Matt Bishop | May 12th, 2019

STREAMER OF THE WEEK (43% Owned CBS, 13% ESPN, 14% Yahoo)

Reynaldo Lopez, SP CHI (CLE, TOR)

Let’s face it. Reynaldo Lopez is erratic and inconsistent. But so is baseball and so are most two-start pitchers available on the waiver wire. But with the exception of a six run outburst against a surging Red Sox team, Lopez has been pretty solid in his last 4 outings:

First 4 Starts:

(1-2) 8.84 ERA 2.12 WHIP 7.9 K/9 6.5% BB/9

3.3 HR/9 8.0% SwSt 55.4% Flyball

Last 4 Starts:

(1-2) 4.30 ERA 1.43 WHIP 11.7 K/9 2.7 BB/9

0.8 HR/9 14% SwSt 50.0% Flyball

In four of his last five starts, he has yielded 12,14,20 and 15 swinging strikes, respectively and has minimized damage from the long ball, allowing only 2 HR as opposed to 7 HR in his first four starts.

Lopez’s pitch mix doesn’t really instill confidence, as two of his three pitches currently carry a negative pVAL (-7.3 Fastball, -5.6 Slider). His slider is getting hit hard to the the tune of .421 in his last four outings, but his fastball is showing promise. Opposing batters are only hitting .241 against the fourseamer with a 13.0% swinging strike rate in his last 4 starts, versus .373 average against and 7.0% swinging strike in his first four starts. This is progress and if he can figure out his slider, he could be mixed league viable the rest of the season.

WEEK 6 RESULTS:

Anthony DeSclafani, SP CIN

Start 1 (5/06): 6.0 IP 4 H 2 BB 3 ER 8 K (WIN)

Start 2 (5/11): 4.0 IP 8 H 0 BB 4 ER 2 K (ND)

MUST START

Chris Sale (COL, HOU)

Noah Syndergaard (@WSH, @MIA)

Chris Paddack (@LAD, PIT)

Matthew Boyd (HOU, OAK)

Aaron Nola (MIL, COL)

Jose Berrios (LAA, @SEA)

Shane Bieber (@CHW, BAL)

Robbie Ray (PIT, SF)

SAFE START

Charlie Morton (@MIA, @NYY)

Jack Flaherty (@ATL, @TEX)

Yusei Kikuchi (OAK, MIN)

Kyle Hendricks (@CIN, @WSH)

Tyler Skaggs (@MIN, KC)

Kyle Gibson (LAA, @SEA)

RISKY START

Sonny Gray (CHC, LAD)

Brad Peacock (@DET, @BOS)

Brandon Woodruff (@PHI, @ATL)

Joe Musgrove (@ARI, @SD)

Mike Foltynewicz (STL, MIL)

Jerad Eickhoff (MIL, COL)

Jonathan Loaisiga (BAL, TB)

Trent Thornton (@SF, @CHW)

Nick Kingham (@ARI, @SD)

Kyle Freeland (@BOS, @PHI)

Danny Duffy (TEX, @LAA)

DON’T START

Brett Anderson (@SEA, @DET)

Andrew Cashner (@NYY, @CLE)

Freddy Peralta (@PHI, @ATL)

Wilmer Font (@WSH, @MIA)

Shelby Miller (@KC, STL)

Jeremy Hellickson (NYM, CHC)

Manny Banuelos (CLE, TOR)

David Hess (@NYY, @CLE)

Tyson Ross (HOU, OAK)

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Main Image Credit:

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