RADIO
Yo, it's Jon Anderson, continuing to run the show here in terms of late-summer fantasy baseball writing. I am back with another edition of two-start pitchers as we approach September. It is week 21, and we're still seeing pitchers pop up as late-season surprises. There are some really interesting names available right now.
This weekly fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups column aims to identify starting pitchers expected to make two starts in the upcoming fantasy baseball week, ahead of the Sunday night waiver wire runs for leagues with weekly transactions.
This list will be limited to players under 50% rostered in Yahoo leagues and divided into three sections based on recommendation levels: solid starters, risky streamers, and must-avoids.
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Solid Two-Start Pitcher Streamers
Matt Manning, Detroit Tigers - 19% Rostered
Scheduled starts: vs. SEA, vs. KC
Manning has been great over his last four starts, throwing 25 innings and giving up only five earned runs. That's good for a 1.80 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP with a 25.7% K% and a strong 5.0% BB%. Manning is a formerly high-touted prospect, and his slider is just sick. I think Manning may be taking a step forward into fantasy relevance, so we should add him right now for the long-haul, it's just icing on the cake that he gets two starts here.
Cole Irvin, Oakland Athletics - 49% Rostered
Scheduled starts: @WSH, @BAL
He just had an absolutely masterful start against the Marlins where he struck out 11 batters over seven scoreless innings. He put one of the best swinging-strike rates of the whole season in that outing with a mark of 27.2%. That is a far cry from what he's done on the season, with just a 17.4% K% and a 10.9% SwStr%. The most likely explanation for that ace outing is luck and the matchup. I don't believe Irvin is going to be a great fantasy pitcher for the rest of the season, but he does have two really soft matchups next week so it's worthwhile taking a stab at him if you need some extra starts.
Unfortunately, those are the only two names I can call "solid" when considering the ownership threshold we're working with. The rest of these guys are firmly in the "risky" category.
Risky Two-Start Pitcher Streamer Picks
Dylan Bundy, Minnesota Twins - 12% Rostered
Scheduled starts: vs. BOS, @CWS
Quietly, Bundy has given up just five runs in his last four starts (19.2 innings). He is doing that without any strikeouts (just nine in that time), but he's also not walking many batters recently or this year. I think he can nab a quality start and a win if given two tries here, so he's a fine but still risky option here.
Spenser Watkins, Baltimore Orioles - 9% Rostered
Scheduled starts: @CLE, vs. OAK
The Orioles have played some good baseball recently, and that's mainly come at the behest of their starting rotation. Watkins has been a part of that, as he's delivered a 3.03 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP over his last eight starts. The risky part is the bad strikeout rate (17%), but he's done it with an infinitesimal walk rate (3%). Throwing a bunch of strikes doesn't always work, but it works pretty well against offenses like Cleveland and Oakland – so Watkins is a decent two-start streamer next week.
Kutter Crawford, Boston Red Sox - 8% Rostered
Scheduled starts: @ MIN, vs. TEX
The ERA has ballooned to 5.32 and he has an awful WHIP of 1.36, but his 23% K% and 8% BB% show that there should be better numbers ahead. The 4.19 xFIP is half-decent, and Crawford does have a pretty nice underlying 12.3% SwStr%. Both of these matchups are league-average at best, so I wouldn't expect any sparkling outings from Crawford – but he's much more talented than a lot of the guys you'll find on waivers, so you can go on that.
Dane Dunning, Texas Rangers - 12% Rostered
Scheduled starts: vs. HOU, @ BOS
I don't want to start many pitchers against the Astros, and certainly not Dane Dunning – but he's a reasonably good pitcher and has two starts here so he qualifies. He has three quality starts in his last five outings, and overall you could do a lot worse if you're really, really looking for a two-start pitcher.
Adrian Houser, Milwaukee Brewers - 7% Rostered
Scheduled starts: vs. PIT, @ ARI
Really good matchups here for Houser. The concern is the pitch count, as he just returned from a lengthy IL stint, throwing 81 pitches against the Dodgers last Wednesday. If he can build up to 90+, that should be good enough to have a competitive week with these two soft matchups, but the upside has always been very low with Houser and it remains as such even here.
Madison Bumgarner, Arizona Diamondbacks - 19% Rostered
Scheduled starts: vs. PHI, vs. MIL
Put an asterisk on this one because the Diamondbacks are clearly hesitant to start Bumgarner, so we might see this not be a two-start week. They just recently skipped him because of "performance". To say it's "risky" here is an understatement, but I don't think he's a "stay away at all costs" kind of guy. I wouldn't be touching him, but he's a notch above the names in the next category.
Stay Away from these Two-Start Pitchers
Jose Urena, Colorado Rockies - 4% Rostered
Scheduled starts: @ ATL, @ CIN
He avoids Coors Field next week, but he's just not a good pitcher. Avoid at all costs.
Brayan Bello, Boston Red Sox - 3% Rostered
Scheduled starts: @ MIN, vs. TEX
He looked much better in his last outing, but he's still not quite to the trustworthy level yet. The strikeout rate is at 20%, very low, and the walks have been a problem up at 10%. If he puts up another start with a good K-BB ratio, then we can consider him – but for now, the risk too much outweighs the reward.
Javier Assad, Chicago Cubs - 0% Rostered
Scheduled starts: @TOR, @STL
The kid pitched well in the minors with a 2.70 ERA and a 25% K%, but those numbers aren't exciting enough for me to want to roll the dice on in the majors. He has made one appearance in the Big Leagues, throwing four innings without giving up a run, but he walked four batters while striking out only three and getting nine whiffs. We should always avoid rookies with walk problems, and Assad is no exception.
Joanthan Heasley, Kansas City Royals - 0% Rostered
Scheduled starts: @ CWS, @ DET
By the numbers, he's been one of the worst pitchers in the league – easy pass.
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