Welcome to your fantasy baseball starting pitcher happy place. This is a new column for me this year that will combine a few things I’ve done in the past. In this article, every Monday, you’ll not only get a list of my favorite streaming starting pitchers for the whole week, but underneath that, you’ll get a breakdown of a few pitchers who are making interesting changes to their pitch mix. Today I covered Joey Cantillo, Sean Burke, Jose Cabrera, and Brandon Young.
It’s a little bit of rankings and a little bit of analysis, and hopefully a lot of help for your teams.
As far as which pitchers on this list you’ll want to stream, your decisions will change based on your league type and settings. Since I’m listing starters for the whole week, I won’t be able to provide a detailed analysis for each one; I’ll highlight the matchup and offer some quick thoughts. As is usual with my articles, a streaming starter pitcher is rostered in less than 40% of Yahoo formats, so just keep that in mind as we’re going through because I won’t be mentioning pitchers who are rostered in more leagues than that. I also won’t be mentioning pitchers that I would not start in any format.
Check out this week’s MLB Power Rankings!
Starting Pitcher Streamers of the Week
Monday
Strong Preference
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeAndre Pallante40%vs ARI12s and deeperEric Lauer15%at MIN12s and deeper
Fairly Confident
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeAnthony Kay13%vs CLE12s and deeperMerrill Kelly41%at STL12s and deeper
Some Hesitation
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeJake Bennett4%at COL15s and deeperKumar Rocker8%at MIA15s and deeperTyler Phillips5%vs TEX15s and deeperKodai Senga5%vs CHC15s and deeper
Monday begins a strong week for Andre Pallante, who has looked good this season with some added velocity and movement on his four-seamer. His roster rate has jumped from 16% last week to 40% this week. Eric Lauer does make me nervous, but he’s been solid for the Dodgers and has a good shot at a win on Monday. Anthony Kay and Merrill Kelly also begin decent two-start weeks today, but I am not confident enough in Kumar Rocker to use him for this two-start week. If you wanted to use him as a standalone start tonight, I get it, but it’s still risky.
Tuesday
Strong Preference
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeSean Burke24%vs CLE12s and deeper
Fairly Confident
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypePeter Lambert31%at TOR15s and deeper
Some Hesitation
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeAaron Civale6%at SF15s and deeperCal Quantrill0%at MIA15s and deeperJR Ritchie7%at SD15s and deeperKyle Leahy4%vs ARI15s and deeper
It’s a decent matchup for Sean Burke on Tuesday, and I covered his usage changes below. Peter Lambert has also continued to deliver, but I don’t love this matchup against a Toronto offense that feels like it could wake up at any moment.
Wednesday
Strong Preference
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeGriffin Jax35%vs KC12s and deeperGage Jump39%at SF12s and deeper
Fairly Confident
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeNoah Cameron37%at TB12s and deeperMartin Perez36%at SD15s and deeper
Some Hesitation
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeTrey Gibson1%at LAA15s and deeperSean Manaea16%vs CHC15s and deeperJavier Assad19%at NYM15s and deeperShane Drohan14%at CIN15s and deeperMatthew Liberatore8%vs ARI15s and deeper
Griffin Jax needs to be rostered more places. I know he’s getting limited to five innings right now, but he is producing in those innings. Gage Jump is outside of Sacramento against a mediocre offense, so fire it up. Both Noah Cameron and Martin Perez have been pitching well of late, and they have decent matchups, but they still make me a bit nervous. I think Shane Drohan is solid, but I don’t love using him in Cincinnati.
Thursday
Strong Preference
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeTroy Melton30%vs HOU12s and deeperLanden Roupp42%vs ATH12s and deeper
Fairly Confident
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeIan Seymour8%vs KC12s and deeperJeffrey Springs16%at SF15s and deeperSeth Lugo31%at TB15s and deeper
Some Hesitation
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeTatsuya Imai35%at DET15s and deeperCade Cavalli23%vs PHI15s and deeper
Yes, Landen Roupp doesn’t qualify, but his roster rate has plummeted about 30%, so I wanted to highlight that I still have faith. Troy Melton has been solid ever since coming back, even if there aren’t any strikeouts. I will still believe in Ian Seymour, but I know the results haven’t been great, and kudos to you if you can ever trust Tatsuya Imai or Cade Cavalli, but I can’t
Friday
Fairly Confident
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeJoey Cantillo27%vs SEA12s and deeperAndrew Alvarez5%at BAL15s and deeper
Some Hesitation
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeStephen Kolek39%at CWS15s and deeperKeider Montero17%vs HOU15s and deeperJose Cabrera0%at TB15s and deeperTomoyuki Sugano6%at MIN15s and deeper
Joey Cantillo added a cutter, more on that below, and this Seattle offense is slumping a bit. I also can’t help that I’m intrigued by Andrew Alvarez. Maybe I’ll write him up next week. Stephen Kolek, we knew, was riding a heater, and that came to an end this weekend. Jose Cabrera made his MLB debut over the weekend, and I broke it down below.
