Re-evaluating Teams to Target with Fantasy Baseball Pitchers and Two Streamers for August 15: Jose Quintana, the Chicago White Sox, the Pittsburgh Pirates and More

There are only seven games on the MLB schedule today. That leaves us without a lot of chances for streamers, and it’s made worse by guys like Max Fried, Zack Wheeler and Bryce Miller taking the mound while owned in almost every fantasy league; each of those three could have produced a streamer given the opponents.

With so few streamers, it seems like a good time to go through and identify which teams are the best to target with opposing pitchers in fantasy baseball. On top of looking at the season-long numbers, it’s been about two weeks since the trade deadline, giving us a chance to see how teams have done since that time using MLB’s 15-day stats (correct before Wednesday’s games).

I used nine offensive statistics to identify the worst offensive teams: runs scored, hits, doubles, home runs, strikeouts (most), batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS. I tallied the number of times each team appeared in the bottom 10 in those stats to see who is regularly among the bottom.

This isn’t perfect by any means. There’s not a lot of advanced stats, and these numbers can fluctuate quickly, but there is a good mix of counting and rate stats, and any team at the bottom in a lot of those numbers probably isn’t hiding many underlying positives.

Results

Every time I do this, about 10 teams stand out as ones to target. Sure enough, I came up with 11 squads who were in the bottom 10 in at least 66% of the categories:

• Chicago White Sox – Bottom-10 in all 9 categories
• Pittsburgh Pirates – 9
• Detroit Tigers – 8
• Los Angeles Angels – 8
• Seattle Mariners – 8
• Tampa Bay Rays – 8
• Chicago Cubs – 7
• Miami Marlins – 7
• Oakland Athletics – 6
• St. Louis Cardinals – 6
• Toronto Blue Jays – 6

Of those teams, the White Sox, Angels, Mariners, Rays, Athletics and Blue Jays have performed poorly in the past two weeks, ranking in the bottom 10 in at least five of the nine stats. The Pirates, Tigers and Cardinals are at four, while the Marlins and Cubs have looked better in that two-week span.

The Rangers and Mets have each been bottom-10 in six categories since the deadline, but I’m wary of targeting them since both teams have better talent than the others that are usually on the streaming list.

Thursday Streamers

There is only one true streamer today: Jose Quintana of the Mets. Let’s hit him quickly. The stats and rankings are from MLB.

Jose Quintana, New York Mets vs. Oakland Athletics

Quintana has struggled in his two August starts, picking up two losses against weak offensive teams, the Angels and Mariners, while giving up eight runs in 11.2 innings. His 12 strikeouts are nice, but six walks are too many in that time, maybe contributing to the lack of run prevention. Quintana has been a below-average pitcher this season, though not egregiously so.

Oakland’s lack of contact is their best asset for opposing pitchers. They’re in the bottom five in batting average and rank fourth in most batter strikeouts. The A’s do hit for power, but they still rank in the bottom 10 in runs scored, showing a lot of inconsistency.

Quintana is a low- to mid-level streamer. He’s down from his top form, especially with strikeouts, and the matchup is good but not great.

Opposing Quintana in Oakland starter Mitch Spence. With New York struggling a little over the past few weeks, Spence is a quasi-streamer, bringing a little value for those who are desperate for an arm.

Mitch Spence, Oakland Athletics @ New York Mets

Spence has both a walk rate and strikeout rate that are a little lower than average. He has been hit a little hard, giving up 108 hits in 106 innings, but Spence has been a usable pitcher and good enough to be on the streaming radar.

Spence is a low-level streamer, though. Again, he wouldn’t be here most days, but with the dearth of options, he can be a desperation arm if you’re fighting for pitching volume late in the season.