Starting Pitcher Options for Saturday July 7- Fantasy Baseball
In the midst of all the NBA player movement and All-Star buildup, don’t forget about your fantasy baseball team. If you’ve had a rough pitching week, there’s still time to bounce back and finish strong. There’s three solid pickup options who are scheduled to start on Saturday who are owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues. Check our results out from the month so far at the bottom of the post.
The Pickups
Homer Bailey – Cin: (7.0%) Bailey went eight innings his last start to get his sixth win of the season allowing just two runs and five hits to the Dodgers in LA. On Saturday, he gets to pitch in the pitchers’ haven that is Petco Park in San Diego. He’ll face off with Clayton Richard who also makes a good pickup, but I’ll go with Bailey since he has the far superior lineup behind him.
Jeff Samardzija – ChC: (23.9%) If you slept through June, you’d be shocked that Samardzija is on this list. He was a hot pickup and almost universally owned after May, but June was definitely a nightmare for the former Notre Dame footballer. He looked solid in his first non-June start though last Monday going seven strong against Atlanta striking out 11 while allowing just one run on four hits. It’s risky to grab him right away, but it’s worth taking if you need help in your rotation even more long-term than just this one start. He’ll face the Mets on Saturday in Citi Field at 4:10. The Mets have been good at home this season, but have had offensive challenges at times. In his last June start, Samardzija allowed nine runs to the Mets in Chicago, but I think he’ll bounce back and have a solid start Saturday.
Derek Holland – Tex: (24.4%) One of the heroes of last year’s playoff run for Texas, Holland had a rough start to the season going 5-4 with a 5.10 ERA in his first 11 starts. He went on the DL early in June and will return to start against Minnesota on Saturday. He’ll go against Samuel Deduno for the Twins making his first start in his Major League career. With the Rangers lineup behind him and facing the Twins, Holland is a good pickup both short-term and long-term if he can rediscover the form he had at the end of last year.
The Payoff
We’ve had some good starts this week if you look back at our picks. Here’s our overall results:
| Starter | Date | IP | ER | K | H | BB | W | L | ||
| Travis Wood | 6-Jul | |||||||||
| Tommy Milone | 6-Jul | |||||||||
| Josh Collmenter | 6-Jul | |||||||||
| Jeff Karstens | 5-Jul | 8 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Garrett Richards | 5-Jul | 4 1/3 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Michael Fiers | 5-Jul | 7 1/3 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Henderson Alvarez | 5-Jul | 5 1/3 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Mike Leake | 4-Jul | 7 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Chris Young | 4-Jul | 7 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Jonathon Niese | 3-Jul | 8 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Jair Jurrjens | 3-Jul | 5 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Lucas Harrell | 3-Jul | 5 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Adrew Cashner | 3-Jul | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Joe Kelly | 3-Jul | 6 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Clayton Richard | 2-Jul | 8 2/3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Daisuke Matsuzaka | 2-Jul | 1 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Homer Bailey | 2-Jul | 8 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Travis Wood | 1-Jul | 7 2/3 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Francisco Liriano | 1-Jul | 5 1/3 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Felix Doubront | 1-Jul | 4 1/3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Joe Blanton | 1-Jul | 6 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | ||
| ERA | WHIP | |||||||||
| Totals: | 106 | 44 | 84 | 101 | 27 | 6 | 7 | 3.74 | 1.21 |