Fantasy MLB Spot Starting: 04.18.11

Welcome to the 4th edition of  Spot Starting, if you missed our first few posts, read here for the explanation of how this works.

You may wonder why you’d be looking for a spot start on a Monday.  Well, you might be in a week where most of your Starters are only pitching 1 game.  It always behooves us to at least take a look at what is available, because as you can see below the results are there to be had.

For games on Monday April 18th these selected pitchers might be had in your league (less than 50% owned in Yahoo) with percent owned, team, and opponent:

Travis Wood 46% (CIN) vs. Pit

Tim Stauffer 38% (SD) @ ChC

Kevin Correia 14% (PIT) @ CIN

Esmil Rogers 9% (COL) vs. SF

Daisuke Matsuzaka 7% (BOS) vs. TOR

Jason Vargas 5% (SEA) vs. DET

Joe Blanton 4% (PHI) vs. MIL

My Pick: Travis Wood vs. Pirates

Alternate: Daisuke Matsuzaka vs. Blue Jays

Travis Wood is the clear choice today, but at 46% owned he may not be available.  If he’s there grab him, especially for this start at home verus the Pirates.  Last year he beat them with a line if 7IP, 5H, ER, 4:1.

You might be scratching your head on my alternate choice of Dice-K and I don’t blame you.  Call it a hunch, but when guys have their backs against the wall as Dice-K does, they tend to come out blasting.  He also has great career numbers against the Jays: 6-1 70Ks in 71IP, 3.80 ERA, 1.13 WHIP.  He is also a much better pitcher in Day games as tomorrow is the annual Patriot’s Day game in Bean Town.

Results from Saturday 04.16.11:

Scott Baker – ND, 7 IP, 4 H, ER, 6:1 A very good start by Baker that was blown by the bullpen costing Baker, the Twins and fantasy owners a valuable W.  If it’s any consolation, Killboy dropped Joe Nathan in our league last night.

Season Results:

13 IP, 1-0, 7 H, 2 ER, 15K, 2BB, 1.38 ERA, 0.69 WHIP