Fantasy MLB Spot Starting: 05.13.11

Welcome back to Spot Starting. Let’s see if we can find a Jason for our Friday the 13th spot start and not a victim.

For games on Friday May 13th these selected pitchers might be had in your league (less than 50% owned in Yahoo! or ESPN) with percent owned Yahoo/ESPN, (team), and opponent:

Carl Pavano 28% /  8% (MIN) vs. TOR

Bartolo Colon 28% / 27% (NYY) vs. BOS

Fausto Carmona 26% /25 % (CLE) vs. SEA

Jeremy Guthrie 24% / 9% (BAL) @ TB

Tom Gorzelanny 14% / 8% (WAS) vs. FLA

Brandon McCarthy 14% / 10% (OAK) vs CWS

Phil Humber 10% / 7% (CWS) @ OAK

Fantasy MLB Spot Starting: 05.06.11

Welcome to Spot Starting.  As the bigger names continue to pitch gems let’s keep digging for those waiver wire pick ups of names that have fallen off your radar.  Some of the go to names we’ve had the past couple weeks are now above 50% so we have to keep digging deeper, some like Scott Baker continue to be there for us.

For games on Friday May 6th these selected pitchers might be had in your league (less than 50% owned in Yahoo! or ESPN) with percent owned Yahoo/ESPN, (team), and opponent:

Matt Harrison 39% / 29% (TEX) vs. NYY

Tim Stauffer 37% / 5% (SD) vs. ARI

Scott Baker 31% / 17% (MIN) @ BOS

Daisuke Matsuzaka 21% / 17% (BOS) vs. MIN

Jonathon Niese 9% / 1% (NYM) vs. LAD

Phil Humber 6% / 4% (CWS) @ SEA

My Pick: Tim Stauffer vs. D Backs

Alternate: Scott Baker vs. Red Sox

Deep League Special: Phil Humber

I’ve picked Baker in his past 3 starts and he has not disappointed giving us a line of 1-0 20.1 IP, 16 H, 3 ER, 17 K, 3 BB 1.33 ERA, 0.93 WHIP.  He’s the clear choice then, right?  Not so fast. 

Stauffer is on a mini tear lately and has great lifetime numbers against the D Backs, albeit only 1 start, but adding in the relief appearances he has 20 IP against them with 17Ks and a 1.80 ERA.  His peripherals are right in line if not even more encouraging (.311 BABIP, 2.66 FIP, 3.10 xFIP).  He is an extreme GB pitcher right now and it’s helping him pitch quality games.  The D Backs rely on home runs to win games and it’s not likely they’ll get them off Stauffer.

Fantasy MLB Spot Starting: 04.27.11

The pickings were slim yesterday and yet another great start was made by a pitcher on absolutely no one’s radar as Phil Humber pitched a gem against the Yankees taking a no hitter into the 7th inning.  Humber is owned in 1% of Yahoo! leagues and a slim 0.1% of ESPN (basically his dad owns him).  You just never know when a great start will come out of nowhere, but we can look at the match ups and stats and continue to do our best.

For games on Wednesday April 27th these selected pitchers might be had in your league (less than 50% owned in Yahoo! or ESPN) with percent owned Yahoo/ESPN, (team), and opponent:

Derek Holland 34% / 23% (TEX) vs. TOR

Anibal Sanchez 33% / 40% (FLA) vs. LAD

Jeremy Guthrie 33% / 17% (BAL) vs. BOS

Josh Tomlin 26% / 27% (CLE) vs. KC

R.A. Dickey 20% / 5% (NYM) vs. WAS

Mark Buehrle 15% / 10% (CWS) @ NYY

Bartolo Colon 8% / 3% (NYY) vs. CWS

Sam LeCure 4% / 3% (CIN) @ MIL

My Pick: Anibal Sanchez vs. Dodgers

Alternate: Josh Tomlin vs. Royals

Deep League Special: Bartolo Colon vs. White Sox