Some of his stats may not show it, but Jake Westbrook is fools gold.
Photo courtesy of Keith Allison.
I am an advocate of streaming and I do so in any and all types of leagues. Roto, head to head, ones with innings cap and especially innings minimums.
Streaming is part of fantasy baseball whether people like it or not, and it’s also more strategy than people will ever give it credit for. Sure, anyone can get lucky here and there adding pitchers for spot starts throughout the season, but to be a master at streaming you need to have some guiding principles in place.
Some might compare streaming to a real time (or hack and slash) RPG game. You just go out and throw everything you’ve got at your opponent(s).
Well in my opinion, streaming is much more like a turn based RPG. Pick the right action, or pitcher in this case, and you are more likely to succeed. It is not about being the first to the waiver wire or free agent pool to get the highest rated or hottest player available. It takes a bit of studying and mapping out.
I am going to address a few different league types as well as give you my basics of streaming guidelines. Here we go!
HEAD TO HEAD
- Daily transaction leagues
Whether your league employs a weekly transaction limit (I suggest 7) or not, you should always take your time and play your week out, instead of going through the motions.
Say you get to Thursday and are up in all pitching categories but ERA and WHIP are close. You do not want to stream in a pitcher for the sake of padding a lead in Ks and wins and then get a poor start taking you out of the lead in ERA and WHIP. Take a look at the rest of the pitchers he has going and see if he is a true threat.
Also, try to figure out if he will stream against you or not. If he has not streamed in any matches all season and has only two mediocre pitchers going over the weekend, they you may have pitching locked up and there is no need for you to risk taking a terrible outing from a FA pitcher.
- Weekly transaction leagues
These ones you need to be much more sure of your weekly plan. Try to find a pitcher who is going twice that week, with favorable matchups, and roll him out there. Dixon usually tries to highlight good two-outing guys in his weekly Dixon’s picks.
It’s also wise to look at your opponent’s probable starters for the week to see if he has 2-3 more starts than you. You will need to at least match him to have a chance to tie or win counted categories such as wins, or quality starts if your league uses those.
For both types of head to head leagues, you need to have at least one bench hitter that plays multiple positions. This will help you gain as many at bats as possible each week.
ROTO
- No innings cap
This can be much more like a hack and slash type RPG, as people have no reason to not throw out as many pitchers as possible to gain ground. I (as I think most Crackerjacks) suggest an innings cap. However if your league does not have one, use that to your advantage.
I like to have a good set of 4-5 starters that I will basically start every time out, and I like to use middle relief guys as much as possible. I also leave one roster spot for streaming pitchers in and aim to use one free agent pitcher a day.
- Innings cap:
I will usually do my best to keep a good distance, but sacrifice falling behind early, to have more innings available down the stretch. It is very important to know your pace for the year, and most sites will make that known on your team home page.
However, it is of utmost importance to not have 40-50 innings left over at the end of the year. They are useless then and if you lose and hold on to them, you will hate yourself for it. Okay, maybe hate is a strong word, but you get the point.
Now for my streaming guidelines
- I like a pitcher who is pitching at home. Across the board, pitchers and hitters produce better in the confines of their home park. If there’s an exception to this, it’s pitchers at Coors Field.
- When the pitcher is hurling against a bottom half team, or a lesser hitting team. Teams that are especially futile this season are the Twins, the Marlins, Cubs (especially when Starlin Castro is struggling), and the Brewers (sans Ryan Braun). There are of course almost always the Mets and Mariners in that mix, but fear healthy David Wright and Michael Morse.
- You want to know the pitcher you are getting. Maybe the name is newer to you, but don’t go blindly by a lower ERA or higher player rater ranking. Make sure to have looked at the recent games pitched and check for any red flags or problem areas. Those include, bad BB:K ratios, high WHIP or if the pitcher has been pitching against a lot of poor teams. Good BB:K ratio is 1:2.Let’s look at Jake Westbrook right now. He is basically 1:1. Despite that, his ERA is solid and he keeps getting wins so his player rating is pretty good. I like guys operating below 1.25 WHIP — Westbrook is at 1.46.This means there are plenty of guys on base, and he is allowing guys to hit the ball.He needs to get his BB:K ratio in order and lower his WHIP or ERA is sure to catch up to his subpar numbers. which he is on his way to. Before his last two starts vs. Oakland and Houston (another perpetually bad team) he faced the the Cubs twice, Milwaukee and Miami, all team i have mentioned as weak squads. I fear (as a Westbrook owner) the clock is about to hit midnight on Jake and he is going to start throw pumpkin size strikes to good hitters. Just look at his earned runs against Oakland, 6 in 4 innings, and 4 in 6 innings against Houston.
By my standards Westbrook is fools gold on your waiver wire, so steer clear and go towards guys like Stephen Fife, Andrew Cashner and maybe still Tyler Chatwood, all guys I mentioned in a recent Ask Nash.