Pomeranz and Dickey: Streaming Friday Starters

You say you’re season is winding down and you need to pick up a few extra W’s to close the gap on an oppontent? Here are two readily available pitchers with favorable matchups in action tonight

Drew Pomeranz (11% owned)

The inclusion of Pomeranz is two fold; 1) He’s pretty good 2) He’s facing the Astros. We don’t have a ton of information to go on since he’s only made seven starts above A+ ball, but he’s been excellent at each stop and was a main piece to the Ubaldo Jimenez trade. He’s made two starts since being recalled from Double-A and has done well in each. Yes, he’s only lasted 5.0 and 5.2 innings but that’s because the Rockies likely have him on a strict pitch count. In his first start he threw just 63 pitches in his five shutout innings, and threw 85 in the second start where he allowed two runs. The Astros rank 23rd in wOBA (.304) and 25th in runs scored (588). Over the last 30 days they’ve put up a team OPS of .665, a .203 point difference from the first place Rangers. The only offensive threat they have is Carlos Lee, who has actually been playing well. Matt Downs has hit well, but he’s in the unfortunate situation of being Matt Downs. Even if Pomeranz is on a pitch count and isn’t allowed to throw more than ~90 pitches he should be effective enough, and the Astros terrible enough, to give you a good shot at picking up a win.

R.A. Dickey (28% owned)

The new favorite of knuckleball enthusiasts everywhere, Dickey is taking on division rival Philadelphia. The Phillies were easily the best team in the National League this season, but it wasn’t thanks to their offense. They’re going to finish with a team wOBA of around ~.315 which would place them in the middle of the pack. They’ve essentially been league average all season, which is impressive considering they’ve let Raul Ibanez collect 500+ plate appearances with a sub .300 OBP. Over the last 30 days they’ve been worse than league average, and now that they’ve clinched their division and have nothing left to play for I can’t see their bats suddenly catching fire. Their wOBA over the past month is the seventh worst in baseball.

Dickey has pitched pretty well this season but the Mets offense hasn’t helped him out. He’s knuckled his way to a 3.35 ERA/3.81 FIP in 201.2 innings but only has eight wins to show for it. As much as we saber nerds rail against the meaning of a pitcher win in real baseball, they do have importance in the fantasy world which is why Dickey’s ownership isn’t higher. The last time he allowed four earned runs? July 20th. Over his last five starts he’s allowed six earned runs in 34.2 innings. The last two starts have been losses, thanks to inept Mets hitting. The baseball Gods are just. They can’t let Dickey, and his owners, suffer any longer, can they?





Erik writes for DraysBay and has also written for Bloomberg Sports. Follow him on Twitter @ehahmann.

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DonCoburleone
12 years ago

LOL nice work I’m in my H2H fantasy league and need Wins and I picked both of these guys up for my team last night… Good stuff.