Thursday Fantasy Baseball Pitching Streamers: Can Tomoyuki Sugano Keep Dominating for the Orioles?

Usually when we have a light day on the MLB schedule (just six games today), it's hard to find streamers. Filling your lineup is hard enough, but for a pitcher to be a streamer under our criteria, they have to both have a good matchup and be available in a lot of fantasy leagues. The lack of matchups is often the biggest issue, but consider today's teams:

• The White Sox and Rangers are worth targeting almost every day.
• The Orioles, Twins, Blue Jays, Astros, and Rays are currently on our “target list,” though to a lesser degree than Chicago and Texas.
• The Reds, Nationals, Braves, and Athletics have all been target teams during the 2025 season.
• The Dodgers are the only team in action who we haven't gone after at any point during the season (and we never will, if you were wondering).

As an early Christmas-in-July present, we have five starting pitchers in action on this light Thursday who have good matchups and are probably available in your fantasy league. Most stats are from MLB.com, as are the probable starters. The full streamer rankings are listed at the bottom.

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Zach Littell, Tampa Bay Rays @ Toronto Blue Jays

Littell is very good with walks, and before this season, he was an average strikeout pitcher. His K work has been well below average in 2025, though, with just 30 in 47 innings. Littell is a fine pitcher, but that lack of strikeouts lowers his ceiling.

The Blue Jays rank in the bottom 10 in runs, home runs, walks, and slugging percentage. They've been better hitting for average, but Toronto isn't getting those easy runs as often, causing them to fall down the offensive hierarchy. The Jays are one of our less frequent targets, not a team we go after every day.

Littell is a low-level streamer. His performance has been OK, but the lack of strikeouts is a real concern, and the matchup isn't great.

Nick Martinez, Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago White Sox

If you're looking for a great matchup, here it is. The essence of streaming is finding the worst offenses/defenses/pitching staffs and attacking them relentlessly. We do it in every fantasy sport. The White Sox are as good a fantasy matchup for pitchers as any team is for any player/position in any sport.

Martinez is decent at limiting walks, but he's also a below-average strikeout pitcher. He has been better the past few years, but that was while working mostly as a reliever, and pitchers strike out fewer batters when working as starters and making longer outings. It's best to expect Martinez to continue putting up modest K numbers.

Martinez is a mid-level streamer. He's been fine, and the matchup is pristine, but there's also a bit of a cap on Martinez's ceiling.

Chris Paddack, Minnesota Twins @ Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles continue their march as the most disappointing team in baseball. Minnesota wanted to take that title early in the season, but they have now won 10 straight games, leaving Baltimore to stand out as the lacking group. Baltimore's offense is a huge deterrent to success right now.

Paddack is another guy with a track record of good strikeout work who has struggled in that area in 2025. His numbers were down a little last season as well, so this could be a pattern, but Paddack has less than 40 innings on the season, so that rate could normalize. Paddack has also been a little worse than average with walks this year; he usually shows really good control.

Paddack is a low- to mid-level streamer. He has a little strikeout upside based on his career numbers, but that has been less of a factor since he missed most of 2022-23 with injuries.

AJ Smith-Shawver, Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals

The Nationals are the one team who isn't a real current target who we are going after. They are very average, coming in around the middle of the league in pretty much every offensive box stat. That's not an awful team to go after, but it's also not a group we want to target with just any pitcher.

This is more about Smith-Shawver. He walks too many guys, but Smith-Shawver is also above-average with strikeouts and has big upside there. He has given up just 24 runs (22 earned) in 62.1 career innings.

Smith-Shawver is a mid-level streamer. He doesn't have much of a track record, and the matchup is just middling, but Smith-Shawver will be a popular fantasy name as early as this season.

Tomoyuki Sugano, Baltimore Orioles vs. Minnesota Twins

In his first season state-side, Sugano has an ERA under 3.00 in 46.1 innings. He is fantastic at limiting walks, but Sugano is also far below the league average with strikeouts (just 26). It hasn't mattered, as Sugano keeps putting up good outings, including just three runs allowed in his past 18.1 innings. He has 17 Ks in that time, so maybe Sugano is finding his strikeout touch.

The Twins are another team teetering on the edge of the bottom 10, worth targeting on the right days but not an automatic target (like their division-mates the White Sox). Minnesota ranks around 15-20th in most offensive categories, touching the bottom 10 offenses but not firmly entrenched.

Sugano is a low- to mid-level streamer. I can't argue with his results, but the severe lack of strikeouts is concerning. He'll jump a level if that number continues to rise. The matchup is also middling, making this just an OK outlook for Sugano.

Thursday's Streamer Rankings

1. AJ Smith-Shawver, ATL
2. Nick Martinez, CIN
3. Chris Paddack, MIN
4. Tomoyuki Sugano, BAL
5. Zach Littell, TB