his last spring training start there is still some reason for optimism. Toward the end of last season he started working his curveball more into his repertoire and saw his walk rate drop.  His slider was one of his worst pitches last season and once the curveball usage went up he saw different results.

Oddly enough the 9/15 game against Pittsburgh where he threw more sliders than curveballs was the game where he surrendered three home runs. I added the groundball percentage column because in his last three games he also increased the usage on his sinker, which helps his groundball cause and he showed tremendous control with it. If he can establish his sinker and use his curve over his slider he should make for an intriguing streaming option.

Michael Wacha (STL): Wacha won’t make his 2017 debut until Saturday against Cincinnati. The start will be at home in Busch Stadium, which proved to be more of a pitcher’s ballpark last season. Wacha saw his ERA drastically jump from 2015 (3.38) to 2016 (5.09), but let’s look closer at his 2016 season. Before the All-Star break, he had a 4.36 ERA, which doesn’t seem to help my argument. However, his 3.67 FIP suggests he could have been the victim of poor defense (the Cardinals did rank in the bottom 10 in errors and fielding percentage last season).  In the second half, Wacha saw his ERA inflate even more, but as it turned out, he was pitching through a shoulder injury which would ultimately cut his season short. Wacha is coming off a solid spring where he posted a 2.42 ERA with 22 K over 26 innings. He’s worked on his curveball a lot in the offseason and he even hit 97 mph in his final start of spring training. So he’s heading in to the season looking great. Even more, he’s always pitched well to start the year.  Below are his ERA numbers over the last three years in the months of March and April:              

               2014 – 2.48

               2015 – 2.42

               2016 – 3.07

It remains to be seen if Wacha will finish the season healthy. He’s thrown over 140 innings just once in the last 3 years, but I do like him a lot as a streamer during Week 1 and he could help you in your matchup if your behind in pitching categories heading in to next weekend.

Jharel Cotton (OAK): This is somewhat of a dark house prediction. Cotton makes his 2017 debut April 5^th against the Angels. The Angels starter has not been announced as of this writing, but Cotton is coming off a decent start in his final spring training appearance on Monday. He doesn’t carry over-powering stuff. In fact what makes Cotton an effectives pitcher is his changeup because of the velocity separation from his fastball. But he’ll still need his fastball to sit at 92-93 mph in order to implement his changeup. In his lone matchup last season against the Angels, Cotton pitched 6.1 innings giving up two hits and two walks. One of those hits was a home run, as he has been prone to giving up the long ball. If you find yourself desperate for a streamer in the middle of the week then take a chance on Cotton. Otherwise wait for one of the other guys to start on the weekend.

Deeper League Streamers

For those of you that play in deeper leagues the players above may not be as available in your league.  Never fret because these are guys that you can target in Week 1 in your 14-16 team leagues in the event you need a streamer.

Brett Anderson (CHC): Anderson gets an April 7^th start against Jimmy Nelson and the Brewers. Anderson had a pretty solid 2015 season, but battled injuries in 2016 that really set him back to just four appearances with an 11.91 ERA. He got rocked, but the defending world champs took a gamble on him and it’s because he’s on the Cubs that I’m willing to include Anderson as a deep league streamer. He’s not a strikeout specialist. This guy previously made his money getting hitters to ground out. It’s really tough to gauge his spring as he’s had his up’s and down’s but the Cubs are confident enough in him as they chose him over Mike Montgomery as the final starter and if the Cubs can give him enough run support against Milwaukee then it’s possible he could come away from this game with the win.

Tyler Skaggs (LAA): Skaggs hasn’t been announced as a starter for the Angels next week, but all signs are looking good for the southpaw. He threw 90 pitches in a Triple-A start on Thursday and he looked great in his last three outings in spring training. He suffered a scare a few weeks ago as he was dealing with shoulder fatigue, but he looks ready to start next Thursday in Oakland. Skaggs missed 2015 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, but bounced back nicely in 2016 with a 9.06 K/9. Unfortunately he also allowed slightly over 4 walks per 9 innings. If he can get the walks down then he could be a nice fantasy player to own. Based on his solid spring and the matchup against an Oakland team that was one of the worst offenses in all of baseball in 2016.

Mike Foltynewicz (ATL): Folty is coming off a 2016 campaign that finally showed baseball fans that he could control his fastball. Only a handful of pitchers throw harder than Folty and the command was there in 2016. His K/9 rate improved from 6.75 to 8.00 to 8.10 over the past three seasons and his BB/9 decreased from 3.38 to 3.01 to 2.55 last year. It’s not an easy matchup next Saturday against Gerrit Cole and the Pirates on the road. But whether you’re in a categories league or a points league, Folty has the strikeout upside that could return some nice value for you. He’s currently owned in about 18%-20% of leagues depending on which site you use so he may not be available in your deep league. If he is available he’s worth looking at next Saturday.

Dan Straily (MIA): Straily is another guy who is currently coming in around 15%-20% owned depending on what site you play. It’s no secret that Straily was viewed as one of the luckiest pitchers in all of baseball last year. He sported a 3.76 ERA, but also a 4.88 FIP. But he was still a player that helped fantasy owners last year with his 14 wins and his 1.19 WHIP. It’s not an ideal matchup due to it being against the Nationals who were a top 10 offense last season. Add in the fact that it’s a road start But Washington hasn’t confirmed their starter as of right now. It won’t be Strasburg because he’s starting Monday, but it could still be Scherzer. If that’s the case I would recommend any of the guys listed above over Straily because the win potential isn’t there and Straily historically is a worse pitcher on the road. If you need a streamer this early in Week 1 then tread carefully with him. I like him much more for his second start of the season April 11^th against Atlanta at home.

I’ll also be adding some streaming suggestions on a day-to-day basis on my Twitter account. So give me a follow @RealDANlanta as I’ll try and have my suggestions up the day before so you can get your waiver claims processed in time. Good luck!