Fantasy Baseball Week 19 Two-Start Pitchers/Streaming Starters: Johnny Cueto Looks To Extend A Quality Streak

As the dog days of August persist, keep your eye on your league’s waiver wire and free agent market so you can adjust your fantasy baseball lineups, especially your rotations, to stick in the hunt for that league championship. The injury list continues to be well populated, and rotations are in flux as teams vie for their MLB postseason appearances. Plenty of top-and-middle tier options in the dual start portion of this article, and a fair number of streaming options to consider as you adjust your rosters in the waning days of the 2022 season. Without further ado, here are this week’s two-start pitchers…

Take full advantage of your blessings and/or foresight to have these two-start options available in Week 19. Wind them up and let them go, these are the arms with the best chance of providing dual appearance fantasy value in this scoring period. Their venue and opponent are not the issue; leaving them on your bench is.

Johnny Cueto heads up the middle tier and is working on an eight consecutive quality start streak heading into Week 19. He has the tougher of his matchups to lead off the week, with the Astros coming into Chicago, although venue does not seem to bother him much lately. His main downside is the low K rate (4.7 K/9 during his recent QS run), but he has superb control (1.8 BB/9 during the eight most recent starts).

Noah Syndergaard stumbled recently in allowing four earned tallies over 5.0 IP to the visiting Nationals, and now has to work to reduce an inflated set of ratio stats back to their attractive levels he has possessed most of the season. He is merely an average K producer (6.9 K/9 through 17 starts) but the move to Philly from the Angels should uplift his win potential going forward. 

JP Sears was dealing at Triple-A, and the A’s have need of an additional starter now that Paul Blackburn has been placed on the IL with a finger issue. He fared well in a no-decision against the visiting Angel offense, allowing two earned tallies on three hits and no walks. The better start this week is on the road against the Rangers, but the Seattle matchup is at home.

Aaron Civale has two home starts on tap in Week 19, taking on a pair of division rivals. There is a risk that the Guardians may hold his innings in check, as he has just returned after a month-long injury list stint to allow recovery from a wrist issue. Even so, expect him to accumulate whiffs at his normal rate of one per frame pitched.

Mitch Keller picked up a victory against the host Diamondbacks, albeit at the cost of termination of his five game QS streak. He has a couple of home starts, although with his nearly equal home/road split numbers, that is not a huge uptick on his ledger sheet. His K numbers have been down of late, but the second opponent on the schedule, the Reds, could help him rediscover his whiff prowess.

Alex Cobb has tossed five QS among his last seven outings, and has been striking out opponents at better than a batter per inning during that run (9.4 K/9 through those 42.1 IP). He has the Diamondbacks at home to open Week 19’s action, but the trip to Coors Field may warrant some discretion, as he has struggled on the road this season.

Kris Bubic was working toward notching his fifth straight QS but fell an out short of meeting that goal. He did collect six Ks in his third consecutive trip to the hill, and this week sees him toeing the rubber in opponents parks, where he has had better results than when pitching at home this year. 

Joe Musgrove pushed his ERA below 3.00 with his last outing, a 7.0 IP QS (no-decision, better than the losses he has amassed when getting a result recently) against the visiting Giants. He has been guilty of yielding more than his share of long balls lately, but fortunately this week’s opponents are in the lower third of homer producing offenses in the MLB. 

Of the 22 starts Alek Manoah has made this season, an astounding 17 of those have been QS. That is reflected in his superb ratio stats, allowing just 39 earned tallies over the course of his 137.0 IP, and posting a useful 4.0 K/BB ratio. He gets Baltimore at home, a fine matchup, and his only trip to Yankee Stadium this season, way back in his first start of the season, saw him blank the Bronx Bombers. 

Sean Manaea has tossed 14 QS among his 21 starts this season, although his last two times on the bump have not been nearly so quality: 11 earned runs allowed over 9.0 IP. On the positive side, he also collected 11 Ks over those two starts. The two games on tap this week are against sub-.500 teams, so this is a fine time to get back on track for the veteran southpaw.

