Week 8 Pitching Planner: Streaming Options Galore

The Week 8 pitching planner is filled with perfect options for streaming starting pitchers.

I am a huge believer in streaming starting pitchers in smaller leagues without innings or waiver restrictions. You can always find decent matchups and the Week 8 pitching planner shows that for sure.

As far as my streaming recommendations go, Week 7 was a solid effort. Tyler Anderson got a win and was one out away from a quality start. Nick Pivetta was great again, going seven strong giving up just one run with 11 punch outs.

On the other hand, Drew Pomeranz got chased after just four innings against the lowly Orioles. Matt Harvey just gave up three runs but only went four innings as well. Then Ian Kennedy gave up five runs in six innings with six strikeouts against Tampa.

That feels like a 2-2-1 week for me, putting my season total at 9-7-1 on streaming recommendations as we head into the Week 8 pitching planner.

For the Week 8 pitching planner I am using ownership percentages from ESPN and the information is up to date as of May 19th.

Week 8 Pitching Planner

2-Start Pitchers

Arizona Diamondbacks Matt Koch pitches against the grain in a strikeout-dominated world https://t.co/2HCvEvDdTe pic.twitter.com/fNE40lNv8G

— Zesty Diamondbacks (@zesty_dbacks) May 18, 2018

Matt Koch, ARI at MIL, at OAKBrandon McCarthy, ATL at PHI, at BOS

Both the Diamondbacks and Braves have some uncertainty in their rotation this upcoming week, so keep an eye on how they change it up.

Andrew Cashner and Kevin Gausman, BAL at CWS, at TB

Chris Sale, BOS at TB, vs. ATL

Hector Santiago and James Shields, CWS vs. BAL, at DET

Matt Harvey, CIN vs. PIT, at COL

Josh Tomlin, CLE at CHC, vs. HOU

German Marquez, COL at LAD, vs. CIN

Gerrit Cole, HOU vs. SF, at CLE

Ian Kennedy and Jason Hammel, KC at STL, at TEX

Walker Beuhler, LAD vs. COL, vs. SD

Elieser Hernandez, MIA at NYM, vs. WAS

Chase Anderson and Jhoulys Chacin, MIL vs. ARI, vs. NYM

After a couple of rough outings, Anderson is available in about half the leagues out there while Chacin sports just a 7.5% ownership. They are both worthy of streaming starts this week in both starts.

Jose Berrios, MIN vs. DET, at SEA

Zack Wheeler and Jason Vargas, NYM vs. MIA, at MIL

Trevor Cahill, OAK vs. SEA, vs. ARI

Nick Pivetta, PHI vs. ATL, vs. TOR

Pivetta has been huge for me the past couple of weeks, but this is a stay-away week with two really difficult matchups.

Mike Leake, SEA at OAK, vs. MIN

This is a solid week for Leake to turn his year around. A normally good producer of ground balls is just giving up too many bombs.

Jacob Faria, TB vs. BOS, vs. BAL

Bartolo Colon and Doug Fister, TEX vs. NYY, vs. KC

Big Sexy has just a 2.82 ERA now and is only owned in 13.1% of leagues. Doug Fister is only owned in 1.7% of leagues and has back-to-back quality starts dropping his ERA to 3.43. I will stream both against the Royals.

J.A. Happ, TOR, vs. LAA, at PHI

Jeremy Hellickson, WAS vs. SD, at MIA

Good Matchups

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Dylan Bundy, BAL at CWS

Kyle Hendricks, CHC vs. SF

Michael Fulmer, DET at MIN

Alex Wood, LAD vs. SD

Wood is actually having a really good season by every metric except the win column. His 3.35 ERA is Top-20 in the league.

Jacob deGrom, NYM vs. MIA

James Paxton, SEA vs. MIN

Gio Gonzalez and Max Scherzer, WAS vs. SD

Bad Matchups

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Rick Porcello, BOS vs. ATL

Luis Castillo, CIN vs. PIT

Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco, CLE vs. HOU

While the Astros’ bats have not been lights out, I feel a hot streak coming. Meanwhile, their pitching staff has not given up more than four runs in almost three weeks.

Garrett Richards, LAA at TOR

After Richards pitches on Tuesday, the Angels’ rotation is back to the TBD-land.

Luis Severino and Sonny Gray, NYY vs. LAA

Jake Arrieta, PHI vs. ATL

Chris Archer, TB vs. BOS

I don’t want anything to do with a pitcher facing Mookie Betts right now.

Streaming Options

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Alex Cobb, BAL at CWS (10.4% ownership)

Cobb finally got off of the schnied with a win against Boston, but he has been pitching really well. He’s basically got four straight quality starts and lowered his ERA from 17.18 to 6.56. Now he gets a White Sox team that has all sorts of issues in its lineup.

Mike Fiers, DET vs. CWS (5.1% ownership)

Fiers is having a solid year and should probably be owned more. He has back-to-back wins and five of his seven starts he has gone at least five innings with three or fewer runs allowed.

Dan Straily, MIA at NYM (2.8% ownership)

Straily got a late start to the season, but the Marlins are 4-0 when he pitches and as he has ramped his innings up, his run allowance has gone down.

Zack Wheeler, NYM vs. MIA (7.7% ownership)

When in doubt, just pick a pitcher going against the Marlins.

Mike Minor, TEX vs. KC (7.2% ownership)

After a couple of rough outings, I think Minor turns it around against his former team.

Jeremy Hellickson, WAS vs. SD (35.9% ownership)

Hellickson sports a sparkling 2.20 ERA yet is still available in two-thirds of leagues out there. He has given up just a single run over his last three starts.

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Michael Tomlin

Michael Tomlin is an ESPY-nominated, former college football player who stays associated with the game through Fantasy Sports. He has been writing his personal blog, Dirkland.blogspot.com, for three years and it focuses on Fantasy Sports, as well as handicapping. He was born and raised in the DFW Metroplex, and he follows all of the Dallas teams, along with Texas Tech athletics and Manchester City F.C.

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