September 18 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Cody Bradford, Landon Knack, Jack Kochanowicz and Jared Shuster

It’s another light day for streamers today. This has been a theme over the past few days, making it tougher to fill open lineup spots at the bottom of your rotation. That’s just the way it goes sometimes: there’s an abundance of great options one day, then only a few guys truly meeting the criteria the next.

Let’s look at Wednesday'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.

Cody Bradford, Texas Rangers vs. Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays were on the streamer list for much of the season before playing their way to a better level. Toronto is now near the middle of the league as an offensive unit; they are seeing positive effects from not tearing things down at the trade deadline. The Jays might be back contending for a playoff spot next year after a slow start killed their 2024.

The lefty Bradford has been better than average striking guys out, a great start for any streamer. His walk rate is also less than half the league average, meaning Bradford isn’t putting anyone on and is also sitting them down at a high rate; that’s a recipe for success. It’s only been around 120 innings, but Bradford will see improvements if he keeps up this performance.

Bradford is a low- to mid-level streamer. His performance has been good, but the matchup is very middling, lowering Bradford’s ceiling a little.

Landon Knack, Los Angeles Dodgers @ Miami Marlins

Knack has thrown just 56 innings, holding both a walk rate and strikeout rate a few percentage points better than average. He did good strikeout work in the minors, so there’s reason to believe that will continue. There’s just not a lot we know about the young pitcher right now.

Miami is a good place to go for an opposing young pitcher looking for success. The Marlins house a bottom-five lineup, but it’s more than that. At least a team like the Mariners have pitching to lift them up; Miami’s pitching staff is also bottom-five. They also don’t have many young players to get excited about like Washington. The Marlins are just…bad.

Knack is a low- to mid-level streamer. His strikeout work gives him a bit of a ceiling, but it’s hard to expect a lot out of an inexperienced pitcher.

Jack Kochanowicz, Los Angeles Angels vs. Chicago White Sox

Jared Shuster, Chicago White Sox @ Los Angeles Angels

And the drum beats on. These teams are playing out the last two weeks without anything on the line other than a historically bad record for the White Sox. Neither is an offensive threat in any way, instead allowing pitchers a reprieve on the days they get to face the lesser squads from Chicago and Los Angeles.

Kochanowicz has shown up here a few times, but like Knack he’s only in his rookie season (44.1 innings). He’s done well limiting walks, but Kochanowicz has an impossibly low strikeout rate below 8% (versus league average of 21-22%). That’s likely to even out with more innings, but Kochanowicz isn’t doing any strikeout work right now.

Shuster has worked mainly as a reliever this season and has been several percentage points worse than average with both walks and strikeouts. He showed the same results last season while starting for the Braves, and it has affected his results, as Shuster owns an ERA over 5.00 in 120 career innings.

Kochanowicz and Shuster are both low-level streamers. Neither strikes out enough guys, and Shuster makes it worse by walking them along the way.

Wednesday’s Streamer Rankings

1. Cody Bradford, TEX
2. Landon Knack, LAD
3. Jack Kochanowicz, LAA
4. Jared Shuster, CWS