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Welcome to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire. Use this column to improve upon your neediest categories.
Below are your pitcher and hitter streaming targets for Thursday, June 1st.
Let's get to it.
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Agenda
- Mistakes Were Made
- Today's Weather and Updates
- Tomorrow's Picks
1. Mistakes Were Made
I recommended Tyler Anderson be used yesterday based on some encouraging signs. Also because nobody else appeared to be streamable. Here's exactly what I said.
Oh, you thought I was going to recommend pitchers to use from the waiver wire? Ha! Not today!
Actually, there is one guy, and he's pitching at Coors Field. Tyler Anderson appears to have rediscovered the combination of ground balls and soft contact that made him sneaky useful last season. This time around, he's even striking out a batter per inning. The Mariners don't have too many scary right-handed hitters. There's still plenty of room to worry about your ratios. After all, it's friggin' Coors Field. However, if you have to use somebody, Anderson is your one and only guy.
I hope this was a sufficiently soft recommendation that few of you were unnecessarily burned by his disasterpiece yesterday. The aforementioned combo of grounders and soft contact didn't happen. This is always a risk with the pitchers discussed in this column. I'll let you know when they're Alex Wood or Zack Godley. Usually, they're quite risky.
2. Today's Weather and Updates
Baltimore and St. Louis have a chance to late storms. Don't worry yourselves. Tomorrow's games look to be unaffected by rain.
3. Tomorrow's Picks - Thursday, June 1st
Thin Thursday is actually thin! Eight games only.
Pitchers to Use
For such a thin slate, there are actually quite a few streamable pitchers. To be clear, they're all Tyler Anderson class. In other words, meltdowns are quite possible.
Either side of Chase Anderson at Zack Wheeler could work. Anderson has teased a couple extra strikeouts this year while cracking down on his home run problem. CitiField should help him to keep the ball in the yard. He's a volume pitcher capable of producing average stats in the four starter categories. Wheeler is very similar except with shakier command and more ground balls. The Brewers offense is definitely the scarier of the two, but they're also strikeout prone.
Brandon McCarthy is visiting the Cardinals - always a tricky assignment. The Dodgers righty is a command and control king. Unlike others on the wire, he's fully capable of helping your ERA and WHIP while providing an average rate of strikeouts and a goodly chance for victory. He does toss the occasional clunker without any warning.
Other Targets: Jharel Cotton
Pitchers to Exploit
I'm not a believer in pitchers with 5.62 K/9 and 4.06 BB/9. And that's why I consistently pick against Kyle Freeland. Eventually, he'll have what I misleadingly refer to as a regression game - something like seven runs allowed in 2.1 innings. Before long, his 3.43 ERA will spike to somewhere in the 5.00 ERA neighborhood. I do like his high ground ball and low fly ball rates. He's visiting the Mariners.
Jeff Locke is returning from a shoulder injury. Locke has whipped together a couple decent streaks over his career. He's never quite put together a full season. Typically, he's a hittable pitcher with middling command of a mediocre repertoire. He'll face the Diamondbacks.
Other Targets: Yovani Gallardo, CC Sabathia, Adalberto Mejia, Alex Meyer
Homers on the Wire
Corey Kluber is returning from the disabled list just in time to run into Yonder Alonso and Jed Lowrie. Kluber can slice through a lineup like it's a bowl of jello, but he's had some issues this season. It's not new to watch him struggle over his first six to 10 starts. If he's shaking off rust, Alonso and Lowrie will be there to jump on hittable mistakes.
The Red Sox are facing a mid-tier lefty, making it a great Chris Young day. The lefty masher is playing nearly every day due to an injury to Jackie Bradley Jr. He has a long history of tattooing southpaws.
Anderson is a great matchup for Lucas Duda about half of the time. The other half, Anderson throws offspeed pitches. The scouting report on Duda is very simple. He loves fastballs and hates anything offspeed.
Other Targets: Brandon Drury, Max Kepler, Kennys Vargas, Joe Mauer, Joey Rickard, Trey Mancini, Danny Valencia, Logan Forsythe, Chris Taylor, Tommy Pham, Paul DeJong
Steals on the Wire
The lack of speed on the waiver wire is appalling. It's Jose Reyes or bust tomorrow.
Other Targets:
Skill Positions
Jett Bandy started yesterday which probably means he'll start again tomorrow. Hopefully that's accurate - Bandy is best against low ball pitchers like Wheeler. The Brewers don't seem to understand this though.
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