April 1 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Streamers: Shane Baz, Casey Mize, Luis Severino, Simeon Woods Richardson and Matthew Liberatore
Five starters in action on Tuesday who have good matchups and are widely available in fantasy leagues.
Early in the season, I've been stressing that you don't have to use fantasy pitchers that you're not excited about right now. Most leagues have inning limits, so using some of those innings with below-average pitchers against lineups we don't really know yet isn't a good way to divvy up your resources.
(If your league doesn't have an innings limit, then go crazy; use these streamers daily to rack up volume and enjoy the spoils at the end of the season.)
You'll see below that most guys are rated as low- and/or mid-level streamers, and that's a level low enough to pass on those players unless you really feel like they can excel. Let's look at five starters in action on Tuesday who have good matchups and are widely available in fantasy leagues.
Most stats below are from MLB.com, as are the probable pitchers.
Shane Baz, Tampa Bay Rays vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
Baz has been right at league average limiting walks and better than average at striking guys out. The problem is that he hasn't been on the field much, logging just 119.2 innings since debuting in 2021. That included Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss all of 2023. Baz is a major upside play who is tough to trust long term.
Pittsburgh is the team to test, though. They were firmly within the bottom 10 offensive teams last season, and they entered 2025 with much of the same outlook. The Pirates seem ready to undermine a high-upside pitching staff with a futile offense.
Baz is a mid- to high-level streamer. There's a big ceiling here, though a short start wouldn't be a surprise.
Matthew Liberatore, St. Louis Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Angels
Liberatore has worked mostly as a reliever in 91 appearances, starting just 24 games and racking up 182.1 innings. He has mostly been worse than average with both walks and strikeouts, though 2024 was his best season. Guys usually strike out less batters when starting rather than relieving, so Liberatore might fall to a perilously low K rate if he follows that pattern.
The Angels seriously lack impact hitters. Mike Trout is a superstar when healthy (which he is so far), and Jorge Soler can mash at times, but the team is otherwise sporting young guys who need to improve (like first baseman Nolan Schanuel) or players who haven't ever shown that they can sustain a high level offensively (like third baseman Yoan Moncada).
Liberatore is a low-level streamer. The matchup is right, but his rates don't portend good things. You can find a better use for your innings early in the season.
Casey Mize, Detroit Tigers @ Seattle Mariners
Like Baz, Mize missed all of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery. Mize does well limiting walks, but he's well below average with strikeouts. Mize's results have been uneven, as 2021 was his only season with an ERA under 4.00.
Seattle is one of our prime targets early in the season, particularly because of how much they strike out. That could help raise Mize's floor and ceiling, as could Seattle's bottom-10 performance in most categories last season. Like Pittsburgh, Seattle has a great pitching staff but aims to waste it with a folly of an offense.
Mize is a mid-level streamer. The matchup gives him a nice outlook, but there's also a bit of a cap on his ceiling with the lack of strikeouts.
Luis Severino, Athletics vs. Chicago Cubs
The Cubs aren't a target team based on 2024, but they have been very giving to opposing pitchers early this year. They played two extra games in Japan, but the only team within 10 batter strikeouts of the Cubs are the Boston Red Sox, who are getting an elite K run from Rafael Devers to start the season. Chicago has scored four or fewer runs in four of seven games.
This is a little scary based on Monday's performance, when the Cubs put up 16 runs in the first six innings. Over the season, though, Chicago has been a little vulnerable, and they face a tougher pitcher in Severino in this one. The veteran hurler is available in more than half of fantasy leagues and sports a high-level strikeout rate and better-than-average walk rate in his career.
The matchup isn't great here, but on a day that's a little short on options, we'll include Severino as a low- to mid-level streamer. His strikeout work combined with Chicago's high K numbers could lead to a big day in that area for Severino.
Simeon Woods Richardson, Minnesota Twins @ Chicago White Sox
Woods Richardson became a regular in this column last season, making 11 of his 28 starts against teams that ended up on our early-season target list. He was very average as a rookie, coming in right around the middle in walk rate, strikeout rate, and ERA (a hair worse than average in each category). That's not bad for a guy who played most of the season at 23 years old.
He gets another matchup with those White Sox in his first start of 2025. It's likely that Chicago will again end up as one of the worst teams, but they have won two of their first four, scoring eight and nine runs in those games. Yesterday, I had Minnesota starter Chris Paddack here as a mid-level guy: he gave up nine runs and three homers in just 3.1 innings.
We're going back to the well, though, and trusting the broader numbers. Woods Richardson is a low- to mid-level streamer who has a decent chance to outplay that label. The matchup is too good to fully count him out, even considering Monday's onslaught.
Tuesday's Streamer Rankings
- Shane Baz, TB
- Casey Mize, DET
- Luis Severino, Athletics
- Simeon Woods Richardson, MIN
- Matthew Liberatore, STL
