Fantasy Baseball Week 9: Top 3 Streaming Options for the Weekend

With your Week 9 matchup coming to a close, you may be able to improve in one or two pitching categories. If so, check out these three streaming options for the weekend.

The fantasy baseball season is flying by. Week 9 is almost over, but there are a couple of days left. This is the perfect opportunity to make some moves to improve your pitching stats. If you think you can win a category or two in your head-to-head matchup or move up in your Roto rankings, then you need to take a look at these three streaming options.

Streaming, as I’ve mentioned before, if a great strategy in Roto leagues. It could work in head-to-head, too, but not as well. What this means is that you add and start a pitcher just for their upcoming outing and then drop them afterwards. You could obviously keep them for longer, but these pitchers are usually rarely owned and hard to trust on a long-term basis.

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The three pitchers I write about will be owned in less than 40 percent of ESPN leagues, making them widely available for you to pick up.

Jon Gray, June 5 @SD

Jon Gray has had an up-and-down season in 2016. In eight starts, he has a 5.76 ERA, 1.32 WHIP and 9.7 K/9. He has won three of his last four starts, including his most recent one against the Cincinnati Reds. He went six innings, giving up three runs on five hits and three walks.

It does help that he pitches for the Colorado Rockies. They have some power bats in the lineup, 68 home runs and .462 slugging percentage.

In his next start, he will leave the high altitude of Colorado and travel to San Diego. The Padres offense is one of the worst in the leagues, .236 batting average (25th) and .291 on-base percentage (29th).

The last time Gray faced the Padres, he went six innings and gave up two runs on four hits and one walk while striking out 11. San Diego has seen some improvements in the lineup, scoring 54 runs over their last seven games.

Gray is owned in just 14.3 percent of leagues. The matchup is good, so you should pick him up for this start.

Jeff Locke, June 4 vs LAA

Jeff Locke’s season got off to a rocky start. He had a 7.24 ERA, 2.63 WHIP and just seven strikeouts in 13.2 innings. In his six May starts, he has four quality starts. His most recent start was a welcomed sight for Pittsburgh Pirates fans and fantasy owners.

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He pitched a complete game shutout, giving up just three hits and striking out one. By no means Locke is a strikeout pitcher. His season high is eight, and has reached six twice. He has just one strikeout in four games.

The Los Angeles Angels are a middle-of-the-road offense led by one player. The team has a .257 average (13th) and .321 OBP (14th). The team hit better in May, but without any power. The Angels only had 25 home runs (23rd).

Locke has won his last three starts, two of which were at home, and is able to make it four in a row against Los Angeles. He is available in just under 95 percent of leagues.

Matt Andriese, June 4 @MIN

Matt Andriese has been successful since getting called up on May 8. He’s had one bad outing of the five, allowing four runs in 5.1 innings against the Detroit Tigers.

In the other four starts, he has a combined five earned runs and 17 strikeouts in 29 innings. The Tampa Bay Rays have had a history of finding good, young arms in their farm system and Andriese can be one.

Similar to Locke, Andriese is not much of a strikeout pitcher, but he does induce enough ground balls to make up for it. The Kansas City Royals hit 13 ground balls in Andriese’s last start. He has allowed just home run this season.

The Minnesota Twins offense is either power or nothing. The offense had 31 home runs with a .231 average and 232 strikeouts last month. Andriese should be able to limit their power and get through the outing unscathed.

Andriese is the most-owned of the three, owned in 36.3 percent of leagues. I like this outing for him heading into the weekend.

Next: Lonnie Chisenhall Deep Waiver Add

Streaming takes a bit of luck by finding the right matchup, but it also takes a lot of luck, something completely out of your control. These three matchups look great on paper, but anything can happen. I chose these three pitchers as streaming options because I like the matchup and feel that they can help your team win the head-to-head matchup or move up in your Roto standings.