Stream Team: The 2009 Results

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.

Greetings, streamers! I hope my advice did a small part in helping you to your 2009 fantasy baseball title. Over the last three months, I've identified widely-available pitchers for you to add for a day to benefit from their stats in spot starts. Many leagues have rules in place to prevent daily streaming, such as transaction limits, game limits or weekly lineup submissions, but if your league doesn't have these rules in place, streaming is a great way to lead the pack in wins and Ks, while hopefully staying competitive in ERA and WHIP.

Unfortunately, our last Stream Team starter was replaced on Sunday, as the Twins decided to roll with Carl Pavano for the critical start instead of my guy Brian Duensing, who instead was lit up by the Yankees in Game 1 on Wednesday. That being said, 17 wins in 33 September and October starts along with a 3.03 ERA and 1.22 WHIP are great stats for streamers and could have tipped the balance in your favor as you competed for the title. Throw in the 155 strikeouts, and we basically gave you Johan Santana's truncated 2009 (plus a few more wins) over the last 34 days of the season.

But how did we fare over the course of the season? We started with a 4.40 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 109 Ks and 4 wins in July, numbers that were far better after the All-Star Break (3.41, 1.28, 73, and 4, respectively). In August, we did better in wins and Ks, but the ratios suffered, as we turned in a 4.59 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 130 Ks, and 14 wins. You already know how we did in September and October, so let's look at our final numbers for the season:

2009

534.2 innings
39 wins
543 hits
268 runs
234 earned runs
394 strikeouts
151 walks
63 homers allowed
3.94 ERA
1.30 WHIP

If your league rules allow it, you'd be foolish to pass up that kind of production.

That's going to do it for Stream Team 2009. Join us next year as we try and navigate spot-starters each day to find you the waiver wire gems that could help win your leagues.