August 19 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Taj Bradley, Kyle Harrison, Gavin Stone and Joe Boyle

Is summer officially over? I don’t mean using the solstice/equinox calendar, but rather the feeling of summer, the season we treat as more care-free and fun.

The weather hasn’t changed much; it’s still 100 degrees every day in Arizona. School is starting, though, and we have just two weeks until September. Cold weather states are preparing for the weather to turn, even if it’s not quite time yet.

As we mourn the loss of another summer season, let’s look at Monday’s probable starters (according to MLB.com) who are widely available in fantasy leagues and have good matchups, creating streaming value. Most stats and rankings are from MLB. The full streamer rankings are listed at the bottom.

Joe Boyle, Oakland Athletics vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Taj Bradley, Tampa Bay Rays @ Oakland Athletics

Tampa Bay probably shed more big-league talent at the trade deadline than any other team, and their performance since that time has shown the effects. Over the past 15 days, Tampa is in the bottom five in runs scored, hits, home runs and all four slash categories. They have gone from a competent team fighting for a wild card to one of the weakest offenses in the league on a downward trajectory.

Oakland might be one of the few teams worse than the Rays over that time. They are also bottom-five in all the stats listed above aside from on-base percentage and OPS, something helped by being in the top five in walks. Even the power that has usually been there has abandoned the A’s recently.

Boyle has thrown just 47.2 innings in the majors spanning 2023-24. He has an above-average strikeout rate but has also struggled with his control, holding a walk rate nearly twice as high as average. There’s no way to find consistent success while walking that many hitters, even when striking out more than a batter per inning. Sure enough, he has allowed 27 runs (26 earned) in 31.2 innings this season.

Bradley has struck out more than 28% of the batters he has faced in his career (versus the league average around 21-22%). He has a walk rate right at league average, so Bradley sets himself up well for success. There aren’t many guys available at this point in the season who have success like Bradley; go check if he’s available in your league.

Boyle is a low-level streamer and Bradley a high-level streamer. They are on opposite sides of the streamer spectrum, though Boyle has a little upside because of his strikeout work.

Kyle Harrison, San Francisco Giants vs. Chicago White Sox

The White Sox have officially been eliminated from playoff contention; there are still 35 games to go. The Sox are about 15 games worse than the next teams (Colorado and Miami) and over 20 games worse than their closest American League competition (Oakland and the Angels). It’s just bad: not just the offense, not just the pitching, but everything…it’s bad.

Harrison is the lucky pitcher starting off his week with a matchup against Chicago. He has both a walk rate and strikeout rate a hair better than average and an ERA a little higher than 4.00. Harrison might be the encapsulation of a “league-average pitcher.” That works well in the streaming world when a good matchup comes around, and there’s not a much better matchup than this one.

Harrison is a mid- to high-level streamer. Decent pitcher with a great matchup: it’s streaming at its most pure.

Gavin Stone, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Seattle Mariners

While the Rays, A’s and White Sox are all playing out the string before the offseason starts, Seattle is fighting for a division title against the Astros. Despite adding Randy Arozarena and Justin Turner at the deadline, the Mariners haven’t looked much better than their bottom-barrel performance of the full season. Over the past 15 days, they are in the bottom 10 in runs scored, hits, doubles, home runs and all four slash categories.

Stone has both a strikeout and walk rate a few percentage points lower than average. He’s a fine pitcher, and he gets a boost from pitching for the best team in the league (10-5 record). He doesn’t have quite the same ceiling as a guy like Harrison because he doesn’t strike out as many hitters, but Stone is a solid streamer.

Stone is a mid-level streamer in this one. The matchup is good, and Seattle strikes out a lot, so there’s upside as well if Stone can find his K touch.

Monday’s Streamer Rankings

1. Taj Bradley, TB
2. Kyle Harrison, SF
3. Gavin Stone, LAD
4. Joe Boyle, OAK