Start: September 11th at Seattle Mariners
ESPN ownership: 17.7%
A rocky summer assured us that Joey Lucchesi is almost certainly not the pitcher we saw mow through lineups to the tune of a 2.78 ERA through his first 28.1 innings of MLB work. But the young fireballer has seen his growing pains settle down a bit of late, with the San Diego Padres rookie posting an incredible 30.7% strikeout rate to go with a solid 3.24 ERA since the start of August.
Lucchesi's upside speaks for itself this week as he faces a fading Mariners team that has really struggled against lefties of late. Seattle carries a .285 team OBP against southpaws in the second half, mustering a mere .108 group ISO on just 28.8% hard contact.