Fantasy Baseball Two-Start Pitchers & Streaming Starters Week 25: Spencer Strider Faces The NL East Twice

Only a handful of streaming options to consider this week, at least those who project as better than a coin flip to provide fantasy goodness. To be clear, there are SPs that look promising based on recent production, but venue or opponent weigh against them (David Peterson comes to mind, as a terrible risk away from Citi Field). There are limited aces in the dual start portion of this installment, as well, and as has been the recent trend, not a large number of middle tier two-start SPs. Plenty of arms to avoid, however, and as the fantasy baseball season winds down, discretion becomes most assuredly the better approach in setting up your Week 25 rotations. Without further ado, here are this week’s two start pitchers:

There are fewer aces to plug in to your rotations this week than there are digits on this writer’s hands. Those that are in the upper group are well worth tapping for a pair of starts, despite the limited selection. The final two entries both get a pair of home starts, helping to cement their place in the top tier this scoring period, although all these hurlers are suggested for use in both their times on the bump in Week 25, no matter where or against whom they are tossing the pill.

Olson has tossed three consecutive quality starts (QS) to open the final month of the season. He has two road contests on the slate in Week 25, but has been better toeing the rubber away from Comerica Park. He is racking up a K per frame, and while his control is still occasionally off, the rookie righty is making a strong case to be a part of the Detroit rotation past this, his initial season in the big leagues.

Rodriguez has the occasional radar blip of a game where he is ineffective, but also has more than a smattering of excellent outings to his credit. He has been more of a road warrior this season, just like his teammate profiled immediately above, so two away games are not a reason to avoid employing his services in Week 25. He is also averaging about a strikeout per inning, just like Olson, although his control is more consistent.

Clevinger, the 32-year-old righty, has twirled a pair of consecutive QSs heading into this week’s action. He offers above-average K potential, and while his peripherals are not screaming that things are due to take any drastic moves, either positive or negative, he has a pair of good matchups on the schedule over the coming seven days. 

Keller is coming off a superb effort against the visiting Washington offense, holding the National hitters to two hits over eight shutout innings, with seven Ks. He has a pair of road games on tap, and he does his best work on the hill at PNC, not on the road, but aside from getting banged around by the Braves in Atlanta, he has pitched well in five of his last six starts.

Allen has been effective on the bump since the beginning of August, posting a useful 3.43 ERA over those 42.0 IP. His control is an issue, as evidenced by his 1.35 WHIP on the season. The more daunting of his two starts this coming week is at home, but that is not necessarily a strong point for the rookie southpaw, and thus the better time to employ his skills would be the road start in Kansas City.

Quantrill, Allen’s rotation-mate, has been wildly effective since returning to action in September. He has tossed three consecutive QS, lasting six innings in each appearance. As with Allen, his best start in his dual appearance week is the first contest against the host Royals.

Kikuchi had been pitching well (while not being able to pick up a win) until his most recent six earned run loss to the visiting Rangers. Despite that stumble, his efforts have been worthy of fantasy use, posting a 3.24 ERA and 1.14 WHIP over the 33.1 IP he tossed between August 8^th and September 8^th, a series of six starts where he collected Ks at an 11.1 K/9 rate. Two road games are not necessarily a negative mark given his home/road splits this season.

Wacha coughed up seven earned runs to the host Dodgers, allowing two dingers over the four innings he lasted in his last start. That effort took some of the bloom off the rose of his recent efforts on the hill, but given his recent track record, it seems fair to him to regain his success while on the bump, especially with a pair of home starts on the schedule. He is a good source of Ks, with his 8.2 K/9 rate over his 115.1 IP. Then again, he has not exceeded 130 IP in a season since 2017 and he could be running out of gas as the season winds down, and thus he resides at the bottom of the middle tier.

As is the usual situation, there is a wealth of two-start options that are best left on the bench despite the dual appearance allure. A former darling of the middle tier, Blackburn, has dropped to the bottom group due to a pair of 3.0 IP efforts in recent history. Blackburn does have a couple of home starts, and that bodes well for him to rebound. If you must seek a starter or two among the rest of the bottom tier arms, pick your SP based on potential positive venue and/or opponent, but realize that these are the pitchers who have been struggling to provide viable pitching results.

Potential Streaming Options for Week 25

There is no promise that each game day will provide a streaming option. First of all, the pitcher must be available in at least 50% of leagues to be a viable candidate to snag off the wire. Then, the pitchers discussed above are not included as they have a different sort of value, even though some might be available as free agents in your league. Plus, some days the matchups and/or venues just do not figure as positive enough factors to favor plugging the arm into your rotation, even for one start. That all being said, here are this week’s best streaming candidates:

Michael King, New York Yankees vs Toronto Blue Jays

King has been working to ramp up his pitch count, and pitching deeper into games would be a boost for his ability to collect victories. He has yielded just three earned tallies over his last three outings. He is also racking up significant strikeouts (11.1 K/9 over his 87.2 IP).

Cristopher Sanchez, Philadelphia Phillies @ Atlanta Braves

Sanchez was recently roughed up to an extent by the Braves, but he gets to face them on the road, where he has pitched with ace-like ability this season. He is a good source of Ks (8.4 K/9) who also has superior control (1.4 BB/9 over 87.1 IP in 2023). Look for him to bounce back against the Braves in this contest.

Mason Miller, Oakland Athletics vs Detroit Tigers

Despite being listed as the starter, the team is being cautious with Miller’s pitch count after he was shelved due to a UCL sprain earlier this season. Despite not pitching deep enough into games to be able to pick up a victory or QS, he does offer better than a K per frame strikeout potential and superior ratios over his limited time on the mound per game.