Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez was supposed to be further along than what he’s shown this season.
However, despite the slow start, I’m buying into Rodriguez as a two-start pitcher this week in fantasy baseball available on most waiver wires. He’s owned in 15 percent of leagues on ESPN.com and has two matchups that can be exploited this week.
He toes the rubber Monday against Tampa Bay and will square off against the Los Angeles Angels later in the week.
The Rays and Angels have struggled in the month of June hitting the baseball. The Angels are hitting .258, while Tampa Bay owns the second-worst team batting average in June at .229.
That bodes well for Rodriguez, who even though he’s started off slow this season, is starting to look a little better.
During his last outing, he went six innings for the first time since May 31, allowing three earned runs and striking out seven. His fastball is starting to come back and the opposition shouldn’t give him much trouble.
Both teams rank in the bottom-half for runs scored in the month of June and the Rays rank toward the top of MLB in strikeouts.
Rodriguez hasn’t had many problems in the strikeouts department. That is a plus for fantasy baseball owners looking to get a leg up in that category. If he can take advantage of the weak opponents this week, he should be a boon in all categories for fantasy owners.
