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Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. It may only be April, but it's never too early to start streaming.
For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be available on your waiver wire.
Below are your pitcher and hitter streaming targets for Sunday, April 15. Let's get to it.
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Agenda
- Everybody Hurts
- Today's Weather and Updates
- Tomorrow's Picks
1. Everybody Hurts
It's been another year featuring a deluge of early-season injuries. Fortunately, most of the major ones so far haven't been catastrophic in terms of time likely to be missed. You can ride them out by using this very column to identify ideal short-term replacements. It's almost like there's a method to our madness, here.
2. Today's Weather and Updates
Lots of potential postponements today, with rain or snow threatening several games. Yankees-Tigers and White Sox-Twins are virtual certainties to be pushed back to a later date, and there are high precipitation probabilities for Cardinals-Reds, Braves-Cubs, and Jays-Indians. It'll rain in Seattle, too, but the Mariners had the good sense to install a retractable roof when they built Safeco Field.
3. Streamer Picks - Sunday, April 15
Pitchers to Use
Joey Lucchesi was impressive in his last start, surrendering two unearned runs and striking out eight batters in six innings at Coors Field. He's back home this time around for a much more favorable matchup with whoever on the Giants is still healthy at this point.
Ivan Nova may be a thoroughly unexciting pitcher, but basically anyone going against the Marlins' Quad-A squad is worthy of consideration.
Other Targets: Tyler Chatwood, Homer Bailey
Pitchers to Exploit
Some guy named Eric Skoglund is taking the hill for Kansas City against the Angels. In six career MLB starts, he's posted a 9.53 ERA, 2.21 WHIP, and 0.9 K-BB%. The technical term for this performance is "not good."
It's only two starts, sure, but Josh Tomlin currently spots the rarely seen double-digit FIP (10.04). The veteran never walks anyone, but he also can't strike anybody out and has allowed a 1.6 HR/9 for his career. Toronto's lineup isn't as fearsome as in years past - particularly not with Josh Donaldson on the shelf again - but I wouldn't trust Tomlin against any MLB team. He's only gotten as many starts as he has the last few seasons because Cleveland's rotation outside of Corey Kluber is sort of a M*A*S*H unit.
Other Targets: Julio Teheran, Ben Lively, Matt Boyd, Jhoulys Chacin
Homers on the Wire
Given Tomlin's penchant for allowing big flies, I'd strongly recommend stacking Blue Jays hitters today. Yangervis Solarte is roughly a coin flip to be available in your league, but both Curtis Granderson and Randal Grichuk are likely floating out on the waiver wire for you.
Other Targets: Dexter Fowler, Max Kepler, Eduardo Escobar, Jed Lowrie, Marcus Semien, Kole Calhoun, Luis Valbuena, Neil Walker
Steals on the Wire
If Lewis Brinson can actually get on base - a tall order for him so far in 2018 - he should be able to run on Francisco Cervelli or Elias Diaz.
Other Targets: Niko Goodrum, Bradley Zimmer, Yolmer Sanchez, Michael A. Taylor, Mallex Smith
Skill Positions
Russell Martin's corpse can still put a ball into the seats every so often, and he's a decent bet to do it against HR machine Tomlin.
Keynan Middleton is hovering around 50 percent ownership. He's locked down both of his save opportunities so far for the Angels, though we all know how much Mike Scioscia hates making things easy for fantasy owners.
