2017 Fantasy Baseball SP Streamers: Week 6

10-12 Team Leagues

Derek Holland (CHW): Holland is one of the bright spots this week and his ownership is sky rocketing (he was added in 24% of Yahoo! Leagues and 18.3% of ESPN leagues in the last day) so he may not be available in deeper leagues, but he’s still available in shallower leagues. Holland is fooling pitchers and it’s because he’s getting fantastic velocity separation in his last few starts. His fastball is still in the 91-93 mph range, but he’s nearly dropped 3-4 mph on his changeup over his last 4 starts to make for great separation. That slight improvement goes a long way to fooling opposing hitters. Holland draws the Twins at home who are in the bottom half of the league against lefties (.230/.314/.346) and they’ve hit only 4 home runs in 309 plate appearances against southpaws this year. Holland is highly recommended this week.

Amir Garrett (CIN): Garrett saw his ownership drop after his woeful start against Milwaukee, but he “bounced back” in his last start against the Pirates. The use of quotations is because he had a .000 BABIP, but still gave up 3 walks and the 2 hits he gave up were both home runs so it’s not like he had a fantastic outing by any means. Still, he’s available in about 50% of leagues. Garrett gets a nice preview against the Giants today (May 6th) at home. For Week 6 he’ll face the Giants on the road, which is a fantastic matchup. Really pay attention to how he does today because only the Royals boast a worse offense than the Giants right now. What’s even better is that the Giants can’t score runs in their own ballpark (.222/.282/.304). PLUS the Giants are awful against left-handed pitching. They carry a .234/.297/.343 line, which puts them in the bottom half of the league. This is lining up to be a really fantastic matchup for Garrett.

Patrick Corbin (ARI): Corbin, like Holland, has seen his ownership shoot up over the last 24 hours but it could be for people to stream him in his next matchup on the road in Colorado. People are jumping to irrational conclusions over this one. Sure Corbin was amazing in his last start at home (also against the Rockies) to the tune of 6.1 innings of work with 6 K’s and no earned runs. Corbin gets a re-match on the road in Coors. Anyone streaming him Saturday is playing with fire because he’s facing the same team in another hitter-friendly park. It’s Coors Field, calm down everyone. Check out Corbin’s Home/Road splits below:

Now the hope is that Corbin does poorly in his road start against the Rockies tonight so that he’s available for people to stream him Week 6 at home against Pittsburgh. The Pirates are in the bottom half of the league on the road with a .228/.313/.385 slash line and they’re only hitting .223 against lefties. Corbin’s a safe stream next week.

(The next two guys are risky for Week 6, but options are pretty slim in the coming week so these guys make the list for slightly decent matchups. If you don’t like the next two guys then you should look at the guys in the deeper league section.)

Kevin Gausman (BAL): A lot of you may have laughed when you saw Gas Can’s name on the list and he could easily get lit up in his first start next week against Washington on May 8th. If that does happen he may be widely dropped in your league and he’ll be available for his 2nd start in Week 6 against Kansas City. The Royals are awful offensively and Gausman faces them in Kauffman Stadium, which has catered to pitchers more than hitters in 2017 thus far. Let’s be honest, he’s been terrible in 2017 so he’s towards the bottom of this list for a reason. Below is a table comparing his 2016 and 2017 numbers:

The start against the Royals will merely serve as a confidence builder, and if it goes poorly then he could be in danger of losing his spot in the rotation and you’ll never see him in this piece ever again.

Drew Pomeranz (BOS): Pomeranz is at the bottom of the list for two reasons: he may not necessarily be available in your league, and his matchup is risky on the road in Milwaukee Tuesday night. Granted Pom has done pretty well in his last 3 starts (twice against Baltimore, and once against the Cubs). In 16.2 innings he’s recorded 18 K’s and given up just 2 earned runs in each start. He is prone to getting lit up, and the Brewers are one of the best offenses so far in 2017, but they’ve scored just 19 runs in their last 6 games and they strike out about 9-10 times per game. Pomeranz may only give you 5-6 innings of work, but the K potential is there.

Player to Avoid: Jharel Cotton (OAK) has a very strange pattern going where he’s alternating good and bad starts. He appeared in this piece in Week 1 as a streaming option against the Angels at home and got lit up. Now he’s coming off a pretty good start where he logged a Win and 9 K’s over 6 innings of work. His next start comes against the Angels at home. If the trend continues then this could be a bad spot for Cotton, but he could make the Week 7 piece, but avoid him in Week 6.

Deeper Leagues

A.J. Griffin (TEX): Griffin came off the DL for Thursday’s start against Houston and held the Astros to just 2 runs (1 earned) in Thursday’s start to improve to 3-0 on the year with a 3.54 ERA. His next start comes in San Diego on May 9th against Luis Perdomo. Griffin really doesn’t have overpowering stuff as his fastball tops out around 87 mph. One noticeable factor is that he’s used his curveball over 30% of the time in each of his last two starts where he’s given up just 1 earned run over 11 innings. In his first 2 starts where his curve was utilized less than 17% of the time in each start he surrendered 7 earned runs over 9.1 innings. So the use of the curveball is keeping the ball in the park as Griffin does have a history of giving up the long ball.

Matt Andriese (TB): Since getting lit up for 4 earned runs in his first start, Andriese has done a nice job turning it around. In 31 innings of work he’s boasted a 2.32 ERA and racked up a respectable 26 K’s. Now he does sport a .244 BABIP and his 93.3% strand rate is unsustainable, but he gets the Royals at home in his next start. The Royals are 3-11 in their last 14 games and boast one of the worst slash lines in the league (.215/.275/.342) and they’re averaging less than 3 runs per game. This is a pretty decent matchup for Andriese to continue his nice run. Be aware that the Trop hasn’t been as pitcher-friendly in 2017. In 2016 it ranked 7th in terms of pitcher’s parks. So far in 2017 it ranks 5th in terms of hitter’s parks. Expect a slight regression throughout the year, but the Trop has been catering to hitters so far in 2017.

Alex Wood (LAD): Wood is hopefully still available in deeper league formats. He’s available in a few 10-12 team formats and he gets a very friendly matchup on Monday against the Pirates. All the road/lefty stats listed in the Patrick Corbin section can be applied here too for the Bucs. Wood’s a LHP and the start comes in Los Angeles so this is an excellent spot for Wood who is an exceptional pitcher at home:

The ERA and FIP comparisons are very comforting considering his ERA is higher at home, but his FIP is drastically lower at home than on the road. Wood has also struck out 19 batters over his last 15.2 innings of work. This will likely be the only time he makes the streamers piece as his ownership should go up as more and more people learn he has a solidified spot in the rotation.