September 21 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Martin Perez, Rhett Lowder, Max Scherzer, Walker Buehler and Yariel Rodriguez

One week from tomorrow is the last day of the Major League season. There are still five playoff spots realistically up for grabs, with the Yankees, Orioles, Astros, Guardians, Phillies, Brewers and Dodgers either already in the playoffs or soon to clinch. There is sure to be plenty of tension over the next week-plus, with every inning, at-bat and pitch able to swing the playoff race.

Let’s look at Saturday’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.

Walker Buehler, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Colorado Rockies

With the Rockies away from Coors Field, they once again join our list of teams to target. They have continued playing like a bottom-10 offense away from home, but where things have really picked up is with Colorado’s strikeouts. They won’t catch the Mariners at the top (we’ll get to them), but the Rockies will likely finish second in most batter strikeouts. Teams can make up for that with elite power, but Colorado is middling in that area despite playing half their games a mile above sea level.

In Beuhler’s return season from missing a year with Tommy John surgery, he has predictably fallen short of his Cy Young-level heights. He was regularly better than average with both strikeouts and walks during his career, but Buehler is holding a walk rate a little too high and a K rate several percentage points lower than average. He’s a middling pitcher right now.

Buehler is a low- to mid-level streamer. The matchup is right, but he’s still working off a lot of rust and might not ever reach his previous level.

Rhett Lowder, Cincinnati Reds vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

The seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft, Lowder made short work of the minor leagues and debuted on August 30. There has been good and bad in his short stint, as he’s struck out an average number of batters but has walked too many as well. Lowder has ace upside, but it will probably be a few years before he reaches that level.

The Pirates are the Pirates. Even as they’ve improved later in the season, Pittsburgh is still a bottom-10 offense who doesn’t hit for power and strikes out a lot. Pirate hitters are in the top five in most strikeouts and a little below average with walks.

Lowder is a mid-level streamer. He has the strikeout upside for a big game, but it’s important to temper expectations a little on a guy with around 20 big-league innings.

Martin Perez, San Diego Padres vs. Chicago White Sox

Perez moved from Pittsburgh to San Diego at the trade deadline and has pitched noticeably better with his new team. Perez has improved both his strikeout rate and walk rate to average-or-better levels in southern California and holds an ERA under 3.00 with the team. On the season, Perez is average with walks and below-average with strikeouts.

The White Sox are the worst team in the league. They’re on the list of worst teams ever. The pitching is bad, and the offense is even worse. Every pitcher in the league has fantasy value against this facsimile of a baseball team.

Perez is a mid- to high-level streamer. The matchup is pristine, and his improved work with the Padres gives him a little higher ceiling.

Yariel Rodriguez, Toronto Blue Jays @ Tampa Bay Rays

Rodriguez is in his first season and has thrown less than 80 innings. He holds both a strikeout rate and walk rate several points higher than average, showing really good K work but a lack of control as well. In a July 24 start against the Rays, Rodriguez threw 5.2 innings and allowed two runs with six strikeouts and just one walk.

Tampa still has an outside shot at a wild card, though that is an unlikely outcome with less than 10 games remaining and four teams still to overtake. That’s a testament to the depth of talent after the team traded off more big-league talent than anyone else at the deadline after an inconsistent first half. The offense is still a bottom-10 group across the board.

Rodriguez is a mid-level streamer with upside. The matchup is good, and he has been strong at times; Rodriguez’s strikeout work gives him the extra bump.

Max Scherzer, Texas Rangers vs. Seattle Mariners

I mentioned Seattle and their strikeout problems above. The team averages more than 10 batter strikeouts per game, the only team in the league over that mark. They are nearly guaranteed to finish with the most Ks, even with more than a week remaining. It’s been a season-long issue that has helped sink the offense and the team as the pitching staff excels.

Scherzer missed the first two-and-a-half months of the season on the IL, then he returned to the land of the injured after just eight starts, missing another month-plus. His first start back was last Saturday against these same Mariners, when Scherzer threw four innings with two runs allowed, two strikeouts and two walks.

Scherzer is a low- to mid-level streamer. He’s probably in line for another short start, but the upside is there to dream of big things; just don’t count on a star performance in this one.

Saturday’s Streamer Rankings

1. Martin Perez, SD
2. Rhett Lowder, CIN
3. Yariel Rodriguez, TOR
4. Max Scherzer, TEX
5. Walker Buehler, LAD