Fantasy Baseball Week 18 Two-Start Pitchers/Streaming Starters: Braxton Garret And His Quality Starts

The MLB trade deadline has come and gone, and now fantasy lineups can settle into place once again. This week’s two start options have a solid ten starting pitchers in the top tier, and not quite so many in the middle group to consider depositing into your fantasy rotations for the upcoming scoring period. The bottom set has a lot of arms to consider avoiding unless desperation strikes, or the injury report carries dastardly news for your roster denizens. 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…

These ten hurlers are those that should consider inserting into your rotations, and forgetting about their placement there until Week 19 rolls around. These are the arms that are worthy of trusting in both their trips atop the hill in the scoring period. 

Braxton Garrett has been experiencing an effective run of production, with three quality starts (QS) among his last six outings. Of course, five of those starts were against sub-par teams. In this week’s slate, he is facing more substantial opposition, but one of the games is at home, where he is more formidable. The additional good news is his road contest is against the Phillies who are only slightly above .500 at Citizens Bank Park. His strikeout producing propensity (10.2 K/9 over 58.0 IP) makes him a useful dual start option in Week 18.

Speaking of QS’s, Kris Bubic is on a four-game QS streak. He is merely an average strikeout producer, though, and his control is an issue. He continues to work diligently at reducing his inflated ratio stats, which are still not attractive. Two home starts, and he has been pitching better in KC lately.

Miles Mikolas continues to sport quality ratios, with an ERA below 3.00 and a simply superb 1.01 WHIP through his 22 starts this season. His first start of the week takes place in Coors Field, not an ideal venue, to be sure, and the second trip to toe the rubber is against division-lead rival Milwaukee. So, not exactly the best set of matchups. Still, overall, the veteran righty has experienced success when firing the ball at opposing hitters for the most part, no reason to predict a severe turnabout at this juncture.

Logan Gilbert, despite a rough outing in the Bronx at the hands (bats) of the Yankees, who slugged three dingers against the second-year righthander, he still exhibits a fantasy-useful set of ratio stats. The home run allowance rate is too high, however, for him to be entirely successful. Fortunately for him, the Yankees are coming to his home park to open the week, but the trip to Arlington for the second start against the Rangers who do produce more than an average number of long balls, might not be an ideal matchup for the 25-year-old.

Johnny Cueto, the 36-year-old right-hander has been an valuable rotation member of the White Sox this season, establishing a superb sub-3.00 ERA over his 96.0 IP this season. His peripherals indicate that he has been perhaps a bit fortunate to keep all his stats so attractive to this point. This week, however, he has a good matchup to open the session, on the road where this SP performs best in 2022, and then taking on the erratic Tigers at home.

Jordan Lyles has a home and road week ahead of him, and the opener against the Blue Jays at Camden Yards in Baltimore plays well in his favor, as the Toronto squad is a sub-.500 team south of the Canadian border this season. His second effort is more daunting, as the Rays like their home environment decidedly. He did collect a victory in a recent start against the Rays, albeit at home, so there is that positive to the dual start slate.

Alex Wood continues to record strikeouts at nearly a batter per inning, while exhibiting good control (8.9 K/9, 2.2 BB/9). There is little discord between his home/road splits, thus both of these starts are about even in their capacity for severe downside performance. Thus, he is the final entry to our middle tier of two-start options.

As is usually advised, none of these SPs are trustworthy enough to use for your fantasy rotations unless you are incredibly desperate for innings or some counting stats. If there is a risky need to use one or more of these pitchers, choose wisely based on matchup and venue, please.

Potential Streaming Options for Week 

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:

Monday, August 8. 2022

José Suarez LAA @ OAK Cole Irvin

The young southpaw heads up to Oakland to take on a division-rival to open the scoring period. He bested the A’s in his most recent start, at home, holding the visitors to just one run (zero earned) on five hits.  Suarez offers good K numbers (8.6 K/9 over 55.1 IP), and has been improving his control over his last six outings (2.5 BB/9 through the most recent 28.1 IP).

