10-Team League
Yu Darvish SP, CHC – Darvish has turned in back-to-back noteworthy outings against the Reds and Pirates, tossing 12 shutout innings while striking out 15. Maybe most important is that over his last 18.2 innings he has issued just one base on balls. We know he can be an elite talent when everything is going right and I will be buying my shares of him this week as he starts on the road against the Giants in the leagues most favorable pitchers park.
Chris Archer SP, PIT – Listen, Archer was in this article last week because I liked his match up against the Cardinals and I told you all that I am not expecting a shutout but if he gives us a quality start with a high number of strikeouts we should be happy. What did he do? Oh you know, just a quality start with eight strikeouts. Guess what? He faces the Cardinals again this week and this time it will be in his home park. I am still expecting the same results here with a quality start and more strikeouts than innings pitched.
12-Team League
Julio Teheran SP, ATL – I always love when a National League team gets an interleague game with National League rules because that just weakens the American League team’s lineup with the loss of the DH. We have that this week as the Braves welcome the Royals into Atlanta. The Royals offense has been better of late but it still isn’t anything too impressive while Teheran continues to put up quality outings. He’s worth the snag with this match up.
Miles Mikolas SP, STL – I am the furthest thing from a Mikolas fan, but he is facing a Pirates team that he just tossed a complete game shutout against earlier this week. He followed that start with another solid outing against the Reds in the little league field they call a home ballpark. Mikolas is unexciting but he tends to fade damage and that’s good enough for a pitcher you are looking to stream.
Sonny Gray , SP CIN – Gray has been very good of late, posting a 1.29 ERA over three July starts and if you go back into June he hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in a single game since his final start of the month. Gray will have a home match up against the Rockies which I know is definitely a scary task but the Rockies have the leagues worst team average on the road this season and Gray just went INTO Coors Field and tossed seven innings of one run baseball while striking out nine.
15-Team League
Reynaldo López SP, CWS – I threw up a little when I wrote his name down here because honestly, Lopez has been a relatively trash pitcher during his major league career and his saber stats will back that up. With that said, he still has very talented stuff and was once a top prospect because of it. If he could ever just get consistent we could see a breakout type season from Lopez like we saw from Giolito this year. Over his last two starts Lopez has flashed that talent that once made him a top prospect as he has allowed just two runs over 13 innings while striking out 15 between the Rays and A’s with both of those starts coming on the road. He faces the Marlins this week which is a team we love to target, so let’s see if Lopez can make it three in a row because the upside here could be tremendous.
Dario Agrazal SP, PIT – I am not really sure how he Is limiting the damage since he rarely misses bats but Agrazal has a 2.45 ERA over five starts while having allowed just seven earned runs during that stretch. I mentioned his lack of strikeouts and I wasn’t exaggerating as he just tossed six innings against the Cardinals without striking out a hitter and he just set a season high in strikeouts with five on Sunday. He will have a road start against the Mets this week which can be risky given his pitch to contact style.