You’ve fallen behind in your weekly fantasy baseball matchup and need a back-end start to pile up a few more points.
Look no further than the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Brewers have been predictably not very good this season. However, despite the below-.500 start, Jimmy Nelson has been a bright spot.
Nelson has allowed four earned runs in 13 1/3 innings during his 1-1 start. He’s doing a solid job of striking out batters, too, with an average of 8.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
His WHIP also has improved from last season, moving from 1.286 last season to .975 this year. We’re only two games in, but I’ve liked Nelson during the last two years.
He’s continually shown improvement, going from a 4.93 ERA in 2014 to a 4.11 ERA in 2015. After winning only two games in 2014 in limited action, he mustered 11 wins last season.
That improvement should be on full display Friday when he takes on Pittsburgh. The Pirates have been middle-of-the-road offensively, registering the ninth-most runs in the National League so far with 30. As a team, they’re batting over .300, which is concerning for Nelson owners.
However, the Pirates haven’t found anyone to start knocking in runs, with only 29 RBIs through the season’s first seven games, ranking ninth in the National League.
To help matters, Nelson owns a 3.38 ERA at PNC Park in his career.
This is only Nelson’s second full season in Major League Baseball, meaning there’s plenty of room to grow. With an ownership level of less than 40 percent in fantasy leagues, according to Fantasy Pros, he can be a solid addition to your staff for a back-end start this week.
