Employing a two-start pitcher strategy for my fantasy baseball rosters an annual tradition.
Even with being on the lookout for two-start pitchers, there’s still room for regular starters in your weekly rotation. And the early season waiver wire offers hope to find a diamond in the rough, overlooked by fantasy baseball drafts.
Here’s three starting pitchers I’m eyeing on the waiver wire who can have some staying power on fantasy baseball rosters.
Patrick Corbin, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Corbin isn’t a world-beater by any means. He has a career ERA of 4.11 for a reason.
Despite his drawbacks, he offers something extremely valuable off the waiver wire. He can record a decent amount of strikeouts.
He’s owned in less than 60 percent of leagues, so there’s time to pick him up, especially after displaying nice ability in his season opener against Colorado. In the win, he struck out eight and walked one in 5 2/3 innings.
Last season, he showed some growth, compiling an above-.500 record and registering an 8.4 strikeout-per-nine-inning mark.
That’s a good enough mark that he should be owned in more leagues. He offers some hope that he’s going to continue to get better, so he’s worth an add at the moment.
Sean Manaea, SP, Oakland A’s
Manaea is a player that fantasy baseball experts have given up on too early.
This is only his third season, but he has been an afterthought in the preseason, despite having really good stuff and showing improvement in the spring.
Even last season, when he was sporting an ERA of 4.37, he had moments where he displayed dominating stuff.
And in his first game of 2017, he showcased that stuff to the tune of seven strikeouts, one earned run and just four hits over 7 2/3 innings.
He has the chance to be a breakout player, so don’t pass him up, especially considering he’s owned in less than 40 percent of fantasy baseball leagues.
Jakob Junis, SP, Kansas City Royals
This is based purely on speculation, but Junis is looking like a quality starting pitcher.
In his first outing, he worked ahead consistently, and pitched a shutout over six innings, while striking out six batters.
It was against the lowly Detroit lineup, but that performance, along with his spring, has my attention. Not that I like to use spring stats as a judgment of performance, but he did register a 20-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio in spring.
Even for spring, that’s eye-catching.
He doesn’t have much experience under his belt, but if he shows this kind of command throughout the season, he can bolster your back-end rotation in fantasy baseball.
