Weekend series get started this Friday across the Major Leagues with all 30 teams in action. 28 play an interleague foe, while the Cubs and Diamondbacks are the NL-only matchup for the coming weekend. If your fantasy baseball week has not gone well, there’s still time to save it with some solid starting pitching pickups. Looking ahead to Friday’s matchups, these are the four starters who I’d check out who are owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues (ownership in parentheses).
One starter not on this list worth noting is Roy Oswalt who makes his first start of the year for the Rangers. I want to wait and see how he fares after a rough rehab stint before I add him, but just be aware of his return.
The Picks
Homer Bailey – Cin: (7.8%) The Reds send Bailey to the mound against the Twins as they face Nick Blackburn (3-4, 7.48 ERA). Bailey has been a touch inconsistent this year but is coming off back-to-back solid outings. He shut down the Mets allowing just a run in eight innings his last time out as he picked up his 5th win of the season while lowering his ERA to 4.03 and his WHIP to 1.29. The Twins offense is in the bottom third of the league in scoring (22) while the Reds were playing well before taking a sweep at the hand of their in-state rivals, the Indians. Bailey looks to get things turned back around as the Reds return home and face the Twins.
Jarrod Parker – Oak: (24.1%) The A’s rookie gets extra rest before facing the Giants Friday. Parker has allowed no runs in three of his last four starts and one run in four of five. He was knocked around by his former team the D-Backs two starts ago, but bounced back shutting out the Rockies in Colorado while striking out six. He’s 3-3 on the year with a 2.82 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP.
Vin Mazzaro -KC: (0.2%) Mazzaro was flipped with Bruce Chen so that Chen avoided the Cardinals which are now Mazzaro’s task on Friday. Last time out, Mazzaro limited the Cards to a walk and five hits in six shutout innings in St. Louis. He’ll face them again this time in KC on Friday. He enters his matchup with Cardinals rookie Joe Kelly with a 3-1 record and a 2.57 ERA. He has 13 strikeouts in 21 innings in his first four starts and hopefully can show he’s past the calf tightness which forced him to leave his last start.
Kevin Millwood – Sea: (3.2%) Millwood has allowed only nine runs in his last six starts over 35 innings. Overall on the year, he’s been a valuable find for Seattle with a 3-5 record and a 3.69 ERA. He and the M’s will visit San Diego and Petco Park which is always a good place to start looking for spot starters.
The Payoff
Here’s the results of our picks since Sunday:
| Starter | Date | IP | ER | K | H | BB | W | L | ||
| Daisuke Matsuzaka | 21-Jun | |||||||||
| Travis Blackley | 21-Jun | |||||||||
| Jacob Turner | 21-Jun | |||||||||
| Francisco Liriano | 20-Jun | 6 2/3 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Philip Hughes | 20-Jun | 4 1/3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Nate Eovaldi | 20-Jun | 6 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Aaron Harang | 19-Jun | 3 2/3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Scott Diamond | 19-Jun | 5 1/3 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Mike Leake | 19-Jun | 7 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Derek Lowe | 18-Jun | 5 | 7 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Hector Noesi | 18-Jun | 6 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Jake Arrieta | 18-Jun | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Garrett Richards | 17-Jun | 8 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Jose Quintana | 17-Jun | 8 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Franklin Morales | 17-Jun | 5 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| ERA | WHIP | |||||||||
| Totals: | 72 | 36 | 56 | 73 | 24 | 1 | 6 | 4.50 | 1.35 |