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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 Wednesday, June 14th.
Let's get to it.
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Agenda
- Some Notes on Rebuilding
- Today's Weather and Updates
- Tomorrow's Picks
1. Some Notes on Rebuilding
I whittled my way down to six teams this season. One is a redraft with the RotoBaller folks, two are long term keepers, and two are ottoneu (FanGraphs' fantasy offering). Think of ottoneu as dynasty-lite. The last is a pure 20-team, 45-players per team dynasty. I've had the good fortune to remain in first, second, or third all season in the first five leagues - largely due to players I first discovered while writing this column. The deep dynasty though... that team fell apart.
I recently undertook a massive overhaul to retool the roster, aiming for younger, long term talent. We keep 28 in this league so there is some value to aggregating talent. Here's the damage from three trades.
MEGABLOCK
Outgoing: A.J. Ramos, Chris Archer, Jose Quintana, Josh Donaldson, Matt Bush, Odubel Herrera
Incoming: Mookie Betts, Zack Godley, Justin Smoak, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Matt Davidson, and Eric Sogard
Blockbuster
Outgoing: Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Santana, and Kelvin Herrera
Incoming: Anthony Rizzo, Alex Kirilloff, and Kevin Merrell
On the Margin
Outgoing: Mike Leake and Nick Markakis
Incoming: Chris Taylor and Jesus Sanchez
Overall, that's a quarter of my roster churned via trade in just 30 hours. Much of it was underperforming, win-now talent in the 30-and-over bin. As much as I hate selling low, our roster is just a few good pitchers away from a rebound in 2018.
Tomorrow (if I remember), I'll touch on some of the repercussions of announce a massive rebuild.
2. Today's Weather and Updates
Minnesota has a 50 percent chance for storms tonight. The rest of the league is dry. A whole slew of venues may be stormy on Tuesday - Pittsburgh, Boston, Cleveland, New York (NL), and Chicago (AL).
3. Tomorrow's Picks - Wednesday, June 14th
Pitchers to Use
The Athletics are summoning Daniel Gossett, a hard throwing righty who likes to work up in the strike zone. We're going to see more pitchers of this profile over the next few seasons. Gossett hums at 96 mph with a four pitch repertoire. None are strikeout weapons, but the overall repertoire could work in the majors. More likely than not, we'll see the typical pattern of a couple good starts, a few disasters, and then a possible adjustment. He's visiting Edinson Volquez and the Marlins. Go ahead and use Volquez too.
Amir Garrett is the iciest of ices these days. He's allowed 24 runs in his last 12.2 innings. On the plus side, it's hard to continue allowing more runs than hits (21). However, that's an awful lot of hits, and they're supplemented by nine walks and 10 home runs. And here I am thinking about recommending him. The simple truth is that a visit to Petco Field can make anybody viable. That said, only the most desperate of owners should try this play.
Mike Montgomery isn't performing as well as he did last season, but the raw components remain encouraging. The biggest issues are a two mph decrease in velocity and a sharp spike in walk rate. He's also likely to make short starts as he did last week. Monty's repertoire and high ground ball rate are well suited to starting. He appears as though he should perform somewhere between Zack Godley and Luis Perdomo.
Francisco Liriano is on this list only because the Rays have ALL of the strikeouts versus southpaw pitchers. Liriano usually has modest reverse splits due to a plus changeup.
Other Targets: Brian Johnson, German Marquez, Brandon McCarthy
Pitchers to Exploit
Let's talk about Francis Martes. I've already spilled hundreds of words about these other scrublords. Martes is a promising 21-year-old stud with mid-90s velocity and a dynamic breaking ball. Scouts like his changeup too. Under normal circumstances, the Astros would not be using him in the majors. He's struggled with command at Triple-A, posting a 5.29 ERA with 10.58 K/9 and 7.79 BB/9. He'll generate whiffs, but professional hitters should quickly knock him from the game.
Other Targets: Jhoulys Chacin, Jason Hammel, Julio Teheran, Jeremy Hellickson, Chad Kuhl, Sam Gaviglio, Andrew Cashner
Homers on the Wire
I usually try to focus my attention on players who are new to this list, have a ridiculously good matchup, or possess some cool new(ly noticed) trait. I mention this only as a reminder.
Howie Kendrick is awash with flames. Since returning from the disabled list in late May, he's slashing .370/.420/.565 (.469 BABIP). Yeah, he will regress. Until then, he has a role in the heart of the Phillies lineup versus a beatable southpaw (Johnson). Daniel Nava has been batting second since Cesar Hernandez landed on the disabled list. And as always, I heartily recommend Tommy Joseph.
If Garrett continues to allow close to a home run per inning, you'll want to have shares of Hunter Renfroe, Yangervis Solarte, and Allen Cordoba. Also Jose Pirela. He could provide a little speed too.
Other Targets: Derek Dietrich, Jed Lowrie, Hunter Renfroe, Yangervis Solarte, Allen Cordoba, Mitch Moreland, John Jaso, Josh Harrison, David Peralta, Seth Smith, Wilmer Flores, Neil Walker, Max Kepler, Tommy Pham
Steals on the Wire
Mallex Smith is facing a southpaw which may limit his value. Some base thieves are more restrained against lefties. And Smith is the type of hitter who could struggle to reach base against a fellow southpaw.
Brewers catcher Jett Bandy has been slightly stolen base prone this season. That's a good thing if Kolten Wong reaches base. I'm less enthused about the matchups for Lewis Brinson and Eric Sogard, but I'll mention them anyway.
Other Targets: Jose Pirela, Michael Taylor, Mallex Smith, Delino DeShields, Jarrod Dyson, Taylor Motter
Skill Positions
Austin Hedges is the catcher to own for that all-or-nothing matchup versus Mr. Garrett.
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