Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitchers to Pickup for August 17 starts

There’s not much time left in the fantasy baseball regular season. It’s time to watch every category closely and make sure you make the moves necessary to get the numbers you need. If the numbers you are in search of include starting pitcher categories, here’s four players to consider picking up for a spot start who are scheduled to pitch Friday.

Pickups to Ponder

Zach McAllister – Cle: (2.9% owned in ESPN leagues) McAllister and the Tribe visit the A’s out West who have cooled down considerably after a scorching July. He’ll be opposed by Tommy  Millone who has struggled his last several outings. McAllister has allowed three earned runs or less in 11 of his 13 starts this year and nine of his past 10. To show for those starts he has a 5-4 record with a 3.46 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. He’s coming off his longest outing of the year in which he held the Red Sox to two runs on three hits over eight innings. If you need a win or ERA/WHIP help, McAllister is widely available and should be in line for a quality start against the A’s.

Ross Detwiler – Was: (37.1%) Detwiler pitched sick his last outing allowing four earned runs in 4.2 innings in Arizona. Prior to that outing he has allowed two earned runs or less in four of five starts. He enters his start Friday with a 6-5 record, a 3.18 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. He hasn’t been dominating lately but can give you a solid start especially against the light-hitting Mets at home in Washington. He faced the Mets on July 17 at Nationals Park and shut them out for seven innings on five hits. Hopefully he can come close to duplicating that performance Friday night.

Wade LeBlanc – Mia: (2.0%) LeBlanc would head this list if he was in a different matchup but as it is he faces the Rockies at Coors Field which is always an adventure. In his three starts for Miami this season, he’s allowed exactly one run in each start while going 4.1, 4.0, and 7.0 innings. He has 11 strikeouts in those 15.1 innings. On the season, he has 14 total appearances and has a 1.10 WHIP and a 1.45 ERA.

Bronson Arroyo – Cin: (6.6%) Arroyo just faced the Cubs his last time out and will get them again Friday, this time at home in Cincinnati. He went eight innings in his last start getting the win to improve to 8-7 and lowering his ERA to 3.95 with a 1.23 WHIP. He’s an innings eater and a consistently solid, though seldom spectacular, starter. I would take any of the other three on this list before him, but he’s the best option if all three of them are owned and you’re in a deep-league squeez.

Past Results

Here’s who I’ve picked for the last week and how they have done: