It’s early in the fantasy baseball season, but you still shouldn’t overlook the power of a two-start pitcher.
And for this week, the best two-start player available resides on one of the worst MLB teams from a year ago.
Philadelphia starting pitcher Aaron Nola is owned in 27 percent of fantasy baseball leagues, according to Fantasy Pros. He takes the mound Monday in an enticing matchup with an offense capable of being one of the worst in Major League Baseball.
Nola will toe the rubber against San Diego on Monday. The Padres had a coming out party late last week against Colorado, tallying 13 and 16 runs apiece. In two games, San Diego has scored 29 runs. In the other four contests, it has scored three runs.
I’m banking on San Diego to revert back to its early season performance against a pitcher who has already shown to be a solid performer this season. Nola went seven innings in his opening day start, allowing four hits and one run. He also recorded eight strikeouts.
Nola has been known to strike out a solid amount of hitters in the Minor Leagues, and also tallied a more than seven strikeouts per nine innings last season for the Phillies. He’s young, so inconsistency will be an issue this season. But this week, he will be on the mound for two home games, with the second being Washington.
That will be a difficult matchup, but I’m trusting Nola in the early going before he hits a rough patch as the season progresses.
