Late Season Strategy: Pairing Starting Pitchers
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
The end is near. You need some pitching help. You’re realizing that streaming is becoming more and more difficult and are desperately trying to figure out a late season strategy to give your pitching rotation a little boost.
Well, a few waiver wire pitchers point us to a pretty good one. Both have been on a hot streak, although they share a flaw that keeps them from being terribly valuable.
Pitcher Number 1: Scott Feldman — Houston Astros
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Pitcher Number 2: Jarred Cosart — Miami Marlins
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In each individual case, you might be impressed by the ERA and WHIP, but the fairly modest strikeout totals are pretty hard to ignore, and that offers a pretty good explanation as to why neither are owned in many leagues.
But here’s an interesting strategy. Why not sign them both?
Including Cosart’s scheduled start today, each pitcher has five starts remaining. If you sign them and they each average six innings per start, you’ll get 120 innings. If the two of them strike hitters out at the same rate, you’re looking at about 63 K’s. Unless you’re in a very unique league, the total K’s — not the K/9 — is what matters.
Now, how does that compare to the game’s best?
Well, Clayton Kershaw has five starts remaining. If he throws a complete game in all five of those outings at his current season pace, he’ll strike out 53 more hitters.
Pairing pitchers also helps solve another potential problem, the lack of wins. Generally, hot pitchers are still fantasy free agents for one of two reasons.
- They don’t strike many hitters out.
- They don’t win many games playing on a bad team.
I suppose their is the dreaded No. 3, both, which is in play here to some extent. But if you have two guys, you’re doubling your potential strikeouts and your chances at winning games.
I’m not necessarily vouching for either Scott Feldman or Jarred Cosart. What I am vouching for is the late season strategy idea of pairing pitchers. If you need the help in your rotation, this is a great potential way to pick it up in double the amount of innings and opportunities that any one pitcher will get you.
Find a few guys that you project well in every category other than strikeouts. If you can find a way to make room, add them both.