My dog has just lost another toy. As soon as he deems a toy his favorite, it will last a week before it disappears. I still haven’t found at least three toys of his, and they’re somewhere in our fairly small two bedroom house. My wife says that he’s stashing them somewhere, but I have no clue where or why. It’s not helping him, since he doesn’t get to play with them.
I soon realized that as a streaming guy, sometimes it helps to stash guys that I like that have a couple good matchups in a row. If I know that there’s another guy that likes to stream pitchers as well, if I hold on to a good matchup guy, not only do I get to hold on to him for another start, I get to keep him from my opponent as well. Also, if a streamer gets a few good starts in a row and someone else wants him, you can package him in a deal to upgrade at another position. So with that, let’s get into a couple streaming pitchers that you might be able to do that with.
Streaming Pitchers: 6/2/15
Kyle Hendricks RHP CHC (@ MIA)
Cubbie Fever is upon us. The Cubs are currently six games back of the best-record-in-the-majors Cardinals in the NL Central, but they are just a half game back of the Mets for the last wild card spot and currently have about a 50% chance of making the playoffs based on FanGraphs.com’s projections. I say all of this to make the point that I didn’t expect them to be this good yet. Part of the reason they’re doing so well is all of their young hitters coming into their own, along with the acquisitions they made in the offseason. Another part is that their pitching is all doing really well (well, their starters anyway), and Hendricks is no small part of this. Somehow, he’s been an effective innings eater for the Cubs at the back end of their rotation. So far he’s thrown 52.2 IP with a 3.76 ERA, posting a 7.01 K/9, 1.88 BB/9, and 51% ground ball rate along with it. The FIP and xFIP both go along with these scores, so he hasn’t been lucking into his ERA like I thought he was. He gets a great matchup against the Marlins, who bat a lowly 79 wRC+ at home and a poor 81 wRC+ against righties. He might already be a nice backend option for your fantasy rotation as it is, but this matchup is definitely too good to pass up.
Chris Heston RHP SF (vs. PIT)
Repeat Special! Heston made an appearance here the last time he started, and all he did was go 7.1 IP scoreless with just 4 H and 1 BB, with 6 K. Not too shabby. With Heston, it’s all about the matchups, and of course, it’s also all about the park. Getting to call AT&T Park home is a wonderful thing for a pitcher. Added to that, the matchup he gets with Pittsburgh tomorrow works in his favor, as they only hit an 84 wRC+ on the road and a 95 wRC+ against righties. You can go to the well again with Heston, as he should provide solid results in this matchup.
Good luck and happy streaming!
