Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers to Stream for Week 12

Brandon McCarthy, Los Angeles Dodgers

Starts: June 19th vs. New York Mets, June 24th vs. Colorado Rockies
ESPN ownership: 49 percent

Perhaps the ambient uneasiness surrounding the Los Angeles Dodgers rotation has kept shallow leaguers from embracing Brandon McCarthy, who carries a 3.20 fielding independent pitching (FIP) mark that's 16th-best among qualified starters across the majors (and happens to be a hair better than the FIP currently sported by ace teammate Clayton Kershaw). The veteran remains unowned in just over half of ESPN leagues despite a truly stellar month-long run of sub-2.00 ERA ball, hardly a fluke given his 19% hard-hit rate over that span.

A man of many fastballs, McCarthy seems to have regained command of his cutter and sinker, both of which showed aberrant movement trends during the righty's brief, injury-riddled 2016 but which appear now to once again be plus secondary pitches. The cutter in particular is proving to be an especially tough offering, coaxing a three-year-high 10% whiff rate and allowing a mere 36 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) across 270 offerings.

Look for McCarthy's ownership to spike this week as his evasive secondary stuff should give him the leg up on Mets and Rockies squads that are formidable but undisciplined, with both rating above league average in terms of team chase rate and proving especially unproductive against the sinker and the cutter.