Fantasy Baseball: 4 Pitchers to Stream for Week 17
Mike Clevinger, Cleveland Indians
Starts: July 24th vs. Cincinnati Reds, July 29th at Chicago White Sox
ESPN ownership: 54 percent
Cleveland Indians righty Mike Clevinger has been there for the taking as a streaming option since his May call up. Yet, through his first 30 or so innings with the big club, the most conspicuous feature on his stat line was his 16% walk rate. Indeed, Clevinger's wild streak made his 3.10 ERA through five starts in May seem like an unsustainable pipe dream, leaving the 26-year-old as persona non grata outside of deep leagues.
Here we are in late July, and Clevinger hasn't maintained that low-3.00 mark -- no, he's been even better, chiseling his season ERA to 2.73 thanks to a positively electric stretch of work in the month of July in which he sports a 0.50 ERA (that's not a misprint) and 0.94 WHIP over 18 innings.
No one would blame you, though, if you glanced sideways at Clevinger's continued walk problems (he has a slightly more respectable 13% walk rate over that span), to say nothing of the rather discouraging 4.33 expected fielding independent pitching (xFIP) mark and 37% hard-contact rate.
All of which is to underline that Clevinger, despite the strong surface stats and rising ownership percentage, remains a high-variance play for streamers, even against modest competition like the Reds and White Sox.
Even so, both teams have struggled with producing off the fastball of late, suggesting that they might be easy marks for a pitcher whose fastball is by far his least effective offering: he's surrendered 131 weighted runs created plus on his fourseam and 90 wRC+ total on his slider, changeup, and curveball. (It doesn't hurt that both teams have been pretty bad against the slider, too.)
We're also looking at teams with above average reach rates on the season, particularly the Sox, which could render moot Clevinger's loose handle of the zone -- provided, of course, he can work around Cincinnati's resident on-base maven.
You won't find too many widely available arms with higher upside than Clevinger, but don't lose sight of the floor if you take the plunge.
