If your fantasy baseball league only has specific waiver wire periods, then it’s worth the effort to look for a back-end starter to bolster your fantasy roster.
But you should be careful with those pitchers, too. You don’t want to pick up any pitcher off the street, just to pad strikeouts. They need to be semi-competent in other areas, so I generally look for matchups to drive back-end starter choices.
Here’s two pitchers who will pitch at the end of the week that could deliver promising returns as a back-end fantasy baseball starter.
Adam Conley, Miami Marlins
Conley is barely owned in fantasy, but that could change if he keeps putting up the numbers he’s shown early in his career.
His record is good for only pitching one full season at 12-7. He also has a career ERA of 3.85 and a career 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings, which also aren’t bad for a pitcher designated to the waiver wire.
His biggest issue is quality starts since he generally gets pulled early in games. In 41 total games, he’s logged only 205 1/3 innings pitched, good for about 5 innings per outing.
That won’t get you a quality start, so with this being his second full season, I’m anticipating him to go deeper in games. And with his matchup against the New York Mets happening Friday, I’m hoping the Marlins give him a longer leash than normal.
Conley owns a 1.23 ERA in 29 1/3 innings against the Mets in his career. He faced New York in his opener and allowed one run, while striking out six batters in only five innings. He has success against the Mets, and as long as he can stay in the game, he should pay decent dividends for a nice back-end start.
Zach Davies, Milwaukee Brewers
Davies has been atrocious this season, so that has likely backed off many fantasy owners from him early in the season.
But that’s right where I like him. He was awful last April, too, only to bounce back during the remainder of the season.
Davies gets a Saturday matchup against a Cincinnati team that he shut out last year in his only start at Great American Ball Park. That Reds team still doesn’t have an offense that I’m scared of, and Davies should have his command back.
His first two games were against Colorado and the Chicago Cubs, two of the best offenses in Major League Baseball. I’m giving him a pass for those first two blunders and backing him for a back-end start.
