May 23 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Jack Flaherty, Matt Waldron, Ryan Feltner and More

It’s a bit of a light schedule today with only eight games scheduled to take place. That inevitably makes for less fantasy streamers, but Thursday actually offers a decent selection of starters you can plug into your lineup and expect OK results (or better).

Let’s run through Thursday’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 correct before Wednesday’s results unless otherwise noted. The full streamer rankings are listed at the bottom.

*This section on Joey Estes was originally published in yesterday’s article because he was listed as Wednesday’s starter before being bumped to Thursday. These stats are correct before Tuesday’s games.

Joey Estes, Oakland Athletics vs. Colorado Rockies

The Rockies have a middling offense with definitive splits. They are markedly better at home, not a surprise considering they play in the hitter’s haven of Coors Field. Here are their rankings in a few major stats at home and away:

Stat	Home Ranking	Away Ranking
Runs Scored	21st	21st
Home Runs	28th	24th
Strikeouts (Most)	13th	6th
Batting Average	4th	21st
On-base Percentage	8th	25th
Slugging Percentage	10th	22nd
OPS	9th	26th

They don’t hit home runs anywhere, so that number is a bit misleading. The four slash numbers are stark, though: Colorado is a top-10 offense by those stats at home and a bottom-10 squad on the road.

Their strikeout numbers are worse on the road, something that seems like it shouldn’t be affected by where the game is played. There have been studies done that show pitches have less movement at Coors Field than at lower elevations, though, meaning half of Colorado’s games are against pitchers with compromised breaking balls.

Estes’ short season has been a tale of two starts:

• May 11 @ Seattle: 5 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 0 walks, 5 strikeouts
• May 16 @ Houston: 4.2 innings, 8 hits, 8 runs, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts

The Astros are a better offensive team than the Mariners, which helps explain the contrast in performance. Colorado is closer to Seattle, especially on the road, leaving Estes a chance to match his first outing.

Estes is a low- to mid-level streamer. The matchup is good but not great, and he has shown a decent strikeout rate, so there is hope for Estes to have a quality start.

Ryan Feltner, Colorado Rockies @ Oakland Athletics

In his career, Feltner has worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates. He has done much better limiting walks this season, but he still hasn’t struck out a ton of batters, sitting a few percentage points below the league average. None of this has added up to success: Feltner has a 5.97 career ERA (196 innings) and 5.69 mark in 2024.

Oakland is the reason Feltner shows up on the streamer list. While the A’s have hit for plenty of power, they haven’t found much consistency and strike out almost as much as any team in the league. They are better than during the previous few moribund seasons, but Oakland is still a below-average unit.

Feltner is a low-level streamer. He might get a few extra strikeouts given the A’s swing-and-miss ways, but Feltner hasn’t shown anything in his career to make us expect a great outing.

Jack Flaherty, Detroit Tigers vs. Toronto Blue Jays

It’s been a while since I checked in with Toronto’s hitters:

• One qualified hitter batting above .230: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.(.279)
• One batter with more than five home runs: Daulton Varsho (eight)
• One player with more than five stolen bases: George Springer (seven)
• Cavan Biggio: .198 batting average, one home run
• Bo Bichette: .226 batting average, two home runs

Uff. It’s been a rough go for the Blue Jays’ offense, making them a team to target often with opposing pitchers.

Flaherty has grown from being owned in hardly any fantasy leagues to finding a home in about half of leagues now. His strikeout and walk work have been phenomenal: 72 strikeouts and just eight walks in 54.2 innings. That strikeout rate (over 33%) and walk rate (under 4%) are both significantly better than league average and would be the best of his career.

Flaherty is a high-level streamer in this one and probably worthy of a spot on your roster. Striking out that many hitters is rare for a starting pitcher, and even as he’s likely to regress to the mean, there’s a ton of value in what Flaherty has been doing.

Matt Waldron, San Diego Padres @ Cincinnati Reds

Waldron has struck out 45 and walked only 17 hitters in 45 innings this year. His walk rate is a hair higher than average, but that plays when the pitcher is striking out a batter per inning. In just 86.1 big league innings, Waldron has been a very average starting pitcher.

Like Toronto, Cincinnati’s player stats paint the picture. Just one qualified hitter is batting even .225 or slugging .400. That same player leads the team in home runs, stolen bases, runs scored, hits and hope for the future. Elly De La Cruz is showing his superstar potential, but no one else on the Reds is consistently picking up slack next to him.

Waldron is a mid-level streamer this time around. Cincinnati hitters have struck out the seventh most, and the lack of impact players leaves plenty of soft spots for pitchers to navigate more easily.

Thursday’s Streamer Rankings

1. Jack Flaherty, DET
2. Matt Waldron, SD
3. Joey Estes, OAK
4. Ryan Feltner, COL