Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers to Stream for Week 3
Joe Musgrove, Houston Astros
ESPN ownership: 14.5 percent
Yahoo! ownership: 30 percent
The minor excitement that sounded when Houston Astros up-and-comer Joe Musgrove won a starter's job in spring training has muted some thanks to an uninspiring start from the 24-year-old righty. Musgrove has tallied a 4.35 ERA across 10-plus innings to go with a 50-plus percent decrease in K/9 compared to his 62-inning taste with the big-league club last year.
Musgrove's fastball effectiveness has taken a major hit, to the point where it's fair to suspect a sample-size anomaly (combined, perhaps, with some timing concerns). The young hurler's four-seam, still fairly steady velocity-wise compared to last season's readings, has incurred a sky-high .444 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) so far this season despite a mere .100 isolated slugging (ISO) allowed, suggesting that his struggles with pitching through jams might be the result of some unfortunate batted-ball luck.
And while the Los Angeles Angels squad that Musgrove squares off against on Monday has a been a surprisingly productive offense thus far, that offense is still bottom six across the majors in terms of contact rate and top five in terms of offering at pitches outside of the zone -- not exactly the earmarks of a sustainable juggernaut.
No, streamers shouldn't treat the Angels as any sort of matchup stay away. Musgrove has a decent chance to humble the over-achieving Halos, with a weekend date at the spacious Tropicana to face the Tampa Bay Rays and their league-worst team contact rate to sweeten the pot.
