Don’t fall in love with those late-round starting pitcher picks.
Starting pitchers can be replaced, especially in the back-end of your rotation. That’s why it makes sense to take the leap each week with two-start pitchers. It will increase the opportunity for strikeouts and quality starts, and maybe, be beneficial in the ERA/WHIP area.
Even this early in the season, the two-start strategy still holds weight. Check out these two-start pitchers for week 2 in the fantasy baseball season.
Miguel Gonzalez, SP, Chicago White Sox
Gonzalez isn’t great in the strikeouts department, but he’ll do enough to compete this week against Tampa Bay and Minnesota.
Gonzalez had a rough opening in his first start, but Gonzalez will get Tampa Bay in the cold conditions earlier in the day Monday, giving Gonzalez an edge over the warm-weather team.
What should help Gonzalez is that neither team is lighting the world on fire on the offensive end this season. Tampa Bay ranks in the bottom-three in MLB in batting average, while the Twins are 14th. Gonzalez will throw strikes, which should help in these anticipated cold-weather games slated for this week.
He’ll compete this week and shouldn’t see his ERA balloon against the Rays and Twins.
Ben Lively, SP, Philadelphia Phillies
Lively just isn’t getting much respect. He was highly effective in his season opener, going 5 2/3 innings, surrendering two earned runs and striking out five in a loss to Matt Harvey and the New York Mets. But he’s owned in less than 1 percent of leagues on ESPN.
He struggled in limited action last season in the big leagues, but he’s been solid in the Minor Leagues, necessitating his move to the starting lineup in 2018. And this week, he has two solid matchups that you can exploit in your fantasy baseball league.
Games against Cincinnati and Tampa Bay present opportunities to limit earned runs. The Reds and Rays rank 27th and 28th respectively in runs scored so far this season.
Lively is a young arm who can surprise experts this season.
