Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.Someone at our weekly Friday chats was hoping I could guarantee a quality start from Tom Gorzelanny yesterday. While there are never guarantees in fantasy baseball, I was confident he'd put up a great stat-line. He didn't put up a quality start (in which you need to go six innings), but to be fair, that wasn't his fault. Gorzelanny was pulled after just 83 pitches, but he was still able to strike out eight guys in five innings of one-run ball while getting a win. For the Team, we'll take that every time. We backed Mike Pelfrey today.
We have less options than usual to choose from for Monday, but luckily, most of our potential spot-start candidates are at home. Unfortunately, the guy that's been pitching the best (by far) is facing a very hot offense. I think we should use him anyway.
Tommy Hunter has been a revelation for the Rangers, a starting pitcher with ace-like numbers over his nine starts (5-2 record, 2.26 ERA, 1.13 WHIP). He has been a bit lucky, with a BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) of .256, when the league average is around .300 on a year-to-year basis. His strand rate (the percentage of runners left on base) is also a bit fortunate. What this means is that a bit of a regression could be around the corner. However, he posts a solid K/BB ratio of 2.06 (anything above 2.0 for pitchers is good) and he's done well at limiting HRs, a key part of success in Arlington.
He faces the Twins on Monday, and Minnesota has been a very good hitting team lately, with a .915 OPS in their last six games. In particular, Joe Mauer has been on fire lately, hitting .481 in August. We can expect the Minnesota catcher to get a few hits off Hunter, so Tommy Boy will have to do a great job against the other eight spots in the lineup if he's to have success.Despite Hunter's four wins, 2.20 ERA and 1.01 WHIP over the last month, this is a pick I'm not completely sold on. I wouldn't blame you for going with Kevin Correia in San Diego against the Cubs, as the Padre pitcher has quality starts in his last four games. Hunter is our guy (barely) for Monday.
Stream Team Data
August: 93.1 IP, 10 Ws, 3.95 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 83 Ks, 27 BBs.
Post-ASB: 180.1 IP, 14 Ws, 3.69 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 156 Ks, 55 BBs.
Since 7/1: 243.2 IP, 18 Ws, 4.23 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 192 Ks, 71 BBs.
