Fantasy Baseball: Waiver Wire Starting Pitcher Pickups-August 14, 2014
Thursday a lighter day on the Major League Baseball schedule with just ten games on tap as ten teams travel and get ready for their upcoming weekend series. If you’re looking for fantasy baseball help for your starting rotation, though, there are some pretty decent options who are widely available.
This month my daily starting pitching pickups (archive and new posts show up here) have been doing extremely well. All my options are always available in at least half of ESPN leagues the day before they pitch, and I select based on form, fitness, and matchup. Through Tuesday’s games, my August selections are 20-7 with a 3.01 ERA, a 1.17 WHIP, and a 7.65 K/9 rate in almost 250 innings. Normally my numbers aren’t quite that good, but I’ll do my best to avoid the dreaded “regression” with these picks for Thursday:
8.8% owned. @ Miami Marlins. Chase Anderson. 1. player. 8. Anderson has been on a roll allowing a total of six runs in his last five outings each of which has been good enough to be considered a quality start. He’s improved to 7-4 on the season with a 3.06 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. He started his recent run with a nice outing against the Marlins who he’ll face again on Thursday this time in Miami. Marlins Park is pretty pitching friendly, so I expect another good outing for Anderson even though counting on the D-Backs lineup to get him a win is a little iffy.
Fiers has only made one MLB start this season, but it was impressive enough to deserve fantasy owners attention in a favorable matchup against the Cubs. He held the Dodgers to one run on just three hits in eight innings last week while striking out five and walking just one. He was a fantasy factor in 2012 before a disastrous 2013, but he’s been good in Triple-A this season and could prove to be a nice pickup coming down the stretch if he can rediscover his 2012 form.. 0.6% owned. @ Chicago Cubs. Mike Fiers. 2. player. 76
player. 3. Gee is a more proven commodity than Anderson or Fiers, and he looks like he’s returning to form after a few rough starts. In his last two outings, he’s allowed just three earned runs in 12.2 innings on eight hits while striking out 10. He had three rough starts in a row at the end of July as he worked his way back to fantasy-relevant form after a trip to the DL. Gee doesn’t have quite as high a ceiling as the first top options, but he’s a more well-established option and usually turns in good starts at home in Citi Field.. 16.4% owned. vs Washington Nationals. Dillon Gee. 3