Fantasy Baseball: 4 Pitchers To Stream For Week 6

A.J. Griffin, Texas Rangers

Starts: May 9th at San Diego Padres, May 14th vs Oakland Athletics

ESPN ownership: 9 percent

It's a bit surprising that once-popular fantasy sleeper A.J. Griffin remains adrift in deep-league-ownership obscurity despite some of the best results of his short, injury-abbreviated career. Sure, the inevitable regression of that .220 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) should soon push his 3.47 ERA a little closer to his near-4.00 xFIP, but Griffin's solid results are also buoyed by a 21.7 percent strikeout-minus-walk rate that far outpaces his 13.8 percent career mark.

Whatever you make of Griffin's success thus far, he should be on the streaming radar for his upcoming two-start week, where he faces a pair of the least-impressive offenses in the majors.

A visit to the commodious Petco Park to face the middling San Diego Padres seems especially intriguing, with the Pads scraping the bottom of the barrel in nearly all offensive production metrics, whether it be hard-contact rate, team on base plus slugging (OPS), or wRC+. If that's not enough to tempt you, San Diego also happens to be the league's most strikeout-prone team against righties.

The Rangers return home for a weekend series against the Oakland Athletics, who rank close behind the Pads in terms of strikeouts against right handers, even though the As do flash above-average power. There is certainly one player in the A's lineup who can exploit Griffin's tendency to surrender the big fly, but if the Texas hurler can keep the damage to a minimum, he should have no trouble carving up an Oakland squad that doesn't pose much of a threat outside of the very heart of the batting order.