Tuesday, August 9. 2022

James Kaprielian OAK vs LAA Janson Junk

The Oakland 28-year-old righty has put on the board four QS among his six latest trips to the bump. He has allowed more than a single earned run only once during that stretch. He has been slowly driving his ratio stats into a more palatable range for fantasy purposes. He has a good matchup against a team he recently beat, who are not effective road competitors this season generally.

Wednesday, August 10. 2022

José Quintana StL @ COL Kyle Freeland

The veteran southpaw labored valiantly for the sub-.500 Pirates this season, and with his trade to a team that has a chance to win the division, his prospects seem to be on the rise. True, his recent start in Coors Park was less than stellar (six earned runs allowed over 5.0 IP), so this is not exactly the prime streaming option for Wednesday, but the Cards are fighting for the NL Central title, which is potential inspiration for better effort on the hill.

Zack Greinke KC vs CHW Dylan Cease

Greinke is a virtual rollercoaster of a SP, twirling a gem, then returning to earth with a not-so-shiny effort. He does show better results against lesser teams, and the White Sox despite playing well away from their home park, are not exactly a terrifying opponent. The veteran righty has been extraordinary effective at home this season, so that is also that to recommend him.

Justin Steele CHC vs WAS Josiah Gray

Despite coming off a 10 K effort in his last start, Steele now faces the team with the second least strikeouts on the season when the Nationals come to visit. Still, he does get to face the unimposing Washington offense at home, where he has been extremely effective of late.

Jakob Junis SF @ SD Sean Manaea

The 29-year-old righthander’s home/road splits indicate that his road start has great potential for him to shine. The Padres are middle of the pack with regard to swinging and missing, so expect his average K rate to yield some K numbers. 

Mitch Keller PIT @ ARI Madison Bumgarner

Madison Bumgarner ARI vs PIT Mitch Keller 

Mitch Keller has a four-game QS streak on the line when the toes the rubber in the desert in this contest. His peripheral numbers hint that his recent pushing down of his ratio stats should continue to be a trend. On the other side of this matchup is a streaming favorite this season, Madison Bumgarner, who has been quite the performer when enjoying home cooking. If the coin were flipped as to which arm to trust, the potential lies more with the Diamondback SP than the visitor, truth be told.

Thursday, August 11. 2022

Daniel Lynch KC vs CHW Michael Kopech

Lynch was able to shut out the White Sox on the road in his most recent trip to the hill, and will look to continue his dominance of the division-rival here at home. Pitching at home has not been a positive for him this season, but he is facing a team he has held scorless over 11.1 IP this season. He has also racked up better than a K per frame against the Pale Hose in 2022.

Austin Voth BAL @ BOS Josh Winckowski

The Orioles have been slowly stretching out the 30-year-old righty as a starter, and he matched his longest outing in 2022 against the host Reds in a no-decision outing, going 5.0 IP, and collecting six Ks. This matchup is favorable, as the Red Sox are not a strong home team by any stretch of the imagination this year.

Friday, August 12. 2022

Spenser Watkins BAL @ TB Corey Kluber

Back-to-back Oriole streaming options? How things have changed this season. The Baltimore righty notched his third QS out of his last five appearances by beating the host Rangers, holding Texas to just a single earned run over 6.0 IP. He has been effective on the road, so despite a tougher matchup against the Rays, his recent success makes him a worthy streaming option.

Saturday, August 13. 2022

Kutter Crawford BOS vs NYY Frankie Montas

The BoSox rookie righthander came within one out of amassing four consecutive QS, and has been pitching effectively since joining the rotation. His K rate sits at better than a batter per inning (9.4 K/9 through 53.2 IP this season), and his control is improving in recent history. His opponent is not ideal, but the Yankees are not as daunting when playing away from Yankee Stadium.

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.

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• Previous Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Targets
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• 2022 MLB Injury Report
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