Thursday's Fantasy Baseball Streaming Pitchers: Jason Alexander, Braxton Ashcraft and More
Four starting pitchers in action on Thursday who have good matchups and are widely available in fantasy leagues.
One week. We are exactly one week away from the first day of the NFL season. This is a column about baseball, but there's no denying that the NFL is the king of all sports in this country, and the biggest thing on the sports calendar is the start of their new year. MLB has just over four weeks remaining, but the biggest games of the season will have to take a backseat for a few weeks until we hit October.
Let's move to fantasy baseball and look at four 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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Jason Alexander, Houston Astros vs. Colorado Rockies
Baseball is different from other sports in that even the best teams lose 60 games, and even the worst teams win over 50 games (usually). The worst team can beat the best team on any given day in an easier fashion than any other sport. That still doesn't make it any easier that the Astros lost to the Rockies on Tuesday with the Mariners nipping right at their heels. Colorado won't break the record for most losses that the White Sox set last season, but they are the clear worst team, and Houston was surely looking for a sweep at home.
Alexander was here a few months back when things weren't going well, and his numbers were all way on the wrong side of things. He has been better since that time, including two starts in early August when he combined for 12 scoreless innings with just four hits allowed, four walks, and nine strikeouts. Alexander is just a hair higher than average with walks and well below average with strikeouts; that's not a great starting profile, but he has at least found a little success.
Alexander is a low-to-mid-level streamer. The matchup couldn't be much better, but his performance holds down his fantasy value, particularly his lower strikeout rate.
Braxton Ashcraft, Pittsburgh Pirates @ St. Louis Cardinals
Miles Mikolas, St. Louis Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
The bottom two teams in the NL Central, St. Louis and Pittsburgh see plenty of each other as division-mates. The Cardinals are a little closer to playoff position, but they need to do a lot of work to actually get there, and like the Astros, St. Louis isn't helping themselves out by losing games to one of the worst teams in baseball. The Pirates won on both Tuesday and Wednesday and hold a 2-1 series lead.
The rookie Ashcraft has looked good in his first season: 46 2/3 innings, 41 hits, 14 earned runs (2.70 ERA), 14 walks, and 43 strikeouts. Both his walk rate and strikeout rate are a hair better than average. He has made just four starts versus 16 relief appearances, and things will get a little tougher if he stays in the rotation rather than making shorter outings, but Ashcraft has found success at just 25 years old.
Mikolas is very good with walks (his 4.6% rate is close to half the league average), but he is far below average with strikeouts, particularly this season where he is under 15% (league average is around 22.5%). He has also been hit hard this year, giving up 140 hits in 125 1/3 innings and a home run every 5.4 innings.
Ashcraft and Mikolas are both low-to-mid-level streamers. Ashcraft has been better, but he doesn't have as good of a matchup and has very little track record. Mikolas is facing the weaker team, but he hasn't been very effective this season, dropping his fantasy value quite a bit.
Will Warren, New York Yankees @ Chicago White Sox
Warren might be the best pitcher on our streaming list today, particularly from a strikeout standpoint. Warren's K% is 25.5%, though his walk rate is also too high. He has given up fewer than one hit per inning this season and a home run just every 8.7 innings, so his biggest woes have come from putting guys on base (plus a little bad luck).
The White Sox present one of the best matchups available. They are 12 games worse than any other team in the American League, though a few in the NL are more on their level (including the league-worst Rockies). Chicago ranks in the bottom five in runs, hits, doubles, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS.
Warren is a mid-to-high-level streamer. His periodic struggles with control is really the only downside, and while that has the potential to sink him in any given outing, Warren has performed elsewhere, including striking batters out. He has a higher ceiling than anyone else here today.
Thursday's Streamer Rankings
- Will Warren, NYY
- Braxton Ashcraft, PIT
- Jason Alexander, HOU
- Miles Mikolas, STL