Saturday
Strong Preference
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeAndre Pallante40%vs MIA12s and deeper
Fairly Confident
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeBrandon Young29%vs WAS15s and deeperAnthony Kay13%vs KC15s and deeperJack Perkins9%at LAA15s and deeperMerrill Kelly41%at TB15s and deeper
Some Hesitation
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeSlade Cecconi18%vs SEA15s and deeperKumar Rocker8%at TOR15s and deeperRyan Gusto1%at STL15s and deeper
Here is the two-step for Andre Pallante, Anthony Kay, and Merrill Kelly. We also get the second start for Kumar Rocker, which I didn’t like. I’m not sure I truly believe in Brandon Young, but I broke down his arsenal below. I did like the whiffs we got from Jack Perkins on Sunday. If the command of his four-seamer and changeup improves to lefties, he could be a solid option, especially on the road like this.
Sunday
Fairly Confident
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeGrant Holmes25%at SF15s and deeperZebby Matthews15%vs COL15s and deeper
Some Hesitation
PitcherRoster%OpponentLeague TypeAaron Civale6%at LAA15s and deeperCal Quantrill0%at TOR15s and deeperKyle Leahy4%vs MIA15s and deeperRyan Feltner1%at MIN15s and deeper
There are no starts I truly like today. I guess you could gamble on Zebby Matthews at home against the Rockies, but I’d rather not.
Starting Pitcher Pitch Mix Changes
Joey Cantillo – Guardians (New Cutter, Four-seam Locations, Slider Uptick – Maybe)
I’ve always been a little bit in the bag for Cantillo, so perhaps I’m biased here, but I like what he’s starting to do in recent starts. Like the other starting pitchers in the Cleveland rotation, Cantillo is adding another fastball variation to take the pressure off his four-seam fastball. After mixing in a stray cutter here or there, Cantillo is averaging 15.7% usage on his cutter in his last three starts. It’s 20.5% usage to lefties and 14.8% usage to righties.
In those three starts, the cutter has a 67.4% zone rate, which is well above the 52% league average. It also has a 9.3% swinging strike rate (SwStr%) and a 40% Ideal Contact Rate allowed, so it’s not really a tremendous pitch on its own, but he’s been using it early in the count, and it grades out well because of its locations. It’s kept the cutter middle and low to righties while trying to get it inside on them. It has a 32.4% CSW in three starts because of his ability to get early called strikes on it. To lefties, the cutter has not a single swinging strike, but it has a 55.6% CSW, which should tell you just how many called strikes he’s getting. He uses it 89% of the time early in the count and is similarly keeping it low in the zone but outside to lefties.
One of the benefits of using the cutter more often is that his four-seam fastball usage has fallen from 42% to 23.7%. He’s still using it 32% of the time to lefties but just 22% to righties. He has been using his curveball as his primary pitch (34% usage to righties) and then leaning on his changeup (27% usage) while mixing in the cutter and four-seamer. He’s also throwing the four-seamer up in the zone more to righties now than he has the cutter working. His high location rate on the four-seamer to righties for the season is 41.6%, but it’s been 55% over the last three games. That’s likely why the SwStr% is up from 5.8% to 9.8%, and the PutAway Rate has improved despite not throwing the four-seamer more often in two-strike counts to righties. He’s actually turned to the curve more often, and that pitch has been great for him.
Lefties have been seeing the four-seam (32% usage), cutter (20.5% usage), and curve (20.5%), but Cantillo has thrown his slider 16% to lefties over his last three starts. That’s mainly because of his start on June 7th against the Rangers, where he threw it 30% of the time to lefties, so it’s unclear if upping its usage is a big part of his plan going forward. He also allowed seven runs on nine hits in five innings in that start and then immediately dialed back the slider usage, so that could be an indication that the slider is not a huge pitch for him going forward.
I’m not sure I love that the cutter is low in the zone since he is elevating his four-seamer more often, but he does still keep his four-seamer low in the zone more than normal so that he can drop his curve and changeup underneath the zone for whiffs. Cantillo will still always be dependent on the command of his changeup and curve to be successful, but he has dampened one of his weaknesses by adding the cutter to help the four-seam fastball, so I’m getting back on board here.
Sean Burke – White Sox (Sinker Usage, New Cutter)
Burke has intrigued us before. He had four good outings to end the 2024 season, and there was some optimism about him heading into last season. Even though his 4.22 ERA last year wasn’t bad, a 1.44 WHIP was a problem, and there weren’t many strikeouts. Burke has rebounded with a solid 2026 season, posting a 3.89 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. Part of that has been an increased reliance on the sinker.
