April 26 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Seth Lugo, Trevor Williams, Patrick Sandoval and More
A look at Friday's probable pitchers who are widely available in fantasy leagues and have good matchups.
Off a whirlwind first day of the NFL Draft, most analysis is likely to be focused that direction. Let’s take advantage of everyone’s carelessness to find some starting pitcher streamers!
These are the probable pitchers (according to MLB.com) who are widely available in fantasy leagues and have good matchups, creating streaming value. Most stats and rankings are from ESPN.
Explore the best in-season tool to manage lineup/start decisions including waiver pickups, projections, trade suggestions, trade value charts, rest of season rankings, power rankings, and tons more with Fantasy Assistant. Use our fantasy baseball trade analyzer and trade value charts to break down trade scenarios and weekly projections to find the best fantasy options.
Seth Lugo, Kansas City Royals @ Detroit Tigers
Lugo made four good starts to begin the season before struggling against Baltimore last time out. He has a much better matchup here against the Tigers, a team in the bottom 10 in many major offensive stats. Detroit has a meager outlook for this season and the near future.
Lugo hasn’t struck out many hitters in his second season as a starter after a stretch of five years working mostly as a reliever. He had a higher strikeout rate as a reliever, which is to be expected, and it caps Lugo’s ceiling a bit if he can’t find some of that sit-down magic.
Lugo is a mid-level streamer in this one, maybe failing to rack up strikeouts but with a chance to put up a good outing against a bad lineup.
Miles Mikolas, St. Louis Cardinals @ New York Mets
The Mets have probably played their way out of “fantasy target” status, performing like a league-average offense. On a light day for streamers, though, I’ll include them here in a matchup with Mikolas.
Mikolas doesn’t strike out many batters, but he hardly walks anyone also. That has translated to average results in his career and below-average results in 2024. The Mets strike out among the least in the league on offense, so it’s hard to expect more than a few K’s in this one.
Mikolas is a low-end streamer here, more fit for the bottom of your lineup. Again, it’s a lean day for streamers, so Mikolas is a D-level option who is feasible.
Patrick Sandoval, Los Angeles Angels vs. Minnesota Twins
Sandoval’s career has been mostly average with too many walks over nearly 500 innings. He has continued striking out about a batter per inning this year, but his walk rate and ERA are suffering.
Part of that is probably the schedule, as Sandoval has faced the Orioles, Reds and Rays twice along with one outing against Miami. That game with the Marlins was his best start of the year, and he has a chance here to face another weak lineup in the Twins.
Minnesota has fallen off a cliff from last year, hitting like a bottom-10 team through the first month. They have players who could conceivably bounce back from slow starts, but the Twins are still a team to target.
Sandoval is a mid- to high-level streamer. He will strike out some hitters but has a defined ceiling.
Trevor Williams, Washington Nationals @ Miami Marlins
Williams has started the season well, most recently allowing just one run in six innings against the Astros last Saturday. He’s striking out a little less than a batter per inning, a trend throughout his career, and he hasn’t allowed a home run in 21.2 innings this year.
The Marlins are another team that shows up in the bottom 10 in most offensive categories, many of those in the bottom five. They are a weak offensive team who is worth targeting with most opposing pitchers in fantasy.
Williams is a high-level streamer in this one. He’s been feeling it over the first month of the season and now gets one of the better matchups available.
#waivers #2024-fantasy-baseball
