September 10 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Spencer Arrighetti, Rhett Lowder, Keider Montero and More

I wonder how easy it is for the teams out of the playoff race to find positives this deep into the season. In football even 17 terrible games are only 17 games. Baseball goes 162 games; is a guy hitting .217 for a last-place team really going to be happy about moving the runner over to third base in the fifth inning of game 157?

It’s just about getting to the end of the year at that point: You don’t get all your money unless you finish the season. Let’s remember what’s important. For those of us sludging through the fantasy baseball season for just the glory and not the millions, though, we’ve got about three weeks of grindstone left.

Let’s run through Tuesday’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.

Spencer Arrighetti, Houston Astros vs. Oakland Athletics

Arrighetti is in his rookie season and doing great strikeout work (151 Ks in 125 innings) while also walking too many (60 BBs, almost an 11% rate). He went on a hot streak in August, making five starts and striking out more than 10 batters in three of them. Arrighetti’s three games against Oakland this year have been middling or worse, as he’s combined for 16 innings and nine runs allowed, though a 15 to six strikeout to walk ratio is nice.

Oakland is Oakland. There’s some good; there’s mostly bad. There are a lot of bad vibes. Every successful player is overshadowed by three holes in the lineup and a franchise in flux. When they begin playing in Sacramento next year (for three seasons), they are just going to be known as the Athletics with no city, state, etc. It’s easy to feel like this will cause issues, but we’ll all just be calling the A’s “Oakland” until they make the move to Las Vegas.

Arrighetti is a mid-level streamer. There’s downside, as his run prevention has struggled along with his control, but Arrighetti’s strikeout upside makes him intriguing.

*This section on Ben Lively was in yesterday’s article. Lively was originally slated to start on Monday before being bumped to Tuesday.

Ben Lively, Cleveland Guardians @ Chicago White Sox

Lively has been a very average pitcher. That’s valuable for any team, but he’s more of a staple for a Cleveland team that has suffered injuries and ineffectiveness from starters as they push for the top record in the American League. Lively has a walk rate and strikeout rate a little lower than average both on the season and in his career.

He gets one of the best matchups possible this time around, as Chicago is at the bottom of nearly every offensive stat. The Sox have scored 100 less runs than any other team. I had to double check to make sure that was an actual thing, but I shouldn’t have been too surprised, I guess. Lively has been OK in two starts against the White Sox, combining for 11.2 innings, six runs allowed, eight strikeouts and four walks.

Lively is a mid-level streamer. He’s been fine, and the matchup sets him up to have a successful day.

Rhett Lowder, Cincinnati Reds @ St. Louis Cardinals

Lowder was the seventh overall pick last year and has thrown less than 120 professional innings. His two big-league starts have combined for 10.1 innings with just one run allowed and nine strikeouts, though his eight walks are obviously way too many. He had much better control in the minors, so that’s probably just a small-sample aberration. Lowder has the upside of an ace; it will probably take him a little time to reach that ceiling, though.

The Cards have bounced between the bottom 10 and the middle of the league offensively, currently sitting closer to middling than truly bad. They show up here today because the streaming pool is a little bit shallow and because of Lowder’s upside. St. Louis is in the bottom 10 in runs scored, home runs, slugging percentage and OPS, but they don’t strike out a lot.

Lowder is a mid-level streamer with upside. That upside is sky-high, but there is also risk with a guy making only his third start for the Reds in his first professional season.

Keider Montero, Detroit Tigers vs. Colorado Rockies

With the Rockies away from home, they are a target for opposing pitchers. Focusing on just games teams have played away from their home stadium, Colorado is in the bottom 10 in runs scored, hits, home runs and all four slash categories. They have struck out the most of any team in that situation, and Rockies batters are in the bottom five in walks. This is a team that offers upside to opposing pitchers.

Montero is another guy in his first MLB season, having thrown 74 innings with a league-average walk rate and a strikeout rate a little below average. Montero has had some problems with run prevention, currently holding an ERA near 5.50. Montero is a below-average pitcher but good enough to be on the streaming radar in the right situations.

Montero is a low-level streamer. The matchup is the thing giving him fantasy value in this one.

Adam Oller, Miami Marlins @ Pittsburgh Pirates

Oller has made just four starts and thrown 21.2 innings. His strikeout work has been solid (22 Ks), but Oller has also been a little wild, walking 13 guys (over 14% of batters). There’s a lot of unknown around Oller; it’s hard to project much based on what we know.

The matchup puts him here, though, as the Pirates are a bottom offensive team across the board. Some teams strike out a lot but make up for it by hitting for a lot of power. Others lack power but string together hits and use baserunning to make up the difference. The Pirates don’t do any of it. On top of not producing, they are also in the top five in most batter strikeouts.

Oller is a low-level streamer. The matchup is right to get him here, but it’s important not to expect too much from an unknown entity.

Tuesday’s Streamer Rankings

1. Ben Lively, CLE
2. Spencer Arrighetti, HOU
3. Rhett Lowder, CIN
4. Keider Montero, DET
5. Adam Oller, MIA