Last year, Burke threw the sinker 5% of the time and 9.7% of the time to righties. This season, he’s up to 16% usage overall and 20.1% versus righties. While it’s a pitch that doesn’t give up a lot of hard contact (28.6% Ideal Contact Rate and 25% Hard-hit Rate), Burke also really struggles to command it. Against righties, his sinker has a 9th percentile zone rate and a 29th percentile strike rate. It’s not a pitch that misses bats, so he needs to get it over the plate. He is trying to jam righties inside with it, but he’s missing up and in far too often. Figuring that out will be crucial for him.
Without having great sinker command, Burke still has to throw his four-seamer nearly 32% of the time to righties. The pitch misses plenty of bats, with a 17.5% SwStr% to righties, but it also allows a 54.2% Ideal Contact Rate and an 8.3% barrel rate. It would be great if Burke could dial down the usage even more and try to focus on it more as an elevated two-strike whiff pitch.
He’s also trying to do the same thing with lefties, which is why he added a cutter this season and dialed his four-seam usage back 8% agains lefties. Much like the sinker, the cutter has a 33rd percentile zone rate against lefties, but he is getting decent swing and miss and a 99th percentile chase rate on the cutter against lefties. Maybe hitters are chasing because they think it’s the four-seamer and then it runs off the plate, but it’s odd for a pitch that’s used 83% of the time early in counts to be a pitch you can’t throw in the strike zone but get chases on. In his last start against the Yankees, he did have a 63% zone rate on the cutter, but that was his first time with a zone rate on his cutter over 25% since May 15th. Same with the sinker, which hasn’t had a zone rate over 45% zone since May 15th either.
Burke’s inability to command his other fastball variations makes me wary of trusting him, but I do think it could make him a really intriguing option in 2027 when the command of those pitches is even better.
Jose Cabrera – Diamondbacks (MLB Debut)
The 24-year-old Cabrera is getting a shot in the Diamondbacks’ rotation after both Ryne Nelson (forearm/elbow) and Michael Soroka (glute) landed on the injured list. It was a good first start for Cabrera, who threw five shutout innings against the Twins, not walking a single batter and striking out three. Given how few waiver wire starting pitchers there are, I thought it was worth looking into what Cabrera does well.
The first thing that stands out is that he has a bad four-seam fastball. It’s 94.6 mph with slightly above average vertical movement and below average vertical movement. Because of his arm angle and mechanics, the pitch has more horizontal movement than you’d expect. He did command it well on Sunday, and he pairs that with a 92.7 mph sinker that has seven MORE inches of horizontal movement. He did a good job of burying the sinker in on the hands of righties, and so that can also keep them off of the four-seamer, so he knows that he needs to hide his fastball.
He also does that by leaning on his cutter as an early strike pitch. He threw it 9% of the time to lefties, choosing to go more four-seam heavy for them, but he threw the cutter 36% of the time to righties, and 93% of those were early in the count. When he gets ahead with the cutter (or four-seamer to lefties), he goes to the sweeper against righties and the curve to lefties. He also has a changeup that he used early in the count to lefties as well.
None of the pitches really stood out, but he has a true six-pitch mix and a clear plan for each one. That’s the profile of a pitcher who could be a solid streamer in deeper formats, but I’d be making sure to play the matchups here.
Brandon Young – Orioles (New Sinker)
I know everybody wants Brandon Young to be a thing, and I get it. He has a 3.07 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 67.1 innings so far this season and just handled the Dodgers. We want to trust him. I’m just not sure I can.
His four-seamer has solid velocity at 95.1 mph but gets good vertical movement, and he does a nice job of keeping it up in the zone. His 73.6% high location rate on his four-seam fastball is 95th percentile among starters. That means that he will give up some home runs on the pitch, but, for the most part, it does not allow a ton of hard contact, and it can get some whiffs as well. It’s more successful against lefties than righties, which is why Young throws it more to lefties and has started to mix in a sinker to righties as well. Last season, he didn’t throw the sinker at all, but this year he is using it 26.4% of the time to righties. Much like with the four-seamer, he commands the sinker well, getting it in on the hands of righties consistently. However, even with that fastball combination, he gives up lots of early balls in play and doesn’t get into many two-strike counts.
When he does, he has been successful at getting chases, and his 33.1% two-strike chase rate is well above league average. The issue is that his overall success in two-strike counts is below league average because he is rarely in dominant enough counts to waste pitches. His slider is his primary two-strike pitch to righties, and it does have a 21.2% swinging strike rate and 30% PutAway Rate on the season against them. If he can get into two-strike counts to righties, he has been able to put them away.
It’s less successful against lefties. He uses a splutter and a curve against lefties, but the curve is more of an early count pitch to steal strikes. The splitter has just a 7% swinging strike rate to lefties and has not been overly effective in two-strike counts. All of which is to say that this is not the profile of a pitcher who is going to miss many bats. He’s all about keeping hitters off the barrel and inducing weak contact, but that makes it tougher to trust him in fantasy leagues because every ball in play could put a runner on base. I’d much prefer him in a quality starts league.
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