August 29 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Keider Montero, Julian Aguiar, Jack Kochanowicz and More

Brayan Bello made me look good yesterday. The day after talking about Toronto’s Bowden Francis taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning, Bello threw eight scoreless while allowing just two hits with nine strikeouts and one walk. It’s nice to be right once in a while! (We won’t talk about Kyle Hendricks going 1.2 innings and giving up six runs to the Pirates.)

Let’s look at Thursday’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.

Julian Aguiar, Cincinnati Reds vs. Oakland Athletics

Aguiar’s first big-league starts came the last two times through the rotation when he combined for 10 innings, four runs allowed, six strikeouts and three walks. He picked up the win his last time out, and Cincinnati won in Aguiar’s other start when he lasted just four innings. It’s been a decent beginning to his career, putting Aguiar on the streaming radar.

Oakland spent a lot of the season in last place in their division, but the tumbling Angels (we’ll get to them) played their way to the basement of the AL West. It’s not much of a consolation for the fans in Oakland, who are spending their last season with a baseball team watching that squad sit nearly 20 games under .500 with a month still to go.

Aguiar is a low-level streamer. He did good strikeout work in the minor leagues, so there’s hope there, but it’s hard to expect anything more out of the rookie until we see it.

Jack Kochanowicz, Los Angeles Angels @ Detroit Tigers

Kochanowicz needs a nickname; what do you think of Jack Koch? LA’s drop from middling to the toilet (only the White Sox are worse in the American League) has been a product of both a failing offense and pitching staff; the pitchers are in the bottom 10 in most box stats. Kochanowicz has an impossibly low strikeout rate of under 7%, sitting down just eight batters in 26.2 innings (with seven walks). His run prevention has suffered as a result.

Detroit is fighting to become a middling squad after having stretches this season in which they competed and others in which they were among the worst teams in the league. Their season-long numbers are those of a bottom-10 offense, but they are trying to creep toward the league average, sitting close to 20th in many areas.

Kochanowicz is a low-level streamer. He hasn’t shown enough to earn real trust, and the matchup isn’t great, leaving Kochanowicz as more of a desperation arm.

Keider Montero, Detroit Tigers vs. Los Angeles Angels

And moving on to the Angels hitters: I mentioned that their pitchers are in the bottom 10 essentially across the board, and the offense matches them in that feat, looking like one of the worst units in the league. The team had a stretch of competence early in the season, but that has gone away; it wasn’t long after Mike Trout was lost to injury that things turned sour.

Montero is getting his first look at the Angels in his rookie season. He has thrown about 65 innings and has a walk rate and strikeout rate both just a little lower than average. Montero has been hit a little hard, allowing 12 home runs and holding an ERA over 5.00.

Montero is a low- to mid-level streamer. His strikeout work is close enough to average that he has a little upside there, and the matchup is right. The ceiling can’t go too high, though, for a guy who hasn’t shown us much yet.

Kutter Crawford, Boston Red Sox vs. Toronto Blue Jays

Nathan Eovaldi, Texas Rangers @ Chicago White Sox

I’ll quickly touch on these two because they are owned in a lot of leagues but have a little availability, so it’s worth checking if you can pick one of them up on a light day. Both Crawford and Eovaldi have good matchups, especially the latter getting to throw against the weak-hitting White Sox. Crawford is available in more leagues but doesn’t have as good of a matchup and isn’t the same level of pitcher as Eovaldi.

They are both high-level streamers if you can grab them.

Thursday’s Streamer Rankings

1. Nathan Eovaldi, TEX
2. Kutter Crawford, BOS
3. Keider Montero, DET
4. Julian Aguiar, CIN
5. Jack Kochanowicz, LAA