Streamer Report for Saturday: Vincent Velasquez leads the way

Not meant to be an epic, the Streamer Report will provide you with a few starting pitcher selections and then call it a proverbial day. The criteria is starting pitchers who are 50% owned or less in Yahoo leagues. We’ll consider matchup, track record versus opponent, recent performance, and more.

How did yesterday’s streamers perform?

Brad Keller at Detroit: 6.0 IP, 10 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO, 1 HR

Gio Gonzalez vs. Texas: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR

Drew Smyly at San Francisco: 5.2 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO, 3 HR

Fairly rough go of it on Day 1, but today is a new day.

Saturday’s Streamers

Aaron Sanchez (52% owned) at Baltimore

He doesn’t meet the criteria since he’s over 50% owned, but he’s too available. If Houston will in fact “fix” what ails Sanchez, he could be a league-winning addition to your fake team. If he puts in another strong turn against Baltimore (likely) then you won’t be able to snag him in many formats moving forward.

Vince Velasquez (25% owned) at San Francisco

The mercurial hurler has upped his fastball/slider usage and trimmed that of his curveball...to basically slightly above average results. His swinging strike rate of 12.0% is the best of his career and better than the 11.1% league average. His chase rate is up to 30.2% this year (or a hair below average) after being stuck around 28% for each of the last two seasons. His contact rates allowed—out of the zone, in the zone, and overall—are all a percent or two percent better than average. He strikes out 25.0% of lefties and 27.0% of righties, but his bane has been home runs. A 1.87 HR/9 to lefty bats and 2.20 HR/9 to righty bats is concerning, but the matchup isn’t. The Giants have managed only 90 home runs against right-handers in 2019, or the 27th-worst mark in the MLB. Only the Tigers, Royals, and Marlins are worse, and not by much. That, and Oracle Park ranks dead last in home runs in 2019, something that should surprise no one. If you aren’t starting Velasquez in this matchup, when are you starting him?

Spencer Turnbull (16% owned) vs. Kansas City Royals

Not for the faint of heart, but Turnbull actually has a sub-4.00 ERA this season. He’s been on my radar for MLB DFS purposes at times, but his 3.72 ERA was a surprise. A 48.5% ground ball rate gives him a bit of a floor (pun not intended, but I’ll take it), and the Royals are not a daunting matchup. The team’s .159 ISO ranks 26th in the MLB. Seems like a worthy streamer today, and I like him better than the next guy...

Andrew Heaney (29% owned) at Boston Red Sox

Heaney has been sidelined for three weeks with shoulder inflammation. And while the Red Sox are a daunting matchup for anyone, I thought Heaney was worth a mention due to his strikeout ability (10.57 K/9). Today may not be the day to start him, but he is someone you could plug in with the right matchup, and potentially be a back-end starter that you hold. And I don’t think it is nuts to start him today. He had a 64-pitch simulated game to get ready for this turn, and I could see the Halos pulling him after two turns through the Red Sox lineup (giving you the strikeouts but not a ton of damage).

All of these guys are in the 7-8K range on DraftKings, with Turnbull (8000) actually checking in as the most expensive option. In that format, I’ll take the $600 savings and roll with Velasquez at 7400. But I would not be into Heaney (7600) in DFS today.

Who are you considering in your baseball matchups today?