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Heading into the middle of August, this is a fine time to begin setting the table for your fantasy championship stretch run by racking up some counting stats and tightening down those ratios for your pitching portion of the fantasy baseball 2019 season. There are not a huge number of top-tier dual start pitchers or middle-tier options that may be useful for both their trips to the hill in Week Twenty-Two. There are a boatload of SPs that you would do well to avoid, despite their double-appearance status this coming scoring period, with a full 18 arms that are suggested non-starters this week.
Please realize that these articles feature most recent rotation information available when the article is written, but that circumstances do change due to weather conditions, injuries and general craziness with managers. If a pitcher listed here as having two starts ends up with one (or perhaps none) in the upcoming week, apologies but this article is meant to provide analysis, it is up to the manager to set the lineups or rotations.
Without further ado, here are this week’s two-start pitchers:
Only nine starting pitchers inhabiting the upper group of dual-appearance hurlers this coming week, so if you have any of these guys on your roster, plug them in and reap the potential benefits. Ray has one less-than-ideal start when he has to face the Brewers on the road to wind up the scoring period, but his K potential makes him always desirable as an SP for your efforts. Archer would not reside in the top-group except for the fact that both his trips to toe the rubber are at home, where his results have been much better than away from PNC Park in 2019.
Nova leads off the middle-tier and he has been nothing less than superb on the bump over his last five outings, racking up exquisite ratio stats: 0.49 ERA and 0.70 WHIP while collecting four victories and one no-decision. He is certainly not the arm you want to rely upon for strikeout accumulation (5.4 K/9 in 2019) but he does have good control with a 2.3 BB/9 rate through 147.2 innings pitched (IP) to date. His matchups are not great, or he would have dwelt in the upper tier this week.
Matz has twirled four quality starts (QS) during his previous five starts and continues to push his ERA and WHIP down towards respectable levels with his efforts on the mound. He demonstrates good dominance and control (8.4 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 through his 24 appearances this season), and has two home games this scoring period, where he has also been extremely effective this year.
Hudson got back on track in his last outing, shutting out the Royals for six innings, and pushing his ERA below 4 again (3.82). He allows too many baserunners per outing to be fully trusted, with a staggering 1.55 WHIP through his 127.1 IP, handing out 4.2 BB/9 to go with the 139 hits on the season to date. His two Week Twenty-Two times getting the ball are at home in St. Louis, which is a plus for the 24-year old righthander.
Allard, the 22-year old southpaw who recently joined the Ranger rotation, is one to keep on your radar. He has a good strikeout potential, with 12 Ks in his first 10 innings in the MLB this season. He has shown a bit of wildness in both his extremely limited stints in the big leagues, but his minor league numbers hint that could just be something he needs to get a handle on as he works out the butterflies against major league hitters. He has a pair of decent matchups this coming week against sub-.500 teams, even though the second outing is on the road in Chicago on the south side against the White Sox.
Gonzales has strung together four QS, sandwiched around a four-run effort against the Astros on the road. He has upped his K-rate over that period, too, while limiting the free passes, generally a good approach for any pitcher. He has been a better road warrior this season, so taking on the tougher opponent in their park is a good thing.
Keuchel has been up and down recently, having pitched well in his last trip to the hill against the visiting Mets. His next game is at home against the last-place Marlins, so there is hope that he can stop the good start/poor start rotation. Heading to New York to face the Mets, though, is a red flag and not using him in his second start of the week might prove beneficial to your fantasy efforts.
Heaney turned in a QS in his last outing, going seven innings while allowing just four hits, albeit two of them home runs. Allowing round-trippers is an ongoing issue for the southpaw, who has a 1.7 HR/9 rate this season. He has been more generous with the dingers at home, so having two road games, even against a couple of above-average home run producing teams from Texas, is a plus for him.
Hamels has been a stable member of the Cubs’ rotation, for the most part, this season, striking out nearly a batter per inning (8.8 K/9 through 20 starts) and posting an attractive 3.69 ERA over 109.2 IP. He did miss all of July and has not exactly been lights out since returning to action, but both the starts he is scheduled to make in the coming week are at home, where he has been extraordinarily strong this year.
Jackson returns to Detroit to bolster the Tiger rotation and has been effective in his first two starts for the Bengals. Both those starts were at home, though, and were against sub-.500 teams, although the next trips to the hill are against more formidable opponents on the road. He has pitched for 15 different MLB rotations in his career, so that sort of staying power indicates an ability to survive on the mound, and it would be unwise to count him out after his recent success.
Bauer has the potential to provide good K numbers (10.6 K/9 through 172.2 IP), even if his overall results have not exactly been top-level of late. He has a couple of decent matchups, with the Padres coming in for a visit to open the week, and then a trip to Pittsburgh to wrap up the scoring period. The Reds are a step down in terms of support from his previous team in Cleveland, but the right-hander has shown skills and that makes him worth a shot given his mediocre opponents on the slate in Week Twenty-Two.
As noted above, there exists a veritable plethora of SPs in the bottom tier this week, with 18 pitchers that come with a suggestion to look elsewhere for pitching efforts on behalf of your fantasy team(s). Williams does have two home starts, but his production is such that he is not worthy of your trust at this point in the season. The balance of these tossers are just far too sketchy to be relied upon as your charge into the end run of your fantasy season.
Feel free also to send any starting pitching or other fantasy baseball questions to ia@fantasyalarm.com for a private response to your specific issue. The more detail you can provide about your team and league, including settings (H2H vs roto, points or categories, weekly or daily moves, roster size, league size, etc.) the better the response will be suited to your individual situation. As ever, good luck and Godspeed in all your fantasy endeavors.