Sunday's Fantasy Baseball Streaming Pitchers: Can Justin Verlander Find His Old Form Against the White Sox?

While this is a baseball column, I often tie in other sports during these preambles. Being today is Sunday, it makes sense to think about football: our first NFL Sunday is a mere 10 weeks away. That sounds like a lot, but it will fly by, the way the second half of summer always does, and we will be back to one of the best sports times of the year, with NFL regular season and the final month of the MLB season.

Let's shift to fantasy baseball and look at five starting pitchers in action Sunday who are widely available in fantasy leagues and have good matchups. Most stats are from MLB.com, as are the probable starters. The full streamer rankings are listed at the bottom

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Taj Bradley, Tampa Bay Rays @ Baltimore Orioles

Over his career, Bradley has been a very good strikeout pitcher and right around average with walks. The BBs are up and Ks down in 2025, and Bradley's results have felt the effects. His ERA is over 4.50, but he has also given up eight unearned runs; if all his runs were earned, Bradley would have an ERA of 5.43. That's not exactly fair, but it shows that Bradley has been susceptible to allowing runs this season.

The Orioles are in the bottom 10 in essentially every major box stat, though they do hit for some power. Baltimore ranks 11th in homers, 15th in slugging percentage, and 18th in OPS. They could maybe put together a functional offense if they could move about halfway up the rankings in all those categories, but as is, the Orioles are a floundering team currently sitting 12 games under .500.

Bradley is a mid-level streamer with some upside. His strikeout work is good enough to hope for a nice day, and the matchup is right, but Bradley also hasn't been unflappable, and it's worth tempering expectations just a bit.

Matthew Liberatore, St. Louis Cardinals @ Cleveland Guardians

Liberatore has been good with walks his whole career, but he has been phenomenal in 2025: 12 BBs in 86 1/3 innings and a 3.4% walk rate when league average has pushed toward 9%. In 86 innings last season, Liberatore walked 28 batters, still good but nothing compared to this year. He's a little worse than average with strikeouts, but that's a profile that can bring success if he keeps up this level of control.

For much of the first half, Cleveland had a similar profile to Baltimore in that they weren't doing much well, but at least they were hitting home runs. That power has largely dissipated, though, and the Guardians rank in the bottom 10 in homers, slugging, and OPS, along with pretty much every other offensive box stat. The only thing Cleveland has going against opposing pitchers is that they strike out a little less than average.

Liberatore is a low- to mid-level streamer. He has looked pretty good this year, but that lack of strikeouts does bring down his fantasy value just a bit, especially considering Cleveland's contact abilities.

Frankie Montas, New York Mets @ Pittsburgh Pirates

Montas began the season on the IL before returning on Tuesday against the Braves to make his season (and Mets) debut. He threw five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and three walks with five strikeouts. Over his career, Montas has been an above-average strikeout pitcher and right at average with walks.

There was a recent report that the Pirates only have two untouchables: Paul Skenes and Andrew McCutchen. Who knows if this is true, and McCutchen would only bring back low-level minor leaguers in return, but regardless of his spot as a Pittsburgh legend, does McCutchen really need that kind of protective status? A team regularly among the worst in the league over the past half-decade doesn't need to hold onto anyone except young stars like Skenes; nostalgia and sentimentality aren't going to turn this team around.

Montas is a mid-level streamer. He's still working his way back, so I don't want to expect the moon, but this is a great matchup, and Montas has been a really good pitcher at times in his career. There's some upside here with a pitcher available in over 90% of leagues.

Chad Patrick Milwaukee Brewers vs. Colorado Rockies

This is Patrick's second great matchup of the week; he started against Pittsburgh on Monday. That outing wasn't great, as Patrick gave up four runs in five innings, but he did strike out nine batters, a major fantasy boost. In his rookie season, Patrick has struck out 85 batters in 84 2/3 innings, and he has a big-time matchup in this one.

The Rockies have struck out more than any other team: 817 times in 83 games. They struck out 9.9 times per game last season, and Colorado is pushing to top 10 Ks per game in 2025, though there's a little work to do to get there. There is no area in which the Rockies excel offensively, leaving them as maybe the best matchup available in MLB this season.

Patrick is a mid- to high-level streamer. His strikeout work gives him a nice fantasy outlook, and this is the ultimate matchup to pick up bulk Ks and throw some scoreless innings.

Justin Verlander, San Francisco Giants @ Chicago White Sox

We know who Verlander is: a former Cy Young and MVP who was the most dominant pitcher in baseball at his best and a future Hall of Famer. He won't reach 300 wins (he's at 262), but Verlander is only 32 strikeouts from 3,500, so he will reach that mark as long as he stays healthy in 2025. He has been a little worse than average with Ks each of the past two seasons while staying close to average with walks, able to approximate an average pitcher (maybe a little worse).

He has a pristine matchup today, though, as the Giants finish their series in Chicago against the White Sox, one of the worst teams in the league in all facets. The Sox scored just one run on both Friday and Saturday, though they did walk away with a 1-0 victory yesterday. Low-scoring offensive games have been a common occurrence for Chicago.

Verlander is a low- to mid-level streamer. There's always hope that he can find some of his old magic for one day, and there's no better time to bet on that flier than today.

Sunday's Streamer Rankings

1. Chad Patrick, MIL
2. Taj Bradley, TB
3. Frankie Montas, NYM
4. Matthew Liberatore, STL
5. Justin Verlander, SF