Marcus Stroman had put together a string of three QS before the Nats came to town and tallied four earned runs over 5.0 IP. The veteran righty gets to seek redemption in his first trip to the mound this coming week, taking on the Nationals in their home park, but then has a home start against the Brewers. He has not fared nearly as well at home this season as he has in foreign venues, so that may be a contest not to employ his pitching efforts, although the BrewCrew are a good source for potential strikeouts.

While there are one or two possible streaming options among these two-start SPs, the risk is likely to outweigh any potential reward in employing one of these bottom tier arms in your fantasy rotation this week. The suggestion, as it nearly always is with this bottom group, is that you allow others to take the risk with these hurlers and not sully your fantasy lineup(s).

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 15, 2022

José Suarez LAA vs SEA Luis Castillo

The Angel southpaw has twirled 17.1 IP without allowing an earned run, and picked up a QS in his last outing against the A’s, where he also tallied eight Ks. He will be looking to add a fourth consecutive victory to his tally sheet when he takes on the Mariners at home early in the scoring period.

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Drew Smyly CHC @ WAS Cory Abbott

While the nine Ks he racked up against the Reds in Iowa at the Field of Dreams contest came seemingly out of the blue, he has been pitching effectively of late, posting a stellar 2.42 ERA over his last five appearances. He has gone 3-1 over that stretch, and gets to face the Nationals in this matchup. 

Domingo Germán NYY vs TB Corey Kluber

The veteran righty has strung together four solid if not spectacular outings, and is working his once stratospheric ERA down to a more manageable level. He has held the opposition to just a single earned run in both his latest trips to toe the rubber. He will look to continue that trend in a home start against the visiting Rays.

Thursday, August 18, 2022

Austin Voth BAL vs CHC Adrian Sampson

The veteran righty has settled in nicely since becoming a member of the Oriole starting rotation, after struggling mightily out of the bullpen this season. He owns a 3.22 ERA over his nine starts for Baltimore in 2022, and is coming off a second consecutive victory, this time over the Rays on the road.  He will seek to continue his winning ways at home against the visiting Cubbies, as his start this week has been pushed back to Thursday, allowing him to avoid taking on the Jays north of the border.

Dane Dunning TEX vs OAK TBD

The 27-year-old righty is building on a pair of QS, and his last outing was a one hit shutout effort against the visiting White Sox for 7.0 IP where he collected six Ks against a single free pass. He gets a home start against a team that while better on the road that at home, is still not exactly a winner in any venue this season.

Friday, August 19, 2022

Kutter Crawford BOS @ BAL DL Hall

Crawford is an adequate streaming option at Fenway or on the road, as his home/road splits are in equanimity in 2022. If you are looking for Ks, then the Red Sox hurler will be of use, with his 9.2 K/9 rate over his 17 appearances, eight as a starter.  

Graham Ashcroft CIN @ PIT Tyler Beede

Pitching for the Reds has not been a fantastic event this season, but the rookie right-hander has been faring well since the beginning of July. He will look to keep his momentum moving forward at PNC Park, in his first time facing the Pirates this year.

Saturday, August 20, 2022

Jordan Lyles BAL vs BOS Michael Wacha

With his latest winning effort, the Oriole right-hander now has nine victories to his name this season. He does have eight losses, so let’s not be talking Cy Young here, but he also has tossed four QS as the main portion of his last five trips atop the hill. He is an average K producer with his 7.3 K/9 rate over his 130.1 IP on the season, which should play alright for a streamer as the Red Sox are middle of pack in swinging and missing while at bat.

Tyler Alexander DET vs LAA Reid Detmers

Taking the hill for the Tigers has not exactly been a pleasure ride, either, but the Detroit left-hander is coming off a QS where he tossed 7.0 IP, allowing just two earned runs at home against the visiting Guardians. He did lose that contest. Here is another chance, though, with a home contest against the Angels, not world beaters this 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.

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