10-Team Leagues

Joey Lucchesi , SD – Lucchesi was one of the more popular sleeper picks heading into the 2019 fantasy baseball season. His 12-team ownership sits around 75% so he’s likely only floating around in 10-team leagues at this point. Through two starts Lucchesi is 2-0 with 13 strikeouts over 10.1 innings. Lucchesi offers elite strikeout upside and will draw a favorable matchup against the Giants in his next start who are abysmal against left-handed pitching. The only drawback to Lucchesi is the Padres have pulled the plug before he has reached 90-pitches in both starts.

Marco Gonzales , SEA – Gonzales is coming off his best start of this young season which saw him toss 8.1 innings of one run ball against the Angels. He draws a road start against a relatively weak Royals lineup this upcoming week. On the year Gonzales is 3-0 with a 3.20 ERA while striking out 11 over 19.2 innings. Seattle’s offense is rolling right now, and they figure to put Gonzalez in line for his 4th win if he can do his part.

 

12-Team Leagues

Sonny Gray , CIN – It was clear that Gray just wasn’t a fit in New York and after a rough first start with Cincinnati he bounced back with a strong outing against Pittsburgh which saw him allow just one run on three hits while striking out seven over 6.2 innings. He took the tough luck loss in this one to drop his record to 0-2 on the year but I am encouraged by what we saw out of him here and he has a favorable matchup against the Miami coming up. Gray is worth the speculative add and maybe a stint in the NL will bring him back to the pitcher we saw during his Oakland days.

Jordan Zimmerman, DET – I wanted to see Zimmerman follow up his Opening Day start with another strong outing before I bought in. That second start came against the Yankees and he did impress as he allowed just one run while striking out six over 6.2 innings. He has a two-start week coming up, the first against a struggling Indians team and the second on the road in Minnesota. I’d be willing to take a gamble on Zimmer given his recent performances.

Matthew Boyd , DET – Hard to ignore 23 strikeouts in two starts so far from Boyd as the Tigers lefty has been solid through two starts. His most recent start against the Yankees saw him allow one run while striking out 13 over 6.1 innings. His lone start this week is against the Indians who as I mentioned are struggling to get going right now.  We’ve taken the bait with Boyd before but we haven’t ever seen him get off to a start like this, so I’d be willing to bite for at least one start.

 

15-Team Leagues

Michael Pineda , MIN – Slow and steady right now with Pineda but his two starts have been encouraging and I think he’s actually worth a roster add for the upside. In two starts he has allowed two runs on five hits while striking out 10 and walking just two over nine innings. The Twins are not going to push Pineda given his injury history but on the plus side he went for 40 pitches to 80 pitches between his first two outings, so he is ramping it up. It seems like a lifetime ago, but it was only 2016 when we saw Pineda strikeout 207 over 175.2 innings with a league best 10.6 K/9.

Nick Margevicius, SD – I can’t pronounce his last name but that’s not really important here. What is important is the fact that Margevicius has a 1.80 ERA over his two starts this season. He doesn’t look to offer a ton of strikeout upside, but he is limiting the hits and the damage against which should give him some chances to get some wins.  He has a two-start week coming up but I really only want him for his start on Wednesday where he faces the Giants for the second time this season. In his first start he allowed one run while striking out six over five innings.