Friday's Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Reese Olson, Eric Lauer and More

Happy Fourth of July! We have a full slate of baseball to go along with the hot dogs, cold beer, and fireworks, and don't forget the apple pie for dessert. 

Let's look at six starting pitchers in action on Friday 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.

Eric Lauer, Toronto Blue Jays vs. Los Angeles Angels

Lauer has made six starts and six relief appearances with sparkling results: 45 innings, 34 hits, 13 runs (2.60 ERA), 14 walks, and 45 strikeouts. Most pitchers strike out fewer hitters when starting, but Lauer has kept up his rate of one K per inning regardless of the role he's been working in. His career work (almost exclusively as a starter) isn't as good as 2025 has been, so we can probably expect a little regression, but Lauer has looked good in his time on the mound.

I say the same thing about the Angels every day: they hit a lot of home runs, but they don't do anything else well offensively. I harp on pitchers' walk and strikeout rates every day, so it makes sense to look at the teams they are facing in those categories. LA has drawn the third-fewest walks while striking out the second most, a good indication of why those home runs aren't adding up to big success.

Lauer is a mid- to high-level streamer. As I mentioned above, we need to keep regression in mind as he gets more innings under his belt this season, but Lauer has also looked very good, and the Angels offer the right matchup for success.

Reese Olson, Detroit Tigers @ Cleveland Guardians

Olson has become a favorite streamer of mine over the past two seasons while doing this column. He is a little better than average with both walks and strikeouts, and his ERA has been below 4.00 in each of his three seasons, sitting at 3.60 in 264 2/3 innings. Olson also does really well limiting hits and homers, giving up just 221 of the former and one home run every 11.5 innings, a great rate. He returns from the IL to make this start (his last appearance was May 17), strengthening a Detroit team that is already making a run for the top of the American League.

He gets a soft landing for his return against this pitiful Cleveland offense. The Guardians are five games below .500 and sitting in the bottom 10 in pretty much every offensive box stat, an area they have populated all season. I don't see a way this team turns it around in 2025 unless they make some deadline moves, but given their usual frugal ways, they are more likely to be sellers than buyers at the end of the month.

Olson is a high-level streamer. I should temper expectations a bit, but whatever; it's a holiday! Let's go crazy. Olson is a must-start fantasy pitcher today and a guy who is probably worth a spot on your roster unless you have a strong rotation. Pick him up while you still can.

Adrian Houser, Chicago White Sox @ Colorado Rockies

Antonio Senzatela, Colorado Rockies vs. Chicago White Sox

We save our two bad-offense matchups for last today, and the first features maybe the two worst teams in baseball (especially with Pittsburgh on a recent heater). This game is at Coors Field, hurting the value of our pitchers a bit, but both teams are still ripe for targeting. They are both in the bottom five in most stats and in the top 10 in most batter strikeouts, where the Rockies lead the league with nearly 10 Ks per game.

The White Sox need to trade Houser before he gets injured. Pitchers are the ficklest players in all of sports when it comes to health and consistency, and Houser has had both so far. He signed late and has only made seven starts, but he has gone at least five innings in each and finished the sixth inning in six of those seven. He has also had a very easy schedule. Baltimore, Texas, Kansas City, and San Francisco are all currently on our target list, and the Blue Jays have made appearances (though they are better now). The Mets and Mariners are a little better but still toward the middle, not top teams, so Houser has taken advantage of those weaker matchups.

This is Senzatela's ninth season pitching for the Rockies; that has to wear on a pitcher. Not only does he have to deal with Coors Field in half his starts, but they haven't had a winning record since his first two years, and their winning percentage has been below .450 in six of those seasons (counting this year, as they will surely come in under that number). He has been OK with walks but far below average with strikeouts, which doesn't play well when the ball is flying around.

Houser is a mid-level streamer and Senzatela a low-level streamer. Houser has produced against bad teams, and it doesn't get much worse than the group he's facing here. The matchup is right for Senzatela, but his strikeout rate is 10.7% this season (versus league average around 22%), an impossibly low number to find success, which he hasn't had much of (6.69 ERA).

Kumar Rocker, Texas Rangers @ San Diego Padres

Randy Vasquez, San Diego Padres vs. Texas Rangers

Our second matchup with two target teams features one daily target (Texas) and one more surprising group in San Diego who is six games above .500 and thought of more as a good offensive team given some of the names on their roster. The Padres are in the bottom 12 in runs, hits, doubles, home runs, walks, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. They are in the bottom three in batter strikeouts, a negative toward fantasy pitchers, but they have struggled enough elsewhere to merit targeting in the right situations.

Rocker is only 51 1/3 innings into his big-league career, and he has been OK, though the results haven't been great. He has both a walk rate and strikeout rate right around average, but he has been hit hard, giving up 61 hits and 34 runs (32 earned, 5.61 ERA). Things are likely to get better as he gets more experience. His last three starts have gone very well, as Rocker has combined for 16 1/3 innings, four runs allowed, four walks, and 10 strikeouts.

Vasquez has been OK with walks in his career, but that number has suffered this season to a level several percentage points worse than average. He has been well below average with strikeouts his whole career, holding a K% of less than 15% in 220 innings. Vasquez has had decent results, but that low strikeout work seriously caps his fantasy value.

Rocker and Vasquez are both low- to mid-level streamers. Rocker has more upside but also less of a track record, while Vasquez has a low ceiling due to his strikeouts but the better matchup here. They are both OK to consider, and I slightly prefer Rocker.

Friday's Streamer Rankings

1. Reese Olson, DET
2. Eric Lauer, TOR
3. Adrian Houser, CWS
4. Kumar Rocker, TEX
5. Randy Vasquez, SD
6. Antonio Senzatela, COL