Week 23 Waiver Wire: H2H Category Streamers

August 31, 2018

Jason Katz identifies fantasy baseball category streamers for week 23 of 2018. Waiver wire pickups, adds, and streamers for weekly head-to-head (H2H) leagues.

I like to consider myself a pioneer of the streaming approach. I won a league about seven years ago by completely ignoring saves and just stacking up the starts each week. While streaming is undoubtedly more directly associated with pitching, there's plenty of value in streaming for offense as well.

Maybe you have a stacked roster and you can't drop anyone. But for those of us with a couple of guys on the roster fringes, it's never too early to look into targeting a specific player or two to gain an edge in a particular category. This season, I will be making weekly recommendations for extreme short-term category specialists every week in three offensive areas: speed, power, and average; and three pitching areas: strikeouts, wins, and ratios (ERA/WHIP).

Below are my Week 23 category streamers for fantasy baseball. All position eligibility and ownership percentages are based on Yahoo! fantasy leagues.

Head-to-Head Category Streamers to Consider

Speed

Amed Rosario (SS, NYM) - 29% Owned

Amed Rosario is amongst the league leaders in stolen bases over the past month with seven swipes. He's not a speed demon, but he has 30 steal upside over a full season and with the Mets out of contention, they're just letting him go.

Greg Allen (OF, CLE) - 20% Owned

In his first 209 at-bats, Greg Allen has stolen 13 bags. That extrapolates to around 40 over a full season. He's playing every day and the speed is real.

Power

Hunter Renfroe (OF, SD) - 14% Owned

I always thought Hunter Renfroe would be more than he turned out to be. I liked him a lot more as a prospect. He's not great, but he's still useful for his power. His 2018 power numbers extrapolate to about a 30 home run season. He also has a series with the Reds next week, who have allowed the most home runs in the league this season.

Stephen Piscotty (OF, OAK) - 30% Owned

This is another instance of targeting an opponent. The A's have a series next week against the Rangers, who allow the third most home runs in the league. Stephen Piscotty has 18 home runs on the season.

Average

Tyler White (1B, HOU) - 28% Owned

It's not typical to recommend a first baseman for average purposes, but Tyler White is batting over .300 on the season and has been on fire the past two weeks, hitting .333. Next week, one of his series will be against the Twins, who rank 25th in batting average against.

Matt Duffy (2B, 3B, TB) - 11% Owned

Matt Duffy is hitting over .300 this season and .341 over the past two weeks. The Rays two of the teams in the bottom five in batting average against next week.

Strikeouts

Steven Matz (SP, NYM) - 15% Owned

The Mets lefty strikes out just under a batter an inning and has a home start against the Phillies next week. The Phillies have struck out the fourth most times in baseball.

Trevor Richards (SP, MIA) - 6% Owned

Why not pick on the Phillies some more? Trevor Richards has a K/9 slightly over 9.00 and also gets to pitch against the Phillies. The same argument for Matz applies here.

Wins

Wade LeBlanc (SP, SEA) - 19% Owned

The Mariners are in the thick of the Wild Card race while Wade LeBlanc's opponent next week, the Orioles, have the worst record in baseball. The game is in Seattle and the 34-year-old journeyman has posted a respectable ERA around 4.00 this season.

Adam Plutko (SP, CLE) - 4% Owned

Make no mistake, Adam Plutko is not a good pitcher. You are streaming him purely because he pitches for the first place Indians against the last place Royals next week. That is the only reason.

ERA/WHIP

Ryan Borucki (SP, TOR) - 6% Owned

Ryan Borucki is surprisingly easy to figure out. He pitches well against weak opponents and gets shellacked by good teams. The Rays are 21st in runs scored and the game is in Toronto. It should be a good one for Borucki.

Lucas Giolito (SP, CWS) - 24% Owned

Lucas Giolito keeps getting starts against the Tigers and he keeps pitching well. Here comes another one. Giolito has posted back to back quality starts against the Tigers recently, including seven innings of one-run ball last week.

More Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers