As the calendar turns to August, teams at the fringes of contention in your season-long fantasy baseball league may very well be shifting their attention to a certain other, fairly popular fantasy sport. Indeed, even rotisserie leagues without explicit fantasy playoffs usually experience the last two months of the baseball season as a thinning of the herd, with the only league's top teams remaining engaged and active.

Does this dynamic make it easier to stream pitchers? It seems intuitive that it might, since fewer managers are engaging with the waiver wire. But fewer active managers also means that fewer pitchers are being dropped back into the pool on a day-to-day basis, while the managers who are engaged (you know, the ones trying to edge you out for the title) are more intensely motivated and perhaps more willing to take a risk or overstretch their Free Agent Auction Budget to land the player they think will make a difference.

Whatever the case, the dog days of summer make for a fascinating, unique competitive dynamic in fantasy baseball. No matter the depth of your league, one of these five widely-available starters should be there on your wire to help you zero in on your title.