Thursday's Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Sean Manaea, Clayton Kershaw and More

We have a bit of a short schedule today, with more than one-third of the teams having the day off. That shortens the number of fantasy options and limits our streamers, though there are enough poor offenses in action to still give us enough guys to choose from.

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

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Joe Boyle, Tampa Bay Rays vs. St. Louis Cardinals

This game was actually moved from Saturday to today because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers host a preseason game on Saturday, and this is meant to lessen the traffic in the area shared by the two stadiums (remember, the Rays are playing at a minor league stadium while their regular home park, Tropicana Field, is being repaired). Boyle gets the call, holding a good strikeout rate but also a walk rate way too high, something that has helped lead to an ERA near 5.00. His is on a cold streak, having allowed 10 runs in his past two starts (against Seattle and San Francisco).

St. Louis is on a cold streak of their own. They have very average offensive numbers over the full season, but in the last 30 days, they rank in the bottom 10 in runs, hits, doubles, home runs, walks, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. St. Louis sold at the trade deadline despite a mild chance to chase a wild card, and they have felt the effects both offensively and from a win/loss standpoint.

Boyle is a low-to-mid-level streamer. His strikeout work is good, but he has struggled otherwise, and the Cardinals haven't hit well, but they don't strike out, mitigating that area a bit.

Patrick Corbin, Texas Rangers @ Kansas City Royals

Michael Lorenzen, Kansas City Royals vs. Texas Rangers

We have two teams here fighting for the wild card, the Royals 2.5 games back and the Rangers five back. Both teams have top-10 pitching staffs but bottom-10 offenses that are holding them back. It has been a multi-year problem for Texas, while KC was better last year but has a complete lack of power this season that is causing their severe lack of runs.

Corbin has had something of a renaissance this season, right around average with walks and just a bit below average with strikeouts while holding a 4.45 ERA. That might not sound like much, but it's the best he has been since the COVID season of 2020; Corbin looked absolutely cooked in the four years before this one.

Lorenzen has generally been a little worse than average with both walks and strikeouts in his career, but he has been able to find success by limiting hits (876 in 958 innings) and home runs (one every 8.2 innings). He has topped out as an average pitcher, but that's a valuable player who makes a ton of money in the league and fits well as a fantasy streamer.

Corbin and Lorenzen are both low-to-mid-level streamers. The matchups are enough to get them on the streaming list, but both guys fall short with strikeouts and have been just OK, not players to go after hard in fantasy.

Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers @ Colorado Rockies

The Rockies will do the coast-to-coast stretch as the clear worst team in baseball. They lost seven of their first eight, nine of their first 11, and 17 of their first 20; there was no real moment where they lost their way (maybe Opening Day). The offense is maybe the worst in baseball, getting a little boost when they play at home (like in this one).

Kershaw has found success but has had to do it in a much different way than in his prime. He had an above-average strikeout rate every season from 2009-2023, but that number has dropped to well below average in 22 starts over the past two seasons. Kershaw has still been able to limit hits and home runs, something that has helped him to an ERA near 3.00 this season (though his four unearned runs would bump that number up with fewer than 80 innings).

Kershaw is a low-to-mid-level streamer. He gets knocked down a notch because this game is at Coors Field, and Kershaw's strikeout work is way below league average this year (15.5% versus average around 22.5%), so he's more of a streamer to deploy in the right situations, like against the putrid Rockies.

Sean Manaea, New York Mets @ Washington Nationals

The Nationals are one of the low-point offensive teams of the second half. Their season-long numbers are those of a bottom-10 team, and the past 30 days paint the same picture. There is a long way to go to get to even an average level. Washington is the second-worst team in the National League ahead of only the Rockies, and just the White Sox are worse in the American League.

Manaea missed most of the season with injury, racking up only 32 innings so far, all since July 13. He has struck out 37 batters and walked only seven in that time, but he has also been hit around a little bit, particularly giving up six home runs (one every 5.3 innings). He has been good enough to look at as a streamer, particularly since his career numbers match those better-than-average BB and K rates.

Manaea is a mid-level streamer. He's probably still getting his legs under him, but Manaea has performed when on the field, and with the matchup in his favor, he's an intriguing fantasy streamer here.

Thursday's Streamer Rankings

1. Sean Manaea, NYM
2. Michael Lorenzen, KC
3. Clayton Kershaw, LAD
4. Joe Boyle, TB
5. Patrick Corbin, TEX