Daily Fantasy Baseball Streamers - Waiver Wire Picks for Friday 7/23

July 23, 2021

Top daily fantasy baseball streamers and waiver wire adds for 7/23/21. Mike Marteny identifies MLB hitters and starting pitchers to stream based on matchups.

Welcome to another edition of our daily fantasy baseball streamers! Are you playing in leagues with daily moves and looking to beef up those rosters? We here at RotoBaller are there for you and all of your streaming needs. Whether you are just trying to get that elusive category win or you are trying to make up for Ross Stripling earlier in the week, we can help. Each day, RotoBaller will provide you with some of the best streaming options to consider in both shallow and deep fantasy baseball daily leagues. Streaming hitters and pitchers to exploit matchups are important to help you win your league.

It is important to know your league if you're going to stream. I'm not just talking about which teams your leaguemates root for. I'm talking about whether strikeouts count against you for hitters or if fielding stats are included. Most importantly, you need to know how many transactions you have per week. You don't want to blow your allotment within a couple of days. You can also use these recommendations to help build your DFS lineups. This article will use rostered percentages and position eligibility from ESPN leagues.

We have seven pitchers going that are rostered in more than 90% of ESPN leagues. Six more are owned in more than half of leagues. That still leaves us 17 pitchers to choose from in most leagues. Depending on what you're looking for in your matchup, at least one of them should fit your needs.

Hitter Streamers for 7/23 - Shallow Leagues

Jed Lowrie (2B, RHB, OAK) - 43.9% Rostered

Matchup: at SEA LHP Yusei Kikuchi

Lowrie hit the break on a tear, riding a six-game hitting streak in which he hit .417 with two homers, six RBI, and three runs scored against the Rangers and Astros. He came out out the break with a walk-off homer, his third in the last three games. Since then he has cooled off a bit, but not to the point where we need to quit using him. Lowrie has only got hitless in two games all month (besides one pinch-hit appearance) and he still hits lefties well.

Kike Hernandez (2B/OF, RHB, BOS) - 43.6% Rostered

Matchup: vs, NYY RHP Gerrit Cole

Kike is coming in hot, picking up six hits in 14 tries over his last three games with three homers, eight RBI, and four runs scored. Granted, two of those games were in Buffalo, but still. Hernandez picked up a hit against Cole in his last start, so I don't mind using him here even though Cole has righted the ship after the sticky-icky ban. It's worth riding this hot streak in tiny Yankee Stadium.

Akil Baddoo (OF, LHB, DET) - 41.7% Rostered

Matchup: at KC LHP Kris Bubic

We here at RotoBaller have been touting Baddoo as a waiver pickup for the last couple of weeks, and unfortunately, not many have taken notice. Baddoo has come out of the break on an absolute tear. He has two homers, eight RBI, five runs scored, and a steal in six games. He's batting leadoff for a suddenly dangerous Detroit lineup. Don't snooze on him any longer. He'll be 80% rostered within a week.

Paul DeJong (SS, RHB, STL) - 40.6% Rostered

Matchup: at CIN RHP Tyler Mahle

DeJong's start to the season was so horrible that we wondered if he could ever turn it around. He just now got his average up to the Mendoza line. He is hitting .350 since the break and has three homers, six RBI, and seven runs scored in his last eight games. Five of those runs have been scored in the last four games. The power is coming around, but perhaps more importantly, he is at least getting on base so he can boost some runs scored numbers at a bare minimum. I'm also targeting this game because of Tyler Mahle's horrid 6.37 ERA in eight home starts this year.

Hitter Streamers for 7/23 - Deeper Leagues

Yandy Diaz (1B/3B, RHB, TB) - 12.5% Rostered

Matchup: at CLE RHP Zach Plesac

Diaz entered the break hot and has come out of it equally scorching. Last night's four-hit effort puts him at .438 since the break with two homers, three RBI, and three runs scored. Diaz is now hitting .389 in 10 July games with three homers and seven RBI. Ride him while he's hot, especially in a revenge series in Cleveland.

