Thursday's Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Cade Povich, Johan Oviedo, and More

When the NFL season starts, Tuesday and Wednesday become very anxious days. It's kind of like those days are just existing before we get back to NFL football on Thursday and then the weekend. We're back to Thursday now, luckily, so baseball will again take a backseat to an internationally streamed football game.

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

Use FantasySP's rest of season rankings to see which teams have the best matchups over the final few weeks.

Stephen Kolek, Kansas City Royals @ Cleveland Guardians

Kolek came over from the Padres at the trade deadline and has made two good starts in Kansas City. For his career, Kolek is good with walks but well below average with strikeouts. He has been OK, but Kolek is only 140 innings into his career, so we don't know quite what we have yet. The low strikeouts are a concern, especially because it was also the case in the minors.

Cleveland won the first two games of this series and looked like they could make a move in the wild card, but KC won 4-3 yesterday, killing the hopes of the sweep. Splitting the series doesn't help anyone, especially as Cleveland has to rely on their pitching to carry them with a bottom-10 offense. They can't afford to lose or tie series at this point in the season.

Kolek is a low-to-mid-level streamer. The matchup is right, but Kolek's lower strikeout work caps his fantasy ceiling, especially as he has been middling otherwise.

Johan Oviedo, Pittsburgh Pirates @ Baltimore Orioles

Cade Povich, Baltimore Orioles vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

Two teams near the bottom here, both Baltimore and Pittsburgh are in the bottom four in their respective leagues and effectively out of the playoff race. They both have been let down by their offense, though Baltimore also has problems in the pitching staff. We can target both teams over the rest of the season.

Oviedo missed all of 2024 and most of 2025 after Tommy John surgery, and he has made just five starts back in the big leagues. The results were mostly positive: 20 innings, 11 hits, 7 runs (6 earned, 2.70 ERA), 11 walks, and 24 strikeouts. That's too many walks but also good strikeout work, mostly matching his career work.

Povich has been right around average with both walks and strikeouts in 175 2/3 innings. He has given up more than a hit per inning and a homer every 6.3 innings, both numbers a little worse than average. Povich fits in nicely in the middle, the type of pitcher we see often here on the streaming list.

Oviedo is a low-to-mid-level streamer and Povich a mid-level streamer. They are close, but Povich gets the slight nod because he has the better matchup and has been a little better with strikeouts.

Randy Vasquez, San Diego Padres vs. Colorado Rockies

Vasquez is right around average with walks in his career and a little worse this year. His main issue comes from strikeouts, where he is well below average. Vasquez has a 14.2% strikeout rate in his career and 12.3% this year versus the league average around 22.5%. That lowers his fantasy floor and ceiling before considering that he's around the middle overall.

The Rockies are my favorite team to stream against. When they are away from Coors Field, Colorado has league-worst numbers in most offensive box stats, regularly looking like the most hapless team in baseball. Even with half of their games at Coors, the Rockies rank as a bottom-10 offensive team in most areas.

Vasquez is a low-to-mid-level streamer. Though the matchup is pristine, Vasquez can only get to a certain level because of his extra-low strikeout rate.

Ryan Weathers, Miami Marlins vs. Washington Nationals

Weathers hasn't made a start since June 7, hitting the 60-day IL in the meantime with a lat injury. He didn't make his season debut until mid-May, so Weathers has made just five starts. He was right around average in most areas during that time, matching his career work aside from his strikeout rate, which is below average.

The Nationals rank closer to the top of the bottom 10 than they do to the true bottom of the league. That makes them worth targeting with fantasy pitchers, but we don't get the same level of matchup here that we do with a team like the Rockies or Pirates. There are a few young bright spots, led by James Wood and CJ Abrams.

Weathers is a low-to-mid-level streamer. It's a nice matchup that necessitates his spot here, but Weathers is coming back from a long layoff and is probably looking at a short start, and his career work is just OK with a below-average strikeout rate.

Thursday's Streamer Rankings

1. Cade Povich, BAL
2. Johan Oviedo, PIT
3. Stephen Kolek, KC
4. Ryan Weathers, MIA
5. Randy Vasquez, SD