2 Start Starting Pitching Options for Week 5

Posted by Ivar G. Anderson on 04/28/2012 | 0 Comments

Tags: 2 Start Starting Pitching Options, Week 5, MLB, Fantasy Baseball, Starting Pitching, Starting Pitchers, Felix Hernandez, Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, C.J. Wilson, Yu Darvish, Jordan Zimmerman

With the end of the first month of baseball getting set to wind up in the next few days, it is a good time to reevaluate our rosters, and as this blog is about starting pitching, I want to encourage you to cut the dead wood now.  Those pitchers in the bottom chart are not worth a roster spot at this point in the season, and if you continue to start them, dire consequences will ensue.  So long as your league allows it, I suggest the use of a disciplined cut and add philosophy.  Now, with that in mind, who do I like this week?  Read on, my droogies.

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These are, as they are every week, the SPs you want to start no matter the matchup.  I might be a tad worried about giving both starts to the last four on the list, but I do believe in all four of these guys, even Minor whom I've come to expect very good things from this season.  Wainwright might be a candidate for the second tier, except for his matchups this week.  Now, let's turn our attention to the streaming options you want to consider in Week 5.

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The first five in this list-Buehrle, Kuroda, Nolasco, Sale and Dickey-are all safe starts for both matchups this upcoming week.  Hochevar, Samardzija and Nicasio don't have great matchups, but I like their chances to put up good numbers for their owners even so.  I like the chances for Wolf and Arroyo, and Harang is a good late week option, but I really cannot recommend him pitching at Colorado.  McDonald is steady if unspectacular, while Noesi and Milone have been impressive when  I've seen them on the mound this year.  Mendoza is a good young arm, as is Drabek of late, so they make this chart as opposed to the hands off chart immediately below.  No need to explain again my unjustified love for Hammel.  In deference to his team, he simply rounds out the bottom of tier number 2.

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Volstad stands head and shoulders above his fellow pitchers here, but he is so mediocre, I wouldn't roster him except in an NL-only league.  Hughes, Collmenter, Buchholtz, Cahill and Jiminez have been victims of my add/drop surgery for my leagues.  Hugely disappointed I drafted any of them.  Hendricks' team slots him on this list, as does Happ, although I do like some of the youthful enthusiasm that the Astros have been demonstrating of late.  Morton and Wieland have offensive problems backing their efforts up, so while they may be pitching decently, it is not so wonderful that you should saddle yourself with their losing efforts.  If their teams start to hit (more likely in Pittsburgh than San Diego, in my opinion), they could rise to a second tier option.  I will confess I just picked up Jerome Williams, but that was a 15 team league with an extremely shallow free agent market, and he replaces Hughes who has been killing me.  Finally, even though he pitches for my home team, Wilk is better suited as a AAA pitcher than someone facing MLB hitters.

Good luck and godspeed in your fantasy endeavors.  If you have any starting pitching questions, I can be reached at ia@fantasyalarm.com.

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