Sunday Fantasy Baseball Pitcher Streamers: Waiver Wire SP Targets and Rankings

It's not an exaggeration to say that the NL Central owns the top of the offensive leaderboards. Heading into Sunday, the Chicago Cubs rank first in runs, home runs, walks, slugging percentage, and OPS. The Milwaukee Brewers are first in hits, batting average (tied with Tampa Bay), and on-base percentage. Those two teams have a combined record of 176-122, a .591 winning percentage that would rank tied for fourth in all of baseball.

Milwaukee has the best record of any team, and Chicago leads the NL Wild Card race, so we will likely see both teams in the postseason, though the Cubs have work to do to secure their spot. It wouldn't be a surprise to see one of these division rivals representing the National League in the World Series after their regular-season exploits.

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 pitchers. The full streamer rankings are listed at the bottom.

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Gabriel Hughes, Colorado Rockies @ Detroit Tigers

Hughes is in his first big-league season, and though most of his box numbers are around average, he has an ERA close to 6.00, struggling to limit runs. It's logical to think that he is a victim of Coors Field, but Hughes actually has much better numbers at home than he does on the road. If he keeps up most of these numbers and can increase his strikeout rate a little, Hughes will likely see better overall results. He has big pedigree as the 10th overall pick in 2022, but we have to give him a little time to reach his best form at the highest level.

Detroit has very poor numbers over the past month, and we have had Colorado's starters listed here the past two days as a result. The first day was fine, as Mason Adams allowed just one run in five innings, but Tanner Gordon let us down yesterday, giving up 10 hits and four runs in four innings. Those guys did strike out 10 batters in nine innings, and the Tigers strike out at a top-10 rate, so there's some upside. Detroit is a team we are going to target when we can for the time being.

Hughes is a low-level streamer. He has a chance to be better in the future given his draft status and decent box stats, but there is always risk with a guy less than 60 innings into his career, and the matchup might be more good than great.

Jake Irvin, Washington Nationals vs. Los Angeles Angels

Irvin is another guy who has mostly good box stats but is allowing too many runs, holding a 5.42 ERA. He has walked a few too many guys and given up a few too many home runs, which can explain those issues. His strikeout rate is at an average level this season after being below average previously, so that helps his outlook a bit, but it's hard to ignore that his results haven't been great the past two seasons.

The Angels are one of our favorite streaming targets, showing bottom-level offensive production over both the full season and the past month. We've been going after LA pretty hard recently, and the story has been the same: they don't produce and they strike out a lot. There's not a much better combination for our purposes. It doesn't look like any team will average 10 Ks per game this season, but the Angels (along with the Reds) are trying their best.

Irvin is a low-to-mid-level streamer. The matchup is right, and I like his ceiling give his strikeout work and the way that the Angels swing and miss, but Irvin has also been susceptible to runs and home runs, leaving him as a bit of a questionable fantasy player.

Jacob Lopez, Athletics vs. Seattle Mariners

Bryce Miller, Seattle Mariners @ Athletics

We'll finish up today with a game in which we can target both teams with streaming pitchers. Seattle is fighting with the Angels for the spot as our favorite current streaming target, doing many things at a bottom-five level (including scoring runs and getting hits) while also striking out at a top-10 rate. The A's have a bit of a different story, partly because they play in one of the best hitter's parks in baseball. This game is at their home park, so they have a much better outlook, but the Athletics are also one of the worst teams in baseball, and the Seattle pitcher today is part of the reason they are here.

That pitcher is Miller, a guy who was owned in essentially every fantasy league earlier in the season; he's down below 50% now. He has had a bit of a brutal stretch, allowing 22 hits and 21 runs in 20 innings in August, and he has given up at least four runs in seven of his past 10 starts, seeing his ERA jump from 2.75 to 4.22 in that timeframe. Miller has a good ceiling on any given day given his past work, but last year was a struggle also, so it's not as big of a steal as it might seem given his name recognition.

Lopez is another guy who is close to average with a lot of numbers but is giving up too many runs and home runs. He does average strikeout work but walks a few too many batters. Lopez is coming off a bit of a rough start against Toronto last time out, but prior to that, he had made eight straight starts in which he gave up two or fewer runs and went at least five innings. That helped normalize his numbers after a rough start to the season, leaving Lopez somewhere in the middle overall (which is where many of our streamers sit).

Miller and Lopez are both low-to-mid-level streamers. Lopez has the better matchup, but Miller has been the better pitcher in his career, though Lopez has been better lately. With this game at the A's park in Sacramento rather than the pitcher's haven of Seattle, both guys have a lower fantasy value than they would otherwise.

Sunday's Streamer Rankings

1. Jacob Lopez, ATH
2. Bryce Miller, SEA
3. Jake Irvin, WSH
4. Gabriel Hughes, COL