Fantasy Baseball: Waiver Wire Starting Pitcher Pickups-May 27, 2014

Unlike every team in Major League Baseball, the Monday of Memorial Day is a travel day for me, so I’m going to have to keep my Tuesday starting pitcher pickups brief and to the point. Normally, I give a more comprehensive analysis of the matchup and the pitchers’ current form, but today I’ll just give you the bullets of the pitchers to target for your Tuesday pickups.

I should be able to return to my normal format-which you can see in my archive here where you can also set a bookmark for the daily updates.  Normally, I also include a chart with my recent results, but that will return tomorrow as well.  As always, all of my choices are available in at least half of ESPN leagues, and their ownership percentage is included in parentheses.

Here’s a quick look ahead to Tuesday:

Phil Hughes-Minnesota Twins (34.9%)

Hughes has been great for the Twins since a three-start rough patch to open the season. Since then,  Hughes has turned in six straight quality starts.  In his last three outings he’s been even better allowing a total of one run while going 20 innings striking out 18 and walking none. In fact, he hasn’t given out a single free pass since April 20 when he started against the Royals. His last start was against the light-hitting Padres, and he’ll face a much tougher task on Tuesday when he faces the Rangers. Despite that, he’s still the best widely available pickup who is scheduled to take the mound Tuesday.

Jonathon Niese-New York Mets (28.0%)

Niese has allowed exactly three runs in each of his last three starts going 1-1 after picking up a win against the Dodgers in his last start.  He’ll face the Pirates in pitcher-friendly Citi Field as he takes on Edinson Volquez who has struggled lately making him a nice, solid pickup for his two-start week.

Collin McHugh-Houston Astros (9.0%)

McHugh is a good source of strikeouts with seven or more in four of his six starts this season including his last two.  He did have a couple of tough outings early in May but was solid his last time out allowing just two runs on four hits in seven innings in a hard-luck loss to the Angels dropping him to 2-3.

Jake Arrieta-Chicago Cubs (0.5%)

Arrieta is a long shot pickup but he’s looked solid in his first four starts of the season after starting the season late due to a spring injury.  He allowed just one run in his last start beating the Padres for his first win of the season and lowering his ERA to 2.33.  He’ll face the Giants in San Francisco as he looks to outduel Tim Hudson.