Sunday Streamer Rankings: May and Kolek Highlight Best Waiver Wire Pitchers
Four starting pitchers with good matchups on Sunday who are widely available in fantasy leagues.
After no player hit for the cycle during the first two-and-a-half months of the season, it has now happened twice in a week. We talked about Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs pulling it off on Monday, and Bryce Harper joined him yesterday, breaking out of a little slump in the process.
The cycle is more of a quirk than the best thing a batter can do; a three-home-run game is more impactful, for instance. It undoubtedly means the hitter had a good day at the plate, though, and Harper's breakout combined with Kyle Schwarber's three home runs gave Philadelphia a 15-3 win over the division-rival Mets.
Moving to fantasy baseball, let's look at four starting pitchers in action on Sunday 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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Stephen Kolek, Kansas City Royals vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Dustin May, St. Louis Cardinals @ Kanas City Royals
We'll start today with a game in which we can target both teams with streaming pitchers. St. Louis is a middling offensive team; they don't reach the depths of some of the other squads we look to target often. Due to a lower number of streaming options today, we are including them here, but the Cardinals aren't a team we will look to go after often, though they don't really excel in any area. Kansas City is a little lowlier but still closer to the middle than the bottom. The real benefit is that these teams set a decent floor for our pitchers, not a great ceiling.
Kolek has a below-average strikeout rate, but he is doing everything else very well this season. He always has a good walk rate, but Kolek is also doing strong work limiting hits, runs (2.68 ERA), and home runs (one every 10.1 innings). He has been good in those areas his whole career but not quite this good, so there's probably a little regression coming, but it's reasonable to expect Kolek to keep finding success, just with a lower ceiling due to his K rate.
May has also been effective this season while adding an average strikeout rate. He has allowed more runs than Kolek, but he still has an ERA under 4.00 and has limited hits and home runs; May's rate of one homer allowed every 16.3 innings is phenomenal, and while it will go down, May has always done well keeping the ball in the park. After dealing with plenty of injuries and starts-and-stops, May is finally putting together a high-level extended season.
Kolek is a low-to-mid-level streamer and May a mid-level streamer today. On top of having the better matchup, May is much better with strikeouts, giving him a better floor and ceiling than his counterpart in this one. I like the outlook of both guys, though.
David Peterson, New York Mets @ Philadelphia Phillies
Peterson has also done well limiting home runs, but that's about the only place he has truly succeeded. His walk rate is close enough to average, but his strikeout rate is several percentage points below average (as it has been the past few seasons), and he is giving up both hits and runs at a career-worst rate. Peterson is likely to improve a little given his career work, but the outlook isn't great right now.
The Phillies remain in the bottom 10 in pretty much everything other than home runs, as has been the case all season. They are above .500 but have a negative run differential, pointing toward a team that isn't going to truly compete for a championship despite the names and faces remaining much the same from past contenders. On top of sitting in the bottom 10 in walks, Philadelphia is also at the precipice of the top 10 in batter strikeouts, setting a nice ceiling for opposing pitchers.
Peterson is a low-level streamer. The matchup is right, but Peterson hasn't been very good in 2026. He hasn't lasted more than five innings since March 28, so you're unlikely to get great length here either. (Philadelphia is also coming off a huge offensive game, for what that's worth.)
Kai-Wei Teng, Houston Astros vs. Cleveland Guardians
Cleveland is in the bottom 10 in every offensive box stat aside from doubles and walks, where they actually rank in the top 10. They also don't strike out much, so they don't set a high ceiling, but the Guardians are generally a lowly offensive team. Like Philadelphia, Cleveland has a negative run differential despite their positive record, pointing toward them not being a real contender unless they can pick up their performance, particularly on offense.
Teng started the season in the bullpen before moving to the rotation in the middle of May. It hasn't gone well as a starter, especially his three June starts: 12 1/3 innings, 20 hits, 17 runs, four homers, seven walks, and 15 strikeouts. He does good K work, but he also walks too many guys, and Teng has been hit hard over the past three weeks.
Teng is a low-to-mid-level streamer. His recent numbers are concerning, but with the right matchup and continued positive strikeouts, there's at least a little hope. I'm still skipping Teng in this one.
Sunday's Streamer Rankings
- Dustin May, STL
- Stephen Kolek, KC
- Kai-Wei Teng, HOU
- David Peterson, NYM
