Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers To Stream For Week 5

Scott Feldman, Cincinatti Reds

May 1st vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, May 6th vs. San Francisco Giants

ESPN ownership: 9 percent

It's a credit to the shrewdness of fantasy owners at large that Scott Feldman's ownership percentage has rarely peaked into the double digits this season despite his apparently impressive results. Indeed, even as Feldman's strong 3.25 ERA is seemingly buoyed by a spike in swinging-strike rate, both his elevated walk rate and suspiciously high strand rate suggest that Feldman is due for some negative regression.

But streamers in a pinch might count on the veteran righty to clutch his rabbit's foot for at least one more week, as Feldman and the Cincinnati Reds take on two of the MLB's notably underachieving offenses.

First up is a Pirates squad that has been fairly useless against the curveball on the young season, which should play to Feldman's advantage, as his curve has limited hitters to a .304 OPS on the season. Granted, the Pirates are the league's stingiest offense in terms of strikeout rate against righties, but it's not as if the contact they're making is substantial -- they rank among bottom five in terms of hard-hit rate versus right-handers.

Last in that category are the San Francisco Giants, who are mired in a deep team-wide funk that has seen their offense hit for a collective .566 OPS over the last week, the worst such mark in the league. It's unlikely that Giants will be able to right the ship against Feldman, though, despite his shaky peripherals -- San Francisco are well-below-average producers against both curveballs and cutters thus far, making them easy marks for Feldman's secondary arsenal.

Sure, both the Pirates and the Giants have patient hitters who could make Feldman pay for his wildness, but these matchups remain favorable enough that deep-league streamers might want to put in a bid on Feldman in case their more high-priority streaming targets fall through.