MLB

Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers to Stream in Week 19

Tom Whalen  —  @tomcwhalen Aug 6th, 2018
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​Ervin Santana, Minnesota Twins

Start: August 10th at Detroit Tigers
ESPN ownership: 26.7%

There's been no shortage of rust for veteran righty Ervin Santana as he's made his long-awaited return to the Minnesota Twins' rotation following a preseason finger injury. Big Erv has been hit hard in his first 10.1 frames of 2018 action, with an exaggerated 15.0% homer-per-fly rate and a slim 5.4% whiff rate that should regress towards his career norms sooner than later, assuming the 13th-year hurler hasn't totally lost his edge.

A true test of Santana's fantasy profile for the homestretch will come this week when he squares off against a beleaguered Detroit offense. If Santana is going to remain on the fantasy radar, he needs to succeed in these types of plus matchups. The Tigers sport a subdued 31.9% group hard-contact rate against righties over the last month, with a very poor 19.6% strikeouts-minus-walks clip over that span.

Prudent owners may want to see Santana get right before they activate him, but those who need quality innings now might not have the luxury of waiting around.

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