It’s been quite a week in terms of weather — hopefully the weekend will be drier. Between injuries and reshuffling due to postponed games, the weekend’s probable pitchers look vastly different than they did entering the week. If you find yourself short a couple of starts, Friday night is a great opportunity to catch up with several enticing options, likely available in ESPN leagues. There are also some hitters to make sure you’re running out a complete lineup.
Pitching
Streamers
Matthew Boyd, Detroit Tigers (8 percent ownership): On paper, this lines up as a tough matchup for Boyd as the White Sox are among the leaders in weighted on base average (wOBA) versus left-handers. However, the data versus southpaws to this point of the season is too small a sample to be predictive. If Jose Abreu sits out after leaving Wednesday’s game early with a hip flexor strain, Boyd is in a great spot at home, likely getting run support with Mike Pelfrey as his mound foe.
Adam Conley, Miami Marlins (4 percent): Conley has reeled off two straight quality starts for the Fish. The Pirates’ lineup has yet to click, with no one really stepping up to replace Starling Marte.
Chase Anderson, Milwaukee Brewers (45 percent): Anderson’s ownership is creeping toward the 50 percent threshold used to identify streaming options, so word of his success spanning back to last season is spreading. The Braves are quietly effective against righties, but until Anderson’s streak of 20 consecutive games allowing three or fewer runs is snapped, he should be active.
Lance Lynn, St. Louis Cardinals (35 percent): Expect Lynn’s ownership to rise as he rounds into form after Tommy John surgery. He has tossed consecutive quality starts, featuring 12 whiffs to only three walks in 13 innings.
Busts
Kenta Maeda, Los Angeles Dodgers (74 percent): I’m a proponent of playing struggling pitchers instead of losing their bounce-back efforts on your bench but it’s viable to take the other view and wait to see a solid effort from Maeda before trusting him. His velocity and strikeouts are up while he’s not allowing harder contact than last season. However, 24 hits with seven homers in 19 innings is more than just bad luck. Your team, you call, benching Maeda is defensible if another blow-up would be costly.
Bullpen
Craig Kimbrel looks like he’s recaptured the form from his Padres tenure, fanning 17 with just a pair of free passes in 9 1/3 frames. Lost in the shuffle has been how effective his set up men have been, especially with Tyler Thornburg and Carson Smith both sidelined. With Matt Barnes serving his suspension, Heath Hembree and Joe Kelly will be asked to keep the powerful Cubs off the board in what should be an interesting weekend of ball in Fenway Park.
Projected game scores
GS is the projected game score for the pitcher. A “*” means that the pitcher lacks requisite career major league data to produce an accurate rating; these are the author’s ratings.
Hitting
Catcher
Welington Castillo, Baltimore Orioles (33 percent): Castillo has yet to hit his first homer with Baltimore. With Sabathia on the Camden Yards hill, the drought could end sooner than later.
First Base
Brandon Moss, Kansas City Royals (6 percent): Gibson’s tough in righty swingers but he’s still quite vulnerable to lefty power. Moss appears to be pressing with a high strikeout rate, maybe because he’s trying too hard as a result of being snakebit on batted balls in play. Still, he’s hitting in a run-producing spot in a Royals order than has ample left-handed hitters to give Gibson trouble.
Second Base
Devon Travis, Toronto Blue Jays (15 percent): Many had high hopes for Travis entering the 2017 campaign but he’s failed to deliver, dropping him to the bottom of the order, and sometimes the bench. With Troy Tulowitzki and Josh Donaldson on the shelf, the Jays need some production from Travis, especially with a southpaw on the hill.
Third Base
Marwin Gonzalez, Houston Astros (2 percent): Make sure Gonzalez is in the lineup, he could fill in for a banged-up Jose Altuve again. If he is, the switch-hitter has some pop and can run a little.
Shortstop
Darwin Barney, Toronto Blue Jays (1 percent): With the left-side of the Blue Jay infield out, Barney has been hitting from the two-hole with a lefty on the hill. Barney’s low strikeout rate bodes well against Snell as the Rays lefty tends to give up hard contact.
Corner Infield
Ryan Rua, Texas Rangers (less than 1 percent): Looking for a spark, the Rangers are giving Rua a chance to secure the full-time job in left field. He’s always hit lefties well, and usually is bumped up to a favorable spot in the order in this scenario.
Middle Infield
Brandon Drury, Arizona Diamondbacks (46 percent): Chris Owings is hot so it stands to reason his ownership is north of the 50 percent cut off. However, Drury is a better hitter and will soon flip-flop with Owings in terms of ESPN ownership. With a weak lefty on the hill in Chase Field, Drury’s ascent could be impending.
Outfield
Tyler Collins, Detroit Tigers (1 percent): Collins has been hitting second in the injury-riddled Tigers lineup. Even without Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez, Detroit should be able to get to Pelfrey, with Collins in the middle of things.
Brandon Guyer, Cleveland Indians (less than 1 percent): Guyer is another right-handed hitter not hitting southpaws as well as in the past, but history suggests that will correct. Miranda is filling in for Felix Hernandez and while he’s shown signs he could be a permanent fixture in the Seattle rotation, he’s still raw.
Trey Mancini, Baltimore Orioles (18 percent): With Seth Smith back, Mancini is back to playing only against southpaws so he’ll be in there on Friday. Hitter ratings
Notes: Hitter ratings account for the opposing starting pitcher’s past history (three years’ worth, as well as the past 21 days) and ballpark factors. “LH” and “RH” ratings account only for left- and right-handed batters, respectively. Weighted on-base average (wOBA) is the primary statistic used in the calculation. Ratings range from 1 to 10, with 10 representing the best possible matchup, statistically speaking, and 1 representing the worst. So, for example, a 10 is a must-start rating, whereas a 1 should be avoided (if possible); a 1-2 is poor, 3-4 is fair, 5-6 is average, 7-8 is very good and 9-10 is excellent.