Streaming Pitchers: April Recap

Apr 17, 2015; New York City, NY, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Bartolo Colon (40) pitches against the Miami Marlins during the first inning at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Throughout the month of April, I picked a pitcher I liked as a spot start, otherwise known as a streaming option. I picked a total of 13 pitchers, listed below. Some of them paid off while others blew up in my face. That’s the fun of streaming, which pitchers will or won’t help you in the moment. Without further ado, here are the 13 pitchers I chose to stream in April and how they fared.

[table id=1362 /]

The Good: My first pick on Opening Day, Clay Buchholz, was my best pick. As you can see, he didn’t allow a run and struck out nine batters over seven innings. I also had a streak of four quality starts with Trevor Bauer, Bartolo Colon, Danny Salazar and Nick Martinez. Quality starts has become more popular than using wins. It’s a better judge of the pitcher, instead of relying on his teammates to score enough runs to win.

The Bad: Yovani Gallardo was average in this start. He allowed just two runs, but gave up a lot of hits (eight). Opposing batters were able to pile up the hits and forced him to leave, just one out away from a quality start. If Buchholz was awesome, Wei-Yin Chen‘s outing was quite the opposite. He couldn’t get out of the fifth inning and racked his pitch count to 96 pitchers.

The Ugly: Scott Feldman also had a horrible outing. He allowed 10 hits and seven runs in just five innings. He had a good outing his next time out, but that didn’t help owners here. Chris Heston, a widely unknown pitcher, showed why he isn’t owned in a lot of leagues. Eleven hits and six earned runs on just 88 pitches isn’t going to help anyone.

Those were my streaming options for the month of April. I think I did pretty well. Seven wins, three losses and six quality starts. I’ll try to do better in May, but I can’t make any promises.