Hello all! Fantasy Baseball can be hard, especially with all of the pitching injuries that occur every year. With that in mind, streaming pitchers can be a viable strategy, even with the risk involved. That’s why I look at splits to minimize the risk and determine the best two starters in any given day that are owned in less than half of fantasy baseball leagues. Here is the Streaming Pitchers report for August 5.
Streaming Pitchers: 8/5/2015
Drew Hutchison – TOR (vs. MIN)
Honestly, I’m not sure what to make of Drew Hutchinson. Eno Sarris had an interesting article on Hutchison and the use of his slider. He’s looked solid at home, but poor on the road. Personally, I wonder if he just has confidence issues away from his home park. His K-BB% is solid at home (15.6%), but bad on the road (9.6%). Fortunately, he gets to face Minnesota at home, so he and any fantasty owners can breathe pretty easy. Not only does he get the bonus of playing at home, he gets to face a Twins lineup that has a 72 wRC+ away from home and a 90 wRC+ against righties. It’s a solid matchup for him to take advantage of at home, so I’d use him here.
Erasmo Ramirez – TB (@CWS)
Erasmo has has his ups and downs so far this season. After a shaky first month, though, he’s been a fairly solid contributor. Check out his month-by-month split of his stats:
| Season | Monthly | K/9 | BB/9 | HR/9 | BABIP | LOB% | FIP | xFIP |
| 2015 | Mar/Apr | 7.15 | 5.56 | 0.79 | 0.439 | 39.10% | 4.76 | 4.73 |
| 2015 | May | 7.84 | 2.9 | 0.87 | 0.162 | 76.60% | 3.95 | 3.83 |
| 2015 | Jun | 7.92 | 1.8 | 0.36 | 0.29 | 90.60% | 2.8 | 3.69 |
| 2015 | Jul | 6.3 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.222 | 69.80% | 3.68 | 3.89 |
His xFIP has stayed pretty consistent from May until now. He’s been a fairly solid contributor for effectively half a season, and while you don’t want to take small sample sizes out of context, this seems like something close to his talent level. All this is to say that he is a solid, useful streaming option in the right matchups. There may not be much better of a matchup to play against than the White Sox. They’ve heated up in the last couple weeks, but even with that, they have a 79 wRC+ at home and a 90 wRC+ against righties. If you think he can continue his recent success, then I’d give him a shot here.
Good luck and happy streaming!
