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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 15th.
Let's get to it.
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Agenda
- Some Notes on Rebuilding
- Today's Weather and Updates
- Tomorrow's Picks
1. Part 2 on Rebuilding
I touched briefly on my dynasty rebuild yesterday. Specifically, I shared the trades I made. Today, let's discuss the fallout. Whenever you trade win-now talent for win-later assets, your leaguemates will smell blood. You'll immediately receive offers of "my decent keeper for all your base." Learn to say no. Often. "No" is your greatest weapon in negotiations.
Too often, rebuilding becomes a race to the bottom. My dynasty roster still has older studs like Charlie Blackmon and J.D. Martinez along with some core performers like Kendrys Morales, Ben Zobrist, Justin Smoak, Jed Lowrie, and Russell Martin. The orthodoxy says I should trade them for the best offer. However, I'll bide my time looking for the right return. I have no issue with keeping them.
Since it's a keep 28 league, there's no pressure to make any keeper swaps unless they're favorable to me. My offense is still positioned to be among the best over the rest of this season and in 2018. It's pitching that let me down. I have the better part of a year to find solutions. They may already be on my roster in the form of Aaron Sanchez, Danny Salazar, Charlie Morton, and Zack Godley.
The moral of the story is simple - too often I see owners make trades because they think they must. You make your own leverage. Don't be afraid to go down with the ship if the alternative is a mediocre return.
2. Today's Weather and Updates
Watch out for storms in Washington, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Detroit and Cleveland look iffy tomorrow.
3. Tomorrow's Picks - Thursday, June 15th
Thin Thursday is composed of a choice selection of 10 games.
Pitchers to Use
Only two starters stand out as usable targets. You could stretch for a third too - volatile Josh Tomlin. The Indians righty occasionally goes deep into his outings. Equally occasionally, he's drubbed out of town by the third inning. Tomlin probably suffers from throwing too many strikes. He's a solid asset in those K/BB leagues.
In 11 starts, Jordan Montgomery has had just one bad outing. Ironically, it came against a terrible Royals offense. Monty is visiting pitcher friendly Oakland on Thursday. The southpaw still needs to permanently retire his bad sinker. The rest of his repertoire is very effective. He's on the wire in 70 percent of Yahoo leagues.
Miranda, strangely, is rostered in 53 percent of leagues, but I'm going to include him anyway. I say his ownership is strange because he's been slightly less effective than Montgomery. The Mariners lefty has a plus changeup and solid breaking ball. He can get into trouble if either offering is off. His fastball can be particularly hittable. Since a disaster in early-May, Miranda is 3-0 with a 2.17 ERA (5.19 xFIP) 7.96 K/9 and 4.34 BB/9 in 37.1 innings. I've included the xFIP to point out that he's very fortunate. He'll face the Twins.
Other Targets: N/A
Pitchers to Exploit
Entering the season, there was a lot of excitement surrounding Matt Strahm. To some (including me), he was supposed to be the next great Royals reliever. Another contingent believed he could be an above average starting pitcher. Neither group of dreamers thought he'd lose command of the strike zone. In 22 relief innings, he has a 4.50 ERA with 10.64 K/9 and 7.36 BB/9. On the plus side, he's only allowed 13 hits in those 22 innings (.200 BABIP). Strahm may yet have a bright future, but tomorrow may be a mess. Do note, he's on a 70 pitch count.
Other Targets: Chris Tillman, David Holmberg, Nick Pivetta, Matt Moore, Ricky Nolasco
Homers on the Wire
The Giants are visiting Coors Field, and there are an awful lot of them on the waiver wire. Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford are only a few points below our 50 percent ownership threshold. Widely available options include Austin Slater and Aaron Hill. Crawford is probably the mostly likely to do some damage versus Jeff Hoffman.
Logan Morrison is up to 18 home runs and 38 percent ownership. The homers are real folks. At least, they're mostly real. I doubt he can maintain this over 40 homer pace, but he's easily a 25 to 30 home run guy now. Colby Rasmus still has some pop too. They'll see suddenly homer prone Justin Verlander.
Other Targets: Chase Utley, Melky Cabrera, Trey Mancini, Mitch Moreland, Colby Rasmus, Logan Morrison, Wilmer Flores, Tommy Pham, Jed Lowrie
Steals on the Wire
It's Rajai Davis day. He'll face a southpaw in the form of Montgomery.
Cameron Maybin is en fuego. Admittedly, I'm a little late to this particular party. Since a five hit game on May 16, he's slashing .397/.500/.635 with 10 steals in 11 attempts (76 plate appearances) and nearly 50 percent more walks than strikeouts. Obviously, he'll cool down again. He has the platoon advantage versus Strahm. Andrelton Simmons is running a bit this year too.
Other Targets: Jarrod Dyson, Taylor Motter, Tim Anderson, Kolten Wong, Lewis Brinson, Eric Sogard
Skill Positions
I'm pretty sure it's Manny Pina's turn tomorrow. I probably prefer Tony Wolters at Coors Field.
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