September 7 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Kyle Gibson, Cooper Criswell, Mitchell Parker and More
Saturday's probable starters who are widely available in fantasy leagues and have good matchups.
Two days into the NFL season, I can honestly say that I’ve been oblivious to baseball results for the past 48 hours. They’ve got 20 games left; the opening of the football season only happens once! That will likely be the mindset of most people for the next few weeks until MLB gets into their final 10 games, or so.
Let’s keep plugging away for the sake of fantasy baseball, though, and run through Saturday’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.
DJ Herz, Washington Nationals @ Pittsburgh Pirates
Mitchell Parker, Washington Nationals @ Pittsburgh Pirates
*Everything here aside from the section on Parker was in yesterday's article. Herz was scheduled to start Friday, but the game was rained out and turned into a double-header today.
Just 70.1 innings into his career, Herz has underwhelming superficial numbers but better underlying figures. His 2-7 record is ugly and 4.09 ERA middling, but Herz has a phenomenal strikeout rate (29% versus the league average around 21-22%) and a walk rate right around league average. Until he gave up four runs in his last appearance, Herz was on a run of seven straight starts in which he gave up two earned runs or fewer, only once lasting less than five innings.
Parker does very well limiting walks and is just a hair below average striking guys out. Parker has been very average as a rookie, something that would get him a lot more notoriety if he were pitching for a winning team. That may soon be the case, as Washington has a core of young performers who could anchor the next good Nationals team.
Pittsburgh is my go-to team when talking about a perennial baseball loser. They had major success before I was born but haven’t won a World Series since 1979. Beginning in 1993, the Pirates have had 27 losing seasons and just four years above .500; they’re on pace for No. 28 this year. The offense is a huge part of the issue this season, ranking in the bottom 10 in essentially every offensive box stat.
Herz is a mid-level streamer. Though he doesn’t have much of a track record, Herz has shown great strikeout work, giving himself a higher ceiling against a Pittsburgh lineup that has struck out the fifth most. Parker is a low- to mid-level streamer, holding a lower ceiling because his strikeout stuff is only average.
Cooper Criswell, Boston Red Sox vs. Chicago White Sox
Criswell is another guy who does well limiting walks but is also below average striking guys out. Pitchers with this profile make up the bulk of our streaming group; Cooper Criswells are a dime a dozen (just as pitchers not as humans…I’m sure he has a great personality).
Matchups dictate the fantasy value of pitchers like Criswell, and there’s not a much better matchup than the White Sox. This team is sitting on 110 losses after dropping Friday’s game to Boston. With 20 games left to play, this squad is likely to top 120 losses and finish over 60 games back in their division.
Criswell is a low- to mid-level streamer. The matchup is right, but his lack of strikeouts keeps down Criswell’s ceiling.
Kyle Gibson, St. Louis Cardinals vs. Seattle Mariners
Gibson has been walking and striking guys out at league-average rates. His career strikeout numbers are a little lower, but Gibson has held this rate over close to 150 innings. St. Louis is sitting six games back in the wild card race and quickly running out of time. Gibson is 36 years old and running out of time. It’s too bad one of his last seasons will probably end up short of the playoffs.
Speaking of coming up short, it looks like the Mariners will do the same thing. They are just 4.5 back, but their offensive struggles continue to the point that maybe the best rotation in baseball can’t even put them in postseason position. Seattle’s hitters are a bottom-five group.
Gibson is a mid-level streamer. His average strikeout work combined with Seattle striking out a lot gives him a little upside as well.
Brant Hurter, Detroit Tigers @ Oakland Athletics
Hurter has thrown less than 30 big-league innings, mostly working as a long reliever. Four of his six appearances have gone at least five innings, so he might not have the same short start concerns that many pitchers do when working more in relief. It’s a small sample, but Hurter has been great with walks and better than average with strikeouts.
Oakland has been an average offense over the past 30 days, maybe even a little better than average. Their season-long line is that of a bottom-10 team, and that’s probably closer to their true talent level. There’s not much high-level talent on the Athletics roster right now; they have three years until their scheduled move to Las Vegas to try to build a capable baseball team for their new city. (Sacramento can have what’s left in the meantime.)
Hurter is a low- to mid-level streamer. He has looked good, so there’s reason for hope, but we haven’t seen nearly enough to be able to project a high ceiling.
Saturday’s Streamer Rankings
- DJ Herz, WSH
- Kyle Gibson, STL
- Cooper Criswell, BOS
- Mitchell Parker, WSH
- Brant Hurter, DET
