Starting Pitchers to Add for July 2-Spot Starter Selections

There’s 12 games on the Major League schedule for Monday, and there’s some great pickup options if you need help to start your fantasy baseball week off right. All of these starters line up for two-start weeks so it’s a good time to pick them up and hold for start #2 if they perform well Monday.

Here’s our top three picks for today and our results for the past week:

The Pickup Possibilities

Clayton Richard – SD: (owned in 9.5% of ESPN leagues) Monday looks to be a solid matchup for the Padres righty on the road in Arizona against the D-Backs and Trevor Cahill who has had his struggles at his home park at Chase Field (2-3, 5.25 ERA). Richard has been pitching well as of late allowing one earned run or fewer in four of his last six starts. He doesn’t get much run support leading to his 5-8 record despite a solid 1.22 WHIP and 3.77 ERA. Last time out he allowed just two hits and a run in seven innings but took the loss as the Padres fell 1-0. On June 1, he faced the D-backs and allowed just one run in 6.2 innings while getting a no-decision. Even if he again gets no run support he can help your WHIP and ERA get off to a good start for the week.

Daisuke Matsuzaka – Bos: (2.2%) In his best start of the year, Daisuke held the Blue Jays to a run on six hits in 5.2 innings while striking out five and walking just one. He’ll face the A’s in Oakland as he continues to work his way back from Tommy John surgery. He faces a tough match-up with Jarrod Parker who has been pitching well, but Matsuzaka has gotten progressively better with each start and gets to face  the A’s offense which ranks 30th in batting average, 26th in runs, 27th in OBP, and 29th in slugging going into Sunday’s action.

Homer Bailey – Cin: (5.3%) Even though he’s struggled his last two starts, I like Bailey in this one as he faces the Dodgers in LA. The Dodgers offense has been struggling mightily as of late scoring just six runs in their last eight games coming into Sunday Night baseball. Bailey on the year has been up and down with a 5-6 record and a 4.42 ERA. Before his last two starts where he allowed four runs in each game, He has an eight-inning one run performance against the Mets and a nice start against the Tigers. Hopefully, Bailey can bounce back against the Dodgers and line himself up for a good finish to the first half in San Diego on Saturday which appears to be another very favorable matchup.

The Payoff

Here’s the results from our picks for the past week: (archive here)