Wednesday's Fantasy Baseball Streaming Pitchers: Lucas Giolito, Eric Lauer and More

It's time again to dive headfirst into the fantasy baseball world and look at six starting pitchers in action on Wednesday 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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Bailey Falter, Pittsburgh Pirates @ Kansas City Royals

When these teams began their series on Monday, they were the two lowest-scoring teams in baseball. Kansas City scored nine runs in the first game before a more modest 4-3 Royals win yesterday. KC is still among the weakest offensive teams in the league and isn't likely to have too many more games scoring near double digits.

Falter is good with walks but also well below average with strikeouts. His current strikeout and walk rates would be the worst of his career, but his ERA and WHIP are currently the best of his career. He has allowed just 77 hits in 92 2/3 innings and one homer every 7.7 innings, a decent rate.

Falter is a low- to mid-level streamer. He's been fine, but that low strikeout rate caps his fantasy value, leaving him more as a middling play.

Lucas Giolito, Boston Red Sox vs. Colorado Rockies

Colorado is among the worst in baseball by season-long numbers, but how are they doing more recently? Well, they are in the bottom 10 in runs, home runs, walks, strikeouts (most), on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS over the past two weeks. While it's not as bad as the full season, all but three of those games came at Coors Field, and nine were against the Diamondbacks, Dodgers, and White Sox, three teams among the three worst in runs allowed and home runs allowed (Chicago is just outside the top 10 in the latter).

Giolito began the season on the IL after missing all of 2024. He has looked good since his debut on April 30, sitting right around average with both walks and strikeouts. He has shown a little inconsistency in 12 starts: he has given up two or fewer earned runs eight times and six or more earned runs in three outings. Those three rough starts came against the Angels, Braves, and Rangers, three teams that top out as middling offensively and are often worse (especially LA and Texas, who we will hear more from in a moment).

Giolito is a mid- to high-level streamer. He hasn't been untouchable, but he has put up good numbers after a long layoff, and his strikeout work combined with Colorado's swing-and-miss ways give Giolito a big ceiling. He's probably a must-start fantasy player today.

Kyle Hendricks, Los Angeles Angels vs. Texas Rangers

Kumar Rocker, Texas Rangers @ Los Angeles Angels

And here are those Angels and Rangers, who I just mentioned as weak offensive teams who managed to beat up on Giolito. Things happen, though, and even the worst teams have big offensive games. That doesn't change the fact that both of these teams are in the bottom 10 in most offensive categories, and the Angels (though they hit homers) are in the bottom five in walks drawn and the top two in most batter strikeouts.

Hendricks has always been good with walks, but he has fallen to a perilously low strikeout rate the past two seasons. He was never really above average with Ks, but he is under 16% this year after falling below the same level last season (against the league average around 22%). He has also given up more hits than innings pitched every year since 2021 after giving up fewer hits than innings each season from 2014-2020.

Rocker is about 10 years younger than his opponent in this one. He debuted last season and has just 56 2/3 innings to his name, time that hasn't been too kind to him. Rocker has given up 65 hits and 34 earned runs (5.40 ERA), though he has been able to limit home runs. Giving up fewer hits is probably his best path to better results, and more strikeouts wouldn't hurt either.

Hendricks is a low-level streamer and Rocker a low- to mid-level streamer. The former just isn't doing enough to be considered against almost anyone, and Rocker has bigger potential but hasn't put it together yet.

Eric Lauer, Toronto Blue Jays @ Chicago White Sox

Lauer is having his best season: 15 walks and 51 strikeouts in 51 innings with just 37 hits allowed and 15 runs (2.65 ERA). Nearly half of his appearances have come in relief, and his numbers might start leaning the wrong way with more starts. He is also due for some regression to the mean just by pure luck, but Lauer has looked good enough to count on in the right situation.

This is the right situation. The White Sox were the worst team in baseball last season, and they're lucky that the Rockies are so putrid this year, or we'd be talking about Chicago a lot more as a team without any hope. Target the Sox every day if you can.

Lauer is a mid- to high-level streamer. Again, a bit of regression is probably coming, but Lauer has been successful and has the right matchup here to keep rolling.

Brandon Walter, Houston Astros vs. Cleveland Guardians

The Guardians join three other AL Central teams as those who can be targeted with confidence (the Royals, White Sox, and Twins are the others; no wonder the Tigers lead the division by about 15 games). Cleveland is an easy bottom-10 offensive team and might even creep toward the bottom five. They have proven themselves as a team to target every day.

Walter has thrown 34 2/3 innings in six starts with decent results. His biggest successes have come with walks and strikeouts, where Walter has 33 Ks and just two BBs. That's the type of profile that can lead to sustained success, giving Walter an intriguing outlook moving forward.

Walter is a mid-level streamer. His numbers have been pretty good in a small sample, and the matchup is right for another good day this time out.

Wednesday's Streamer Rankings

1. Lucas Giolito, BOS
2. Eric Lauer, TOR
3. Kumar Rocker, TEX
4. Brandon Walter, HOU
5. Bailey Falter, PIT
6. Kyle Hendricks, LAA