Dixon’s Picks: Fantasy Waiver Wire Pitchers for Week of April 28

Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to a new season of Dixon’s Picks. If you’re new to this site, the concept is pretty simple.

Every Sunday, I’ll take a look at some of the fantasy waiver wire pitchers that have two probable starts for the next week. Not everyone likes to stream but if you do, it’s good to have someone pointing out the favorable match-ups, right?

I’ll also be keeping a running tab of the stats from the guys I point out. But since this is the first of the season, there are no stats to look at. So, let’s just get right to this week’s picks.

• Tyson Ross, San Diego Padres — Probable Starts: Monday at San Francisco Giants, Sunday at Arizona Diamondbacks.

Going back to last season, Tyson Ross has an ERA of 3.17, a WHIP of 1.190, and a K/9 of 8.5. Now, you can say that that only covers 156.1 innings but ask yourself this, if a pitcher had those kind of numbers in the middle of August, would you let him stay a free agent in your fantasy league? My guess is no.

Ross has already thrown a great game against the Giants this season and in San Francisco, I’d expect another low scoring game on Monday. Chase Field is a good hitter’s park, but the Diamondbacks are a mess right now and will be without the services of Mark Trumbo.

Not a bad situation if you like to play percentages.

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• Jose Quintana, Chicago White Sox — Probable Starts: Tuesday vs. Detroit Tigers, Sunday at Cleveland Indians.

The season is still young, but Jose Quintana is a bit more of a known quantity this week, as he’s already faced both of these opponents. Not only has Quintana gone against both teams, but he’s thrown two quality starts with overall solid numbers.

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The real advantage of streaming a guy like Quintana is that he’s capable of decent strikeout totals, and doesn’t walk a lot of hitters. That’s not to say that Miguel Cabrera or any hitter can’t run into a pitch against him, but if you’re not walking hitters, the ERA and WHIP are both generally pretty controlled.

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• Chris Young, Seattle Mariners — Probable Starts: Tuesday at New York Yankees, Sunday at Houston Astros

Is this where the comeback starts for Chris Young? We’re still a long way from giving any kind of educated guess there, but I don’t hate this week for him.

Young sports a 3.50 ERA with a 1.44 WHIP. Not great, but not terrible for this early in the year. He’s also only had four outings, three starts. Without a bad outing against the Marlins, he has much nicer ratios of 1.80 and 1.07. It’s a very small sample size, but I do like the way he’s pitching early on.

Young is a gamble but if he’s finding the strike zone, there’s definite potential for him to be a strong contributor this week, especially against Houston.

[table id=641 /]