September 20 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Jameson Taillon, Nick Martinez, Ben Lively and More

Welcome to the penultimate weekend of the MLB season. The next 10-ish games will determine who makes the playoffs and who will be going home. Wild card spots are still available in both leagues, and the races will likely go through next weekend’s final series.

Let’s run through Friday’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.

Tyler Alexander, Tampa Bay Rays vs. Toronto Blue Jays

Toronto isn’t currently a team to target every day, but we are light on options again, so a few teams today will be ones who have improved recently after bad starts. Some thought the Jays should have torn it down at the trade deadline and sent out guys like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. but they held on with the intention of contending next season, and it has paid off over the second half of 2023.

Alexander has worked mostly as a reliever in his career while making a handful of starts each season. He’s really good with walks but has been a below-average strikeout pitcher most of his career. Anderson has pitched against Toronto three times, combining for 15.1 innings, eight runs allowed, 12 strikeouts and two walks.

Alexander is a low-level streamer. He has a ceiling, and the matchup is low-end, making Alexander more of a desperation option.

Ben Lively, Cleveland Guardians @ St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals have bounced between being on and off the target list, never wavering too far from the line. They currently rank in the bottom 10 in power categories more than contact, seeing the bottom third in runs scored, home runs, slugging percentage and OPS.

Lively is another guy who has been better than average with walks but is several percentage points worse than average with strikeouts. He’s one of the more solid pitchers on the likely AL Central champions, as Lively is having the best year of his career in his first season in Cleveland.

Lively is a low- to mid-level streamer. He has done well, but the matchup isn’t great the way some others are.

Nick Martinez, Cincinnati Reds vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

Martinez has worked mostly as a reliever this season, starting 14 games out of 40 appearances. His strikeout work is a little below average, but Martinez has been phenomenal with walks, holding a BB rate less than half the league average. In two short appearances against Pittsburgh this season, Martinez combined for 3.2 innings, three runs allowed (two earned), two strikeouts and no walks.

I’m running out of things to say about some of these teams at this point in the season. The Pirates (like the Marlins, White Sox and others) are a team that we’ve been targeting all season, meaning I’ve been writing about their offensive deficiencies for six months. In favor of Pittsburgh’s chances, they have improved in the second half of the season, though they are still below average.

Martinez is a low- to mid-level streamer. He’s been fine, and the matchup is good; just another case of the “streaming” ideal.

Jameson Taillon, Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals

The Nationals were targets for most of the season but have played well enough since the All-Star break to be held in higher regard. They’re no better than a league-average offense, and they don’t hit home runs, but Washington is far from the moribund lineup they started as this year. There is enough young talent here that Washington could start competing for the playoffs as early as next year.

Taillon has always been good with walks, but he was previously an above-average strikeout pitcher as well. He has dropped to a rate a little below average in 2024, though it’s only a few percentage points, not a drastic fall. Taillon has still been a better-than-average pitcher this season.

Taillon is a low- to mid-level streamer. His drop in strikeout rate lowers his ceiling a bit, and the matchup is middling at best.

Trevor Williams, Washington Nationals @ Chicago Cubs

Like their opponents, the Cubs have played their way off the “target” list. They have been even better, playing like a top-10 offense over the past month. They are listed here today only because it’s a tough day for streamers and because Williams looked like an ace before suffering an injury at the end of May.

Williams missed over three months with an elbow injury, last appearing in a game on May 30. He was pitching really well before that: In 11 starts, he lasted less than five innings just once, allowed more than one run only three times and never allowed more than three runs. He was average or a little better in both strikeouts and walks.

Williams is a low-level streamer. The matchup isn’t great, and it’s hard to know what to expect after such a long stretch off. Williams is in danger of a short start.

Friday’s Streamer Rankings

1. Jameson Taillon, CHC
2. Nick Martinez, CIN
3. Ben Lively, CLE
4. Trevor Williams, WSH
5. Tyler Alexander, TB