May 21 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Alec Marsh, Robert Gasser, Cal Quantrill and More

Today’s lineup of streamers is light, but there is a group right above that line in which each pitcher is owned in many leagues but available in enough to mention that they should be picked up and possibly rostered long-term.

That doesn’t help people in a lot of leagues, but lucky breaks almost always create league champions, those pickups at the top of the waiver wire and lucky diamonds in the rough that everyone somehow overlooks, so it’s worth investigating if one of these guys can be a season-long producer for your fantasy team.

Let’s run through Tuesday’s probable starters (according to MLB.com) who are widely available in fantasy leagues and have good matchups, creating streaming value. Most stats and rankings are from MLB and are current prior to Monday’s outcomes. The full streamer rankings are at the bottom.

Kyle Bradish, Baltimore Orioles @ St. Louis Cardinals

Garrett Crochet, Chicago White Sox @ Toronto Blue Jays

Yusei Kikuchi, Toronto Blue Jays vs. Chicago White Sox

Clarke Schmidt, New York Yankees @ Seattle Mariners

I’m going to start by grouping these four together because they all have good matchups but are also owned in too many leagues to really call them “streamers.” They are each still available in more than 10% of leagues.

Each pitcher here is probably worth a spot on your roster unless you have a stacked pitching staff. Crochet has struck out more than one-third of the batters he has faced, a phenomenal rate, with a K:BB ratio of 70 to 12 in 51.2 innings; pick him up now.

Bradish would be Baltimore’s ace if Corbin Burnes weren’t in the mix. He started the season on the IL, creating a chance to possibly add him before he hits his full stride. Kikuchi and Schmidt both have better-than-average strikeout and walk rates and ERAs below 3.00.

These four starters all need to be in someone’s lineup in 100% of leagues today and probably deserve a spot on a roster moving forward.

Robert Gasser, Milwaukee Brewers @ Miami Marlins

Gasser has made two big league starts with sparkling results: 11 innings, one run allowed, one walk and six strikeouts. That strikeout rate needs to rise, but Gasser struck out 369 batters in 299.1 Minor League innings, so there’s a good chance he will excel more in that area moving forward.

To keep expectations in check, Gasser’s two outings have been against two of the worst offensive teams in baseball in the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals. Miami joins them among the bottom, though, offering the same level of matchup as his previous opponents.

Gasser is a mid- to high-level streamer in this one. The results speak for themselves, and his strikeout work in the minors points toward a pitcher who will eventually perform better in that aspect.

Alec Marsh, Kansas City Royals vs. Detroit Tigers

Marsh has been a pleasant surprise for the upstart Royals, going at least five innings in six of his seven starts and allowing more than one earned run just twice. (His one start less than five innings was a 4.1-inning outing in which he allowed zero runs.)

Marsh’s strikeout rate is near league average and walk rate better than average, and it’s worked out to a 2.43 ERA in 2024. He struck out more hitters last year but also walked a lot more; this is an improvement overall.

The Tigers have been a surprise themselves, sitting around .500 after being expected to finish closer to the White Sox (20 games under .500) than the Guardians (14 games above). The pitching staff has been the driving force, though, ranking as a top-10 unit by most measures as the offense lacks behind.

Marsh is a mid-level streamer here. Detroit is just outside the top 10 in batter strikeouts and isn’t among the worst offenses, so the matchup is just OK, but Marsh has performed well enough to expect another good outing.

Cal Quantrill, Colorado Rockies @ Oakland Athletics

Like Detroit, Oakland has outplayed expectations, but that still leaves the A’s near the bottom of their division. While they have hit for power (tied for fourth in home runs, 18th in slugging percentage), they haven’t found consistency: Oakland is in the bottom 10 in runs scored, batting average and on-base percentage, and they have struck out the second most of any team.

Quantrill is well below average in terms of striking batters out and currently has the worst walk rate of his career (9.3% while the league average is around 8%). That sounds like a recipe for disaster, but Quantrill has seen good results so far, holding a 3.66 ERA as Colorado’s best pitcher.

He is a slightly below-average pitcher, and Quantrill is a low- to mid-level streamer here. Oakland is just an OK matchup, and Quantrill hasn’t done enough this year or in his career to expect many high-level outings.

Tuesday Streamer Rankings

Crochet, Kikuchi, Bradish and Schmidt (in that order) are above the streamer level, so I won’t include them in these rankings other than saying they need to be picked up if available.

1. Robert Gasser, MIL
2. Alec Marsh, KC
3. Cal Quantrill, COL