Spot Starter Options for Saturday, June 9-Fantasy Baseball

Heading into the weekend, many fantasy baseball teams are in need of a boost in pitching categories. If you find yourself in need of wins, K’s, WHIP, or ERA and you have the roster flexibility to make a move, there’s some good options available amongst Saturday’s scheduled starters. Here’s my three picks and how my picks have done for the past week.

The Picks

Jarrod Parker-Oak: (17.0% owned in ESPN leagues) Even before he took a no-hitter into the seventh against the Rangers, Parker was on a serious role in his previous starts. He has given up just one run in his last three starts spanning 21.0 innings. In his eight starts for Oakland he’s allowed more than two earned runs in just one. He enters his start Saturday with a 2.40 ERA, a 1.21 WHIP, and a .205 BAA. He’ll go against the player he was traded for as Oakland visits Arizona an faces Trevor Cahill who enters the game 3-5 with a 3.45 ERA. As long as Parker doesn’t get too amped up for the game and overthrow his pitches, he should be in line for another solid start as he looks to continue his recent roll.

Scott Diamond-Min: (19.8%) A regular here in the spot starter selections, Diamond has pitched well in his first six games allowing no earned runs in three starts and only three at the most in any of them. He has a 4-1 record to show for it with a 1.86 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. Perhaps the most remarkable stat so far for Diamond is his 23 strikeouts in 38.2 innings while only issuing four walks. His mastery of his control makes him a good option as the Twins host the Cubs. in the second game of their weekend set.

Jason Vargas-Sea: (46.0%) Vargas is 7-4 on the year and starts in Safeco Field against the Dodgers on Saturday night. He gives up some home runs but the Dodgers offense is lacking some punch with Matt Kemp still sidelined. He probably won’t give you a complete game shutout, but is a safe option to go innings and not kill your WHIP and ERA while giving his team a chance to win even against Clayton Kershaw who goes for LA.

Daisuke Matsuzaka-Bos: (0.8%) The ultimate gamblers pick is Matsuzaka who returns to the Majors for his first start since Tommy John surgery Saturday against the Nationals. He’s an extremely risky start since there’s no guarantee what you’ll get, but the upside of a Dice-K add is that he could easily stick in the Sox rotation and have a solid rest of the year if he can pitch like he did in 2008 for the BoSox.

The Payoff

Here’s how my picks have produced over the past week. There’s been a few rough outings so hopefully today’s picks will move things back in the right direction.