Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers to Stream For Week 7
Sean Manaea, Oakland Athletics
Starts: May 15 at Seattle Mariners, May 20 vs Boston Red Sox
ESPN ownership: 33 percent
The recent demotion of fantasy darling Jharel Cotton may have starter speculators and change-up enthusiasts shedding a tear, but the move opens the door for the return of promising young lefty Sean Manaea, who slots right into a two-start week and thus should be firmly on our radar as the key widely-available pitcher add for Week 7.
The 2017 results have not been great for Manaea, but the pronounced gap between his 5.18 ERA and his 3.89 expected fielding independent pitching (xFIP) should indicate some positive regression is in short order, especially given that both his fastball and his slider have graded as above average offerings in terms of weighted runs created plus (wRC+).
Indeed, Manaea might be one tweak on his changeup away from being a true impact fantasy arm -- that pitch has bolstered a strong 18.5% swinging strike rate on the young season, but it's also seen a major jump in walk rate, perhaps explaining why the lefty's walks per nine (BB/9) is currently the highest he's allowed across an extended sample since high-A ball.
Manaea should have little trouble shaking off the DL rust against a Mariners team that has been decidedly below-average against southpaws over the past month. Meanwhile, the Red Sox's reputation as a streamer stay-away does not exactly bear out in their recent results, at least not against lefties; in fact, across the last 30 days, they rank dead last in terms of isolated slugging (ISO) against southpaws.
Fantasy owners in leagues of 12 teams or deeper who need pitching (and let's be honest, who doesn't?) should be giving the Oakland youngster a long look if he's still out there on the wire.
