MLB Offenses to Avoid in Fantasy Baseball: Yankees, Orioles, Dodgers, Padres, Phillies and More

Nearly every day of the week, FantasySP’s Daniel Hepner writes up a starting pitcher streaming article. In those articles, he discusses SP not owned in nearly every league with the best matchups on the day.

In this article, I want to talk about the MLB offenses to avoid with starting pitchers. Of course, you’ll still trust the aces to perform at least average against these offenses, but more often than not, a start against these offenses doesn’t usually results in big-time fantasy outings.

Let’s get into things!

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High-Scoring Offenses

The easiest way for fantasy pitchers to lose points is by giving up runs, so let’s identify the teams with the most runs scored so far in 2024.

Through June 17, the New York Yankees were leading the league with 374 runs scored. The Los Angeles Dodgers were at 367 runs scored, although the injury to Mookie Betts makes that offense a little less intimidating.

The Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies are both at 364 runs scored for the season.

Of course, sometimes an offense can get hot for an extended period of time, and those numbers are also worth mentioning here.

The Boston Red Sox have the most runs scored (78) over the past 15 days.

The Yankees are second with 75 runs, while the Minnesota Twins are third with 74 runs. The Arizona Diamondbacks (72), Orioles, Dodgers and New York Mets (70 each) are also scoring at a good clip recently.

If we back things up to the past 30 days, the Orioles have the most runs at 143. The Yankees are at 141 runs scored.

The Red Sox (132) and Kansas City Royals and Twins (130 each) are also in the top five.

Homer-Heavy Offenses

In today’s MLB, a lot of times, the top-scoring teams are the ones that hit the most home runs. 

The Orioles lead the league with 114 bombs on the season, with the Yankees not far behind at 110. The Dodgers (98) are the only other team over 90 long balls so far.

Baltimore is also leading the league in homers over the past 15 days with 26. 

The Chicago White Sox are a surprise team in second, with 22 blasts over the past 15 days. The Dodgers (21) and Yankees (20) are more familiar sights in the third and fourth slots.

In the past 30 days, the Orioles also lead the way with 46 home runs. The Yankees are second with 42 homers.

The Twins and Mets are at 36 home runs each, while the Dodgers have 35.

On-Base Machine Teams

Sometimes it’s not just runs that can derail a fantasy pitcher’s day, but instead a big amount of baserunners. 

There’s some high-scoring offenses near the top of the list, but also some teams we haven’t come across yet. That’s basically saying those teams struggle to push across runs, but have plenty of opportunities to do so, which makes them average matchups for fantasy pitchers.

The Dodgers lead the league with a .337 mark, while the Yankees (.331) and Phillies (.330) sit in second and third, respectively.

The Milwaukee Brewers (.329) and San Diego Padres (.325) are the next two leading teams in OBP and are teams with quite a few less runs scored than some of the other powerhouse offenses.

Teams that Avoid Strikeouts/Draw Walks

Another way a fantasy pitcher can accumulate fantasy points is by striking batters out. There’s some offenses that simply don’t strikeout a lot, so even though they might not score a ton of runs, they aren’t a fantastic fantasy matchup.

There’s also teams out there that might not have a ton of hits, but get on base plenty of times with walks. Patient teams can mean shorter starts for SP, which diminishes some of their streaming value.

Let’s get into the teams with the least amount of strikeouts and most walks.

The Houston Astros only have 487 strikeouts for the season, which is 14 better than the second-place Toronto Blue Jays (501). For reference, the Seattle Mariners lead the league with 745 strikeouts, and are one of 15 teams at 600 or more punchouts.

The Cleveland Guardians are at 504 strikeouts for the season, while the Kansas City Royals sit at 507 punchouts. Every other team has 520 Ks or more.

The Dodgers lead the league in walks, with 286 for the season. The Yankees are at 280 walks.

The Phillies (261), Brewers (259) and Chicago Cubs (256) are the only other teams over 250 walks.

Base-Stealing Teams

Stealing bases typically doesn’t affect a pitcher’s fantasy numbers, but having bases stolen against them can lead to more runs going on the scoreboard for the opponent.

The Cincinnati Reds lead the league with 105 stolen bases, while the Brewers are second at 103 SBs. The Washington Nationals are the only other team over 80 stolen bases, with 101 for the season.