KFFL: Fantasy Baseball: Streaming pitchers

I found this great article on pitcher streaming from KFFL written by Michael Egnak and edited by Nicholas Minnix.

One of the great things about fantasy baseball is the endless number of strategies owners can attempt in an effort to win year after year. One such strategy is streaming starting pitchers, where an owner constantly hits the waiver wire to pick up the best pitcher, or pitchers, starting in an upcoming timeframe. While this practice can be effective, it can also prove to be disastrous in the long run depending on a league's format and settings. Fantasy baseball players, particularly those looking for an edge, want to know how and when to use this approach.
There are two things fantasy owners should know first, though: 1) Streaming is a plan that is best concocted before the draft, and 2) Streaming may not win fantasy owners a ton of friends, especially in head-to-head leagues.

If a one plans to stream pitchers, one ideally would draft a team loaded with stud closers and stud hitters. This allows one to employ the strategy to its utmost potential.
With a team like that, though, it's easy to make enemies. Many fantasy owners view this practice as unethical because the streamer is taking advantage of the rules (or lack thereof) and is not "playing fairly." They often don't want to devote the time it takes to stream. The ethics of streaming are for another place and time; it's up to the league to decide whether streaming is allowed, and the fairest way to do that is to enact rules that discourage it.

Rotisserie leagues

In roto leagues, owners should only consider using streaming pitchers if there is no maximum innings limit for your league's settings. With no innings limit, a team can throw pitcher after pitcher into the lineup to build up strikeouts and wins. This can help a fantasy team reach the top in those two particular categories.

However, this style of play does have risks associated with it. The pitchers that tend to be used in this strategy are usually on the waiver wire for a reason, whether it is because of high WHIPs and ERAs or because they are frustratingly inconsistent from start to start. As a result, using these pitchers can wreak havoc on your fantasy team's WHIP and ERA over the course of the season; that, of course, can potentially cause a team to finish in the lower half in both categories. With this in mind, owners have to consider what the better option is. Streaming pitchers can essentially balance itself out for a team, with the advantage of high strikeouts and wins being negated by a poor WHIP and ERA. The depth of the league along with the quality of the pitchers available on the wire play a big role in whether streaming is beneficial.

For rotisserie leagues that have an innings limit, streaming pitchers really should be reconsidered. While the team streaming pitchers may be leading in strikeouts and wins now, they could find themselves back in the middle of the pack or worse once August rolls around. Strikeout rate is the biggest factor in winning the strikeouts category in fantasy baseball leagues with innings limits. If an owner is a streaming a player with a low strikeout rate, the owner is merely taking innings away from another pitcher with a better one.

In order to stream pitchers most effectively in rotisserie leagues with an innings limit, owners need to be more selective with the starters they throw into the lineup. One way to maximize strikeouts and win potential is to stick with pitchers who have only the most favorable matchups. This can also help a team maintain a respectable WHIP and ERA at the same time. Teams with poor offenses (the San Francisco Giants, for example), especially those that strike out a lot (i.e., the San Diego Padres), make for great streaming matchups. Keep your eye on team stats to determine the best matchups going.

Being quick on the waiver wire for prospects with great potential also can be helpful. However, there is inherent risk with inexperienced pitchers, so make sure you do your research on them.

Head-to-head leagues

In head-to-head leagues, the streaming strategy can be used much more successfully. There is usually no innings limit in head-to-head formats, so teams can go for as many starts possible in any given week. Fantasy owners can load up on hurlers with two starts for the upcoming week or pick up the best available starters every day; then, they can try to dominate strikeouts and wins. With the streaming team gaining an immediate advantage in two pitching categories, it just needs to take a few hitting categories to steal a cheap win most weeks.

The best part is that there's a chance for the team using streaming pitchers to take ERA and WHIP as well. The team with what might be a more solid pitching staff may be forced to use its better pitchers regardless of whom they face or where they pitch in order to compete. Meanwhile, the team streaming pitchers can pick and choose from those with better matchups. The chance of winning ERA and WHIP is much greater in shallow leagues, though, because as the player pool becomes emptier, the quality goes down considerably.

The problem with using this approach in head-to-head leagues is that the more consistent pitchers are already owned, so the pitchers left on the waiver wire are usually pitchers with poor WHIPs and ERAs. It also won't help that when streaming pitchers in this format, there's a chance that the better starters that are thrown back will get picked up by someone else. With this in mind, the trick to using this tactic in head-to-head formats is to use as few roster spots as possible - one or two, ideally - to stream pitchers. Keeping the more consistent starters allows for some stability, and streaming only the better pitchers with the best matchups should give boosts in strikeouts and wins.

Summary

Now that the advantages and disadvantages of streaming pitchers have been noted, it's time to decide if this is the strategy for you. Obviously if you're the type of fantasy owner who likes stability on your team, this approach won't sit well for you; it might not sit well with your fellow owners, either. Streaming pitchers means you have to be quick on the waiver wire on a daily basis. It not only means that fantasy player has to be able to recognize who is currently on a hot streak but also who has favorable matchups.

For those who are confident in their ability to make the right calls week after week, this strategy could prove fruitful. It allows owners to focus on grabbing the best, most consistent hitters in an effort to dominate the offensive categories. Then they can use streaming in an attempt to finish in the upper half, at least, in most of the pitching categories, or to win a majority of head-to-head categories each week. If successful, it could mean a high finish in the standings come September.