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Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire. This article, which began last season, runs seven days a week. Even with only a week and a half of the season in the books, we are always ready to stream.
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 Saturday, April 28, 2018. Let's get to it.
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Agenda
- What the Kang?
- Today's Weather and Updates
- Tomorrow's Picks
1. What the Kang?
Jung Ho Kang has been granted a visa and is cleared to return to America for work. A series of drunk driving incidents had proven to be a barrier in the past. The better question is, does Kang matter to us? Initially, not really. He'll go through extended spring training and a lengthy stint in the minors. Colin Moran may also lock down the third base job before Kang is ready. Moreover, he missed his age 30 season after being used as a part-timer in his age 29 campaign.
A lot has to go right for him to provide fantasy value. By all means, stash him in very deep formats - i.e., 20-team or NL Only. A typical 12-team league can ignore him for now.
2. Today's Weather and Updates
Pittsburgh and Cleveland have a little under a 50 percent chance for storms throughout game time. Monitor accordingly. Boston will be waiting for some rain to clear. If it lingers beyond the current expectations, a postponement is possible. The Red Sox are playing the Rays, so they'll have plenty of opportunities to make up the game.
3. Streamer Picks - Saturday, April 28
Pitchers to Use
Saturday features a lot of usually streamable pitchers with bad matchups. The five listed here represent those in more playable scenarios. If Matt Shoemaker has taught us anything about splitter-specialist starting pitchers, it's that they can be streaky. Brewers righty Junior Guerra, appears to be on a good streak. After failing to command his offerings last season, he's showing feel for the zone. The Cubs aren't especially hot-handed at the moment, and Wrigley Field is usually pitcher friendly this time of year. To be clear, Guerra is starting. Shoemaker is not.
Use either side of the Walker Buehler versus Chris Stratton matchup at AT&T Park as they're working the front end of a doubleheader. Buehler benefited from facing a terrible Marlins' lineup in his rotation debut last week. It's ok; the Giants are just as bad. He has ace upside thanks to a massive ground ball rate, premium velocity, and passable command. He'll need to improve the latter facet of his game to be more than a shiny toy.
Other Targets: Jack Flaherty, Trevor Williams
Pitchers to Exploit
For a second straight season, Andrew Cashner is trying to pretend he can outpitch his peripherals. It worked last year, but I'm not sanguine about his chances for a repeat. This year, he's actually inducing a few strikeouts. They've come at the expense of his ground ball and home run rates. The proverbial flood gates are waiting to burst. The Tigers offer a few streaming options.
Eric Skoglund is quite possibly the worst starting pitcher in the majors. In my mind, he's in a tight battle with Chris Tillman for the "honor." Skoglund simply doesn't have competitive stuff. His command and control aren't sufficient to make up for his shortcomings. As a result, he throws far too many hittable pitches. The White Sox could explode. They'll need to since Carson Fulmer isn't much better than Skoglund.
Other Targets: Sal Romano, Jeremy Hellickson, German Marquez, Caleb Smith
Homers on the Wire
Eugenio Suarez is briefly on the waiver wire in exactly half of the leagues. He should be owned in most formats. Don't be surprised if he scuffles for a couple of weeks as he recovers from a major thumb injury. Even so, this is your chance to get a quality player for free. And he'll face Jake Odorizzi.
Max Kepler is emerging as one of the top platoon bats in the league. In terms of fantasy use case, I'm reminded of vintage Andre Ethier. You never really wanted to get stuck owning Ethier, but he was just a little too good to stay on a 12-team waiver wire. In the early going, Kepler has become substantially more aggressive on pitches in the strike zone. I think it's probably a temporary blip. Of more lasting importance is an uptick in his fly ball rate.
Other Targets: Matt Davidson, Nick Delmonico, Lucas Duda, Jorge Soler, Domingo Santana, Jackie Bradley, Daniel Descalso, Jurickson Profar, Curtis Granderson, Teoscar Hernandez, Lourdes Gurriel, Yonder Alonso, Daniel Valencia, Jeimer Candelario, Dexter Fowler, Colin Moran, Brian Anderson, Jose Pirela, Christian Villanueva
Steals on the Wire
Keep an eye on Padres versus the Mets this weekend. Tomorrow, Manuel Margot and Franchy Cordero are well-positioned for a swipe against Jason Vargas. He allowed 13 steals last season. I'm unaware of Margot or Cordero's comfortable with stealing first movement against a left-handed pitcher.
The suddenly powerful Jarrod Dyson can go pick on Hellickson. His hot hand might get him placed near the top of the lineup as the Diamondbacks try to shuffle too many mediocre bats around Paul Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock.
Other Targets: Jose Peraza, Delino DeShields, Bradley Zimmer, Leonys Martin
Skill Positions
Robinson Chirinos is always a viable power source from the catcher position. It's too bad he's been zeroed out so often. Chris Iannetta will have the platoon advantage against Smith. Too bad the game is in Miami.
