Fantasy Baseball: 4 Pitchers to Stream for Week 23

Parker Bridwell, Los Angeles Angels

Starts: September 4th at Oakland Athletics, September 10th at Seattle Mariners
ESPN ownership: 48 percent

In this lean week for two-start pitchers, Parker Bridwell might seem like the most promising widely available two-start hurler on most competitive waiver wires, though that shouldn't hide the fact that he's a high-variance play.

Bridwell is, after all, fresh off a seven-run pounding at the hands of the same Athletics who he will find in the batter's box on Monday. That outing pumped the breaks on a nine-start run of 2.38-ERA ball that has lead to a surprising spike in ownership for a pitcher with a modest pedigree and an MLB strikeout rate below 16%.

Parker's strong summer run seems more than a little bit lucky in retrospect, with a 3.52 fielding independent pitching (FIP) and .242 BABIP auguring the inevitable regression that came at the hands of the A's last week. Truth be told, Bridwell hasn't honed another pitch to pair with his devastating slider, which has coaxed an otherworldly 54% reach rate and 21.9% swinging strike rate. That pitch has done the heavy lifting for Bridwell, who otherwise boasts rather underwhelming command of his four-seam and sinker, which carry 8.5% and 10.2% walk rates, respectively.

Bridwell's ownership probably makes him look more stable than he actually is -- this is a park-factor play, pure and simple, with the Athletics and Mariners both playing in bottom-third ballparks in terms of runs allowed over the past three seasons.