Fantasy Baseball: 4 Pitchers To Stream for Week 8

Jordan Montgomery, New York Yankees

Starts: May 23rd vs. Kansas City Royals, May 28th vs. Oakland Athletics

ESPN ownership: 17 percent

Despite the unimpressive 4.81 ERA, it's fair to say that rookie Jordan Montgomery has worked admirably to fill out the back end of a thin New York Yankees rotation. With his FIP trailing his ERA by about a run while his K/9 approaches 8.5, one might assume that Montgomery has been a touch unlucky.

Then again, the young lefty is really testing the limits of fortune and variance by walking more than four batters per nine, a trend that came back to bite him when he gave up five earned to the lowly Royals last week.

On Tuesday Montgomery gets a second go at the offensively-challenged Royals squad, one who, despite hanging a five-spot on the young lefty, remain the league's least productive offense against lefties on the season.

And while Montgomery's weekend foe, the Athletics, might be glad to ditch their spacious home ballpark for the much more hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium, their bloated team-wide strikeout rate and depressed team-wide walk rate against lefties on the season could make them an easy mark for the young lefty.

Tread lightly, though -- the Athletics are second only to the mighty Washington Nationals in terms of weighted production against changeups, and that is Montgomery's go-to pitch. It's a feast-or-famine offering from Montgomery, with the change coaxing a near-18-percent swinging-strike rate along with a .188 ISO and a 50-percent fly-ball rate across a 121-pitch sample.

This makes the Yankee southpaw a decidedly high-risk, high-reward stream, especially to owners subject to weekly lineup locks. If you need the strikeout upside, Montgomery seems like a strong play, but if you need ratio stability, there might be some lower-variance plays on your waiver wire.