Fantasy Baseball Streaming Pitchers: Sunday Waiver Wire and Streamer Rankings

It's the last day before the All-Star break. Every team will have played at least 94 games after today (unless the Rays or Red Sox get rained out), so we have no choice but to believe what we are seeing, even if we expect a player or team to improve/regress in the second half. Fantasy baseball will resume in earnest on Friday (though the Mets and Phillies play on Thursday night).

Let's look at five 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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Cristian Javier, Houston Astros @ Texas Rangers

Javier missed three months with injury before returning on July 4, making two relief appearances since that time. He gets the chance to start in this one, but he is probably in line for a short start, as most everyone will be available to pitch with four days off to follow Sunday. He was previously a high-level pitcher, but Javier has thrown less than 100 innings since the start of 2024, making it hard to know what to expect.

The Rangers are a bottom-10 offense when playing at home, as Globe Life Field plays as one of the best pitcher's parks in baseball. When looking only at games that teams play in their home stadium, Texas ranks in the bottom five (or very close to it) in runs, hits, doubles, walks, batting average, on-base percentage, and OPS. We can go after the Rangers every time they play at home.

Javier is a low-level streamer. There's a little upside based on his previous level, and the matchup (due to the location) is right, but I can't trust Javier for anything real today unless you're in a super-deep league.

Dustin May, St. Louis Cardinals vs. Atlanta Braves

The Braves have been a clear bottom-10 offensive team over the past month; they might even qualify as a bottom-five group in that time. They started off a lot better, but Atlanta has taken a nosedive recently, leading to a 9-17 record since June 9. There's hope that the Braves can turn it around given their performance over the first few months and the names in the lineup, but we will keep targeting them on the right days until they show that improvement.

May has done very well in several areas this season, including a walk rate far better than average, a strikeout work a little better than average, and just seven home runs allowed in 89 innings. He has been around average allowing hits and runs, but May has had a few much better stretches with some rough games mixed in. He's a perfectly capable streaming pitcher.

May is a mid-level streamer. His strikeout and walk numbers set him up for success, and Atlanta has been playing poorly enough to target often with fantasy pitchers.

German Marquez, San Diego Padres vs. Toronto Blue Jays

Marquez missed essentially all of May and June on the IL, making just eight appearances and throwing 37 2/3 innings. His performance has been worse than average in many areas, including walking too many guys and holding a perilously low 14.9% strikeout rate. Though his career rate is around average, Marquez hasn't been able to find any K magic since missing essentially all of 2023 and 2024, leaving major questions on if it will ever return.

Toronto has a decent hit tool but has shown no power. A team can succeed either without power or mainly just hitting for power, but that hasn't been the case for the Blue Jays, who rank in the bottom five in runs scored. They don't strike out much, but Toronto also ranks near the bottom in walks, giving them fewer chances to do damage when they are getting base hits.

Marquez is a low-level streamer. He hasn't been great, and his severe lack of strikeouts keeps his ceiling very low. The matchup is also just OK in this one, leading to a bleaker outlook than we would like.

Ian Seymour, Tampa Bay Rays vs. Seattle Mariners

Seattle ranks in the bottom 10 in runs, hits, doubles, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. They hit some home runs, but the Mariners are only in the middle in that category, not doing nearly enough to make up for their deficiencies elsewhere. I've talked about how their home park is one of the best pitcher's parks in baseball, hurting their overall numbers, but the Mariners haven't done enough on the road either to scare us away.

Seymour has worked out of the bullpen most of his career, making 10 starts and 41 relief appearances between last year and this one. He has been good with walks and far above average with strikeouts while doing well limiting hits, runs, and home runs. Things are tougher for starting pitchers than relievers, but Seymour's past four outings (all starts) have gone well: 23 innings, 15 hits, seven runs, 31 strikeouts, and just two walks.

Seymour is a mid-level streamer. There's big upside, like when he struck out 12 batters in 5 1/3 innings his last start, but Seymour has a very short track record, particularly as a starter, so it's best to temper expectations just a bit.

Zach Thornton, New York Mets vs. Boston Red Sox

Thornton has made two big-league starts: on May 20 against Washington, he went 4 1/3 innings while allowing four runs and four hits with three strikeouts and two walks. Things went much better on June 26, when he threw six innings against Philadelphia with five hits, one run, one walk, and seven strikeouts. Thornton was good in the minors but was only average with Ks, so it's tough to project any kind of big ceiling in this one.

Boston ranks in the bottom 10 in runs, hits, home runs, walks, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. It has been a season-long morass for the Red Sox, a team that surely fancied itself a playoff contender. Instead, Boston will enter the All-Star break several games below .500 and at least 10 back in the AL East; it'll be an uphill battle from here on out to make the season a success.

Thornton is a low-to-mid-level streamer. He found success in one start while struggling a bit in the other, and it's probably safe to project this one to land somewhere in-between. Unless you're in a deeper league, it might be best to use your innings on someone with a safer floor.

Sunday's Streamer Rankings

1. Ian Seymour, TB
2. Dustin May, STL
3. Zach Thornton, NYM
4. German Marquez, SD
5. Cristian Javier, HOU