Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers to Stream for Week 1

Brandon Finnegan, Cincinnati Reds

ESPN ownership: 10.3 percent

Yahoo! ownership: 10 percent

The Cincinnati Reds' rotation, fronted by one Scott Feldman, has quite understandably been met with a collective apathetic shrug over the course of fantasy draft season. But that rotation does have some minor intrigue for streamers in Week 1, since the Reds open the season with a three-game home series against a Phillies team whose 2016 team-offense metrics were some of the poorest in the majors, including league-worst team-wide marks in hard-contact rate and OPS.

This makes Reds' lefty Brandon Finnegan an interesting play as he toes the rubber against that offensively challenged Phillies squad on Wednesday. Of particular note is Finnegan's excellent changeup, which limited hitters to a .300 OPS last season while inducing a 16.5 percent swinging-strike rate over a 333-pitch sample. That strong changeup puts Finnegan in a nice spot against the Phillies, who were among the worst in the majors against changeups last season, posting a bottom-three weighted runs created mark, per Fangraphs' linear weights metrics.

If the young lefty shines this first week, Finnegan might be worth holding on to for deep-leaguers looking to speculate on some starter depth, though it's worth noting that the Reds' schedule gets considerably more challenging in the weeks to come, with Cincinnati hosting the Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimore Orioles, and Chicago Cubs later on in April.