Two Startapalooza, Week 18: Drinking Bailey’s Kool-Aid From A Shoe

I’m happy to bring you another fanciful week of double dippers here in the wide world of stitchesball. It’s a little bit of a lighter week after a busy week of post All-Star Break action, yet this is another one of the friendliest streaming slates of the season. I said that last week too and I really hope I’m not accidentally turning into an optimist. Tiers 1 and 2 are just about as shallow as you can get, with a lot of mid-level starters getting two turns this time out. Tier 2 is easily the grossest it’s been all season. I didn’t even want to put C-Mart in there, but I felt obligated to at least fill out three names in Tier 2. Tier 3 is where the party’s at this week, baby. They rented an elephant and a clown for the week and gave them both ecstasy so lord knows what’s gonna happen next. You could argue that David Price could have been elevated to Tier 2, but he’s got the Yankees and he gets pounded by them pretty consistently. Tyler Skaggs was borderline too, but a date with Cleveland bumped him down. Tyler Anderson should keep the good times rolling with a pair of decent matchups. Tier 4 is a bit more of a hodgepodge, with guys like Ervin Santana who I am not completely sure what to do with. His fastball velocity is down a whopping three MPH from last year, which is terrifying, but he also gets the Royals in his second start. I’m probably playing it safe and staying away from him for now. Tanner Roark was ridiculously good in his last start, reversing the trend from his previous umpteen starts of being ridiculously bad. I’m not buying it, and he’s still in Tier 5. Honestly, a lot of Tier 5 doesn’t even look that bad this week. Someone punch me in the nuts, I need my pessimism back.

• James Paxton (SEA) – Big Maple is a bit of a question mark here with his lingering back issues, but the plan for the time being is for him to take the mound Monday against Houston. It’s a rough matchup, but obviously if he’s healthy he’s an all formats auto-start. Keep an eye on his status heading into the week and make sure his trunk issues are behind him. Get it? Trunk? Cuz he’s Big Maple? I’ll see myself out.

• Carlos Martinez (STL) – Here’s another injury concern. As of this writing Carlos Martinez has supposedly thrown a bullpen session, but I haven’t seen any reports of how it went. If all goes according to plan, he’ll be reinstated from the DL when first eligible on Monday. The real question is how good he will really be. The Rockies aren’t as frightening away from Coors, but the Pirates are a sneaky lineup that doesn’t strike out very often. They could give C-Mart fits.

• Derek Holland (SF) – I actually considered the Dutch Oven for Tier 2 (especially since it’s so crappy this week) but I couldn’t quite do it. Holland has been incredible since the start of June, posting a 2.72 ERA/1.21 WHIP with an 11.1 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9. I think I’ll write more on him for tomorrow’s Top 100, so I’ll keep it a bit truncated here. He’s got some very nice matchups this week and he’d be a definite two start streaming target for me.

• Danny Duffy (KC) – The Duff Man has been confounding this season. Despite his fastball ticking back up a bit, his strikeout rate hasn’t risen and instead his walk rate has. He’s getting fewer swings out of the zone and fewer whiffs overall as his offspeed pitches have taken a step back. Just when you think he’s turned it around (3.30 June ERA) he mixes in a couple blow-ups in July. His divisional matchups this week are favorable though, and he’s been effective against the Pale Hose and Twins at times this season. I’d be willing to take a shot on him despite the blow up potential.

• Homer Bailey (CIN) – You ever drunk Bailey’s from a shoe? Well, I may be interested in drinking the Kool-Aid from a shoe, as they say (they actually drank Flavor Aid and that phrase is an abomination). Homer, who often lives up to his name on the mound, recently returned from the disabled list, where he spent approximately the last two months, you know, being on a list. He was good, holding the Cardinals to two runs on five hits over 6.2 innings with eight K’s and two walks. The Cardinals aren’t a scary matchup outside of Matt Carpenter, but Bailey did show off some changes. First, his fastball averaged 95 MPH, up a full tick from the rest of the season before the DL stint. He also used his curveball and slider a combined 35%, easily a season high. This gives me at least a slight reason for optimism moving forward, especially with a pair of non-intimidating opponents on the docket. He’s still not ready to make the leap from Tier 5, though.

*All pitchers are scheduled for two starts as of Friday evening.

You can find Dokken on Twitter @NathanDokken