Fantasy Baseball Two-Start Pitchers Week 15

Quality starting pitching is essential to winning in fantasy baseball. If you have a pitcher that hasn’t been carrying their weight, consider adding a starting pitcher who will make two starts in Week 14.If the pitcher you consider isn’t at the top of the rankings, there’s often a chance he’ll throw at least one good game out of the two he is probable to start. Worst case, a pitcher with two starts will generally keep a lower ERA and bring in more strikeouts, which could save owners in weekly head-to-head matchups.

Joe Saunders of the Anaheim Angels, who is 12-4 with a 3.04 ERA, 58 strikeouts, and a 1.16 WHIP in 112.3 innings, tops our list of two-start fantasy baseball pitchers in Week 14. He takes the mound Tuesday on the road against the Texas Rangers and Luis Mendoza, then Sunday at Oakland against Justin Duchscherer. Other “must starts” in Week 15 include:

• C.C. Sabathia, Cleveland Indians (6-8, 3.83, 123, 1.23) Week 4 / Week 11 Pitcher of the Week
• Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay Rays (7-3, 2.62, 75, 1.12) May Pitcher of the Month
• Andy Pettitte, New York Yankees (9-6, 4.22, 80, 1.39) Week 12 Pitcher of the Week
• Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston Red Sox (9-1, 3.12, 65, 1.39)
• Ervin Santana, Anaheim Angels (9-3, 3.28, 106, 1.09)
• Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies (9-5, 3.22, 110, 1.02)
• Justin Duchscherer, Oakland Athletics (9-5, 1.96, 59, 0.92 )

The Sunday Special – Two two-start pitchers that should impress you with their performances in Week 15:

• Ricky Nolasco, Florida Marlins (9-4, 3.94, 75, 1.25). Nolasco is having quite a productive season, and that doesn’t include throwing the pitch that Chipper Jones parked in the bleachers for his 400th career homer. Since giving up that homer to Chipper on June 5, Nolasco hasn’t lost a start, going 4-0 in his last five appearances. Over the past month, his ERA has dropped from 5.05 to 3.94. In three of his last four starts, he has struck out at least 8, including 12 on June 15 at Tampa Bay. He takes the mound Monday at San Diego against Josh Banks, then Saturday at the Dodgers against Hideki Kuroda.
• Manny Parra, Milwaukee Brewers (8-2, 3.69, 72, 1.52). We told you about Parra at the beginning of the season in our NL Pitching Prospects preview, and he is making us look GOOOOOOOOODDD over the last month. Parra is 7-0 over his last ten starts and has only given up three earned runs in his last four starts. He can still get rocked every now and then, like when he gave up 5 earned in 5.3 innings against Houston June 11, but his development is definitely coming along as we expected. He takes the mound Tuesday versus Colorado and Mark Redman, then Sunday against Cincinnati and Aaron Harang.

Waiver Wire Wonder – A two-start pitcher owned in less than 40% of leagues to consider in Week 15:

• Seth McClung, Milwaukee Brewers (5-3, 4.18, 52, 1.38). McClung joined the Brewers rotation in a promotion from the ‘pen on May 24, and has only had two starts where he has given up more than two earned runs. He doesn’t strike a lot of batters out, but he is 4-2 since joining the rotation and has struck out 52 in 61.7 innings in 8 starts. He takes the mound versus Colorado and Ubaldo Jimenez Monday, then Saturday against Cincinnati and FBD All-Star Edinson Volquez.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 9:34 am and is filed under Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitchers, Fantasy Baseball Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.