Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers To Stream For Week 11

Joe Ross, Washington Nationals

Starts: June 13th vs. Atlanta Braves, June 18th at New York Mets
ESPN ownership: 14 percent

Fantasy ownership for promising but inconsistent righty Joe Ross has yo-yo'd along with his recent performance, which has been a truly maddening "Jekyll and Hyde" case since he rejoined the Washington Nationals rotation last month.

What's proven especially frustrating for those who have added Ross since his recent promotion is that his wild performance fluctuations haven't meshed with the quality of his opponent, defying what is perhaps the basic tenant of the waiver-wire stream. After Ross silenced the righty-killing Mariners upon his initial return, who would have expected Ross to surrender 19 combined hits while tallying a mere 9 total strikeouts across his starts against the Padres and Athletics, two strikeout-rate juggernauts who struggle to hit to produce against righties?

It's certainly the case that Ross' limited sinker-slider arsenal renders him an especially volatile performer on a start-to-start basis, and thus a dicey-at-best streamer target. Does it matter that the Mets are the league's worst producers against sinkers this season, or that the Braves struggle against the slider? It's truly hard to say. But here's the easy part: many fantasy owners are desperate for any sliver of upside they can find at the starter position, and Ross might be the only pitcher this widely available with this much upside.