MLB

Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers to Stream in Week 18

Tom Whalen  —  @tomcwhalen Jul 30th, 2018
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​Danny Duffy, Kansas City Royals

Starts: July 31st at Chicago White Sox, August 5th at Minnesota Twins
ESPN ownership: 47.2%

Those who miss out on Gray this week might find another up-and-down youngster hitting waiver wires in his place. After all, Danny Duffy enters the week fresh off of a seven-earned-run pasting at the hands of the Detroit Tigers. This likely leaves frustrated owners throwing in the towel after Duffy surrendered one lone run in his previous 20 innings.

But shrewd owners should have known better: despite being an overall pushover in 2018, the Detroit offense has put in strong work against lefties. The same cannot be said for either the White Sox or the Twins, both below-average squads in terms of team isolated slugging (ISO) versus southpaws over the last month. In fact, Minnesota occupies the basement of that leaderboard, with a barely-there .086 team ISO and 22% group soft contact.

The Kansas City Royals lefty is certainly a more volatile play than his ownership and name value would indicate, but from a pure matchup standpoint, two-start Duffy looks like a worthy gamble.

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