Brandon Marsh (OF, LHB, LAA) - 10.2% Rostered

Matchup: at MIN LHP J.A. Happ

I've been targeting Happ for a while now, and it wont stop tonight even with the teetering Angels facing him. Marsh, regarded as one of the best prospects in the system, is a solid 4-for-15 since his call-up for the second half of the season with a steal and a RBI. Marsh has held his own in his first taste of the majors, and you have to like him against a struggling pitcher and an even worse bullpen.

Gavin Sheets (1B, LHB, CWS) - 5.5% Rostered

Matchup: at MIL RHP Freddy Peralta

Sheets seems to be in a platoon situation, but he's in the strong side of it and doing well when he plays. He has smacked two homers and driven in five since the break. He should get the start with another righty on the mound. I avoided Peralta for much of the first three months of the season, but Peralta has allowed seven runs in three July starts. Some of the luster is starting to wear off. Peralta is still very good, but he's making a few more mistakes. Sheets is seeing pitches well enough right now that he might get into one.

Wilmer Difo (2B/3B/OF, SHB, PIT) - 5.1% Rostered

Matchup: at SF RHP Johnny Cueto

Difo's recent seven-game hitting streak began with a pinch-hit on July 10 and stopped on Tuesday. The Pirates gave him Wednesday off and with the team having an off day yesterday, Difo will come in rested. He has hit two of this three homers on the season since the All-Star break with four RBI and four runs scored. It's a little tougher to hit in AT&T Park, but Difo on a hot streak is still worth a look when he plays.

Pitcher Streamers for 7/23 - Shallow Leagues

Zach Thompson (RHP, MIA) - 38.9% rostered

Matchup: vs. San Diego

I could probably be talked into Jake Odorizzi because of the strikeout upside, but it would take some convincing after he came out of the break and got obliterated by the White Sox. I'll go after a team that has only played three full games since the break and has scored just seven runs in those three games. I don't understand how Thompson is even still an option for us. About the only legitimate gripe we can have with him is that he's not a lock for five innings and he only threw 60 pitches against Philly, leading some to think the Marlins are going to monitor his pitch counts down the stretch. There is no official word yet, but even if he doesn't qualify for the win, Thompson should at the very least help your ratios and strikeouts. He has a 1.93 ERA in six starts and a sparkling 0.82 ERA at home with 33 strikeouts over his first 28 major league innings.

Wily Peralta (RHP, DET) - 36.9% rostered

Matchup: at Kansas City

Can we trust Wily Peralta yet? He has a 1.64 ERA and has given up just two runs in his last five starts combined spanning 26.2 innings. Peralta doesn't rack up a ton of strikeouts, but he will help your ERA and WHIP while putting you in line for a win if his bullpen doesn't screw it up. Besides, this is a revenge game. Peralta spent his last two seasons with the Royals before missing 2020 because of the pandemic. His xERA of 3.55 points towards some regression, but I doubt it comes here. His metrics suggest that Peralta learned how to pitch in his year off.

Pitcher Streamers for 7/23 - Deeper Leagues

Chad Kuhl (RHP, PIT) - 4.9% rostered

Matchup: at San Francisco

Okay, hear me out. The Giants' great numbers against righties were mostly perpetuated by Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, and Evan Longoria. All three of them are on the IL right now. It's Buster Posey and a group of ragtag journeymen in this lineup now. There are still some decent hitters in here, but at some point we can't ignore what Kuhl has done lately anymore. Since giving up five runs to the Brewers on June 12, Kuhl has allowed just six runs combined in his five starts since. If you take out the start at Coors in there, it's three runs in four starts. The two in July against the Braves and Mets have been the most impressive. Now the bad news: The Pittsburgh offense doesn't offer much run support and Kuhl doesn't strike out a lot of batters. He's liberal with baserunners and has had a good deal of luck in this run. One of these days it's going to run out, but we can't ignore the watered down Giants lineup and the massive park upgrade here if we're streaming in a deep league.

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