June 1, 2013

Fantasy Beat

Weekly #streameroftheday Update

by Bret Sayre

For those of you unfamiliar with the #streameroftheday process, I recommend one starting pitcher per day who is owned in fewer than 10% of leagues (lower than your typical standards) and post it on Twitter at @dynastyguru. And this Friday post is where I stand in front of the firing squad, fully accountable for these recommendations. I ran a longer introduction in my first post of the season, explaining why my ownership limit is much lower than most others out there, but essentially it's to be helpful in deeper mixed leagues. If you want to read the whole thing, the link is here. With the pleasantries out of the way, let's jump into the action.

Here were the details for the last seven days:

Date	Pitcher	Opp	IP	ER	H	BB	K	Dec
5/24/13	David Phelps	TB	7 2/3	4	6	0	3	Win
5/25/13	Ricky Nolasco	CHW	7 2/3	1	8	0	6	ND
5/26/13	Jerome Williams	KC	6	2	7	2	4	Win
5/27/13	Jose Quintana	CHC	6	4	4	3	5	Loss
5/28/13	Kevin Slowey	TB	5 2/3	4	8	0	4	ND
5/29/13	David Phelps	NYM	1/3	4	4	2	1	Loss
5/30/13	Ted Lilly	LAA	5 2/3	3	5	3	3	Loss

The week actually started off very well after the first three starts. Phelps was great considering the strength of his opponent, and Nolasco kept rolling against the mostly punchless White Sox. I'm not a big Jerome Williams fan, but anyone with a pulse these days who is pitching against the Royals makes for at least an interesting streamer. Quintana really didn't pitch that poorly against the Cubs, he was just completely outclassed by Jeff Samardzija, who continues to be extremely impressive. Slowey against the Rays was never going to be a good matchup, but the other options were pretty terrible. He ended up holding his own alright, and was actually in like for a win (this is what happens when you face Jeremy Hellickson these days, even as a Marlins starter), but the bullpen gave up the lead almost immediately after he left. The biggest disappointment of the week was Phelps' second turn, as he never even made it out of the first inning against the Mets. Strange things happen in interleague play--like the Mets deciding to start hitting, or Dillon Gee striking out 12 the next night. Lilly finished off the week with an OK start, just one out away from being of the quality persuation.

And here are my overall numbers for both the week and the season:

	Wins	Win%	IP	ERA	WHIP	K	K/9
Week	2	29%	38 2/3	5.12	1.34	26	6.05
Season	24	42%	318	4.84	1.40	233	6.59

It was back down to Earth a little for me this week, though it would have been a solid week if Phelps hadn't [insert bathroom metaphor here] on Wednesday. Overall, it's time to start moving those ratios in a more positive direction, and hopefully the end of interleague play will help move that along.

See you again next week.

Bret Sayre is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @BretSayreBP
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