August 25 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Robbie Ray, Marcus Stroman, Javier Assad and More

Two weeks from today is the first NFL Sunday. I get it that this is a column about fantasy baseball, but there’s no denying that the NFL rules the sporting world, and this is the time of highest anticipation as the preseason ends, and we start thinking about real games.

Opening Day in baseball is also a big deal, but it’s the first game of 162; we’re about to get to Week 1 of 18 in a more limited season. It’s hard to keep up with the summer baseball drag, of course, but even now, closing in on a month left in the season, there’s still SO much to go. Each team will play another 20 games before we really know where they will be heading into the final stretch of the season.

Continuing through, let’s look at Sunday’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. The full streamer rankings are listed at the bottom.

Javier Assad, Chicago Cubs @ Miami Marlins

Assad showed up on the streaming list pretty often earlier in the season, but the matchups just haven’t gone his way as much the last few months. Assad has continued to throw well, holding an ERA just over 3.00. His walk rate and strikeout rate are both just a hair worse than average, but Assad has had a successful season.

Miami is the team to find if you want to make the streamer list. The Marlins are regularly at the bottom of the league across most offensive stats, including bottom-five rankings in runs scored, doubles and home runs. There’s just not a lot of big-league talent on this roster.

Assad is a mid-level streamer. This is another instance of a good pitcher with a good matchup, the essence of streaming.

Frankie Montas, Milwaukee Brewers @ Oakland Athletics

Montas has split his season between two teams in the NL Central, starting out with the Reds until the trade deadline, when he got a free ticket to the top of the division on a Brewers team 10 games up on their closest competitor. Montas allowed six runs in nine innings over his first two starts in Milwaukee but has combined for no earned runs (three unearned) in 12 innings over his two most recent outings.

I talked yesterday about how Oakland’s strikeout rate has been going down for the last month and their power has gone with it. Baseball’s “three true outcomes,” strikeouts, walks and home runs, have become increasingly more frequent in recent years. Swinging hard and either hitting the ball a long way or missing is a popular strategy, pushing many of the contact hitters to the fringes of the league unless they are elite. With Oakland’s recent shift in numbers, maybe they are embracing more contact and less all-or-nothing.

Montas is a mid-level streamer. This is another instance of a decent pitcher with a good matchup; not much else to say.

Robbie Ray, San Francisco Giants @ Seattle Mariners

Speaking of strikeout teams, we get to the Mariners. Seattle batters have led the league in most strikeouts the whole season and distanced themselves from all other teams as we close in on the last month. That’s a big part of the offense’s struggles, but they also underwhelm when they make contact, sitting in the bottom five in runs scored and all four slash categories.

Ray has thrown less than 30 innings after getting a really late start to the season, showing great strikeout work (39!) but walking too many also. Ray has ace-level work in his past, and while it’s hard to expect that this year with so many anomalies in his 2024, there is upside, especially against weak offensive opponents.

Ray is a high-level streamer. His strikeout work combined with Seattle’s swing-and-miss ways gives him a great ceiling, and Seattle hasn’t hit well enough to scare anyone.

Gavin Stone, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Stone has both a walk rate and strikeout rate several percentage points lower than average, showing good control that has helped him in limiting runs. Stone also owns really good superficial numbers, holding an 11-5 record and 3.15 ERA. Stone is coming off a start against the Mariners in which he gave up no runs in seven innings with two walks and 10 strikeouts.

Tampa is in the bottom five in runs scored, hits, home runs, batting average, slugging percentage and OPS. I was hesitant to target the Rays when they struggled to start the season, assuming they would straighten things out as they have in the recent past. It’s been a down year for the team, though, and that has continued all season.

Stone is a mid-level streamer. He’s thrown well in his first full season, and the Rays present a good matchup, especially as their batters have struck out the seventh most of any team.

Marcus Stroman, New York Yankees vs. Colorado Rockies

In games away from home, the Rockies are in the bottom 10 in essentially every offensive category. It’s something I talk about often, but I was thinking more about Colorado’s strikeout habits. They strike out a lot everywhere, but the Rockies K 10.3 times per game away from Coors Field (9.2 at home).

Breaking pitches move less at Coors Field than at lower elevations, so pitchers who are visiting Colorado will see their pitches act differently without much time to adjust. When Rockies hitters bat on the road, they are seeing breaking pitches move much more than they do both in home games and practices, so it’s more than just how the ball reacts after it hits the bat.

Stroman was listed here before his start against the Tigers last Sunday and came through with six scoreless innings, striking out five and walking two. He allowed just one run in five innings in his previous start, but he had given up 15 runs in 11.1 innings in the three outings before that. Stroman’s strikeout rate is well below average this season.

Stroman is a mid-level streamer. Improved strikeout numbers would give him a better ceiling, but the matchup is right for a good day.

Sunday’s Streamer Rankings

1. Robbie Ray, SF
2. Marcus Stroman, NYY
3. Javier Assad, CHC
4. Gavin Stone, LAD
5. Frankie Montas, MIL