Tyler Matzek (SP-COL). Matzek had a decent outing against the Cubs on Friday, but was too inefficient with his pitches to hang around long enough for the win. Matzek gave up only 1 run over 4 inning while striking out 4, but he also walked 3 and gave up 4 hits in running his pitch count up to 84. While Matzek showed signs of possibly becoming a streaming option despite his status as a Rockies pitcher (3.78 FIP, 49.7% GB rate in 2014), he's going to have to improve his control (only 40 of tonight's 84 pitches went for strikes) in order to become a viable option in mixed leagues.
D.J. Le Mahieu (2B-COL). LeMahieu went 3 for 4 with a run and an RBI against the Cubs Friday afternoon. With Josh Rutledge having been shipped off to Anaheim, LeMahieu has no threat to his playing time and this full time status makes him a sneaky source of value at a hard to fill position in NL-only leagues. LeMahieu has consistently maintained above-average BABIPs and he should therefore be able to maintain a BA somewhere in the range of his .278 lifetime mark. LeMahieu has stolen 18 and 10 bases in the last two seasons, so he can reasonably be expected to steal somewhere in the range of 15 bases in 2015. While this alone is not enough to give him value in any but the deepest of mixed leagues, the SBs plus the counting stats he provides without hurting in the BA category is the type of production from an overlooked player that wins NL-only leagues.
Gio Gonzalez (SP-WAS). Gonzalez cruised for 6 innings Friday night against the Phillies, but ran out of gas in the 7th, loading the bases before being pulled in favor of Xavier Cedeno and Craig Stammen, who proceeded to let all of the inherited runners score. The result was a somewhat disappointing line of 3 ER in 6.1 innings with 4 walks and 4 strikeouts. Although the 4 walks are a little disturbing, this outing should be just a bump in the road for Gonzalez, who is being somewhat underrated due to what was perceived as a disappointing 2014 season. However, Gonzalez actually put up numbers that bordered on elite: 3.03 FIP, 24.8% K rate and a career best 8.6% walk rate. Especially in light of the fact that he will typically be matched up against other teams' fourth starters, Gonzalez should be a good bet to put up around 15 wins (assuming the Nationals can ever get their offense going) with an ERA in the low 3s.
Mike Fiers (SP-MIL). Fiers got knocked around a bit by the Pirates on Friday night, giving up 5 ER on 7 hits and a walk over 5 innings. He did strike out 8, so it was not all bad news. He was the victim of some bad luck, as his BABIP for the night was .462 and his strand rate was 52.6%. Despite the rough outing, I still expect Fiers to have a solid season, although he will not repeat his 2.13 ERA from 2015. Although Fiers does not have a dominant fastball (averaging 89.5 MPH in 2014), he does have great deception, as evidenced by his 27.7% K rate. His peripherals (2.99 FIP, 3.15 xFIP) indicate that he should be able to maintain an ERA in the low 3s and this, coupled with his above-average strikeout ability, makes him a viable SP4 or 5 in mixed leagues.
Jonathan Niese (SP-NYN). Niese had a somewhat shaky outing against the surprising Atlanta Braves on Friday night, giving up 3 runs (1 earned) on 7 hits and 2 walks over 5 innings. Given the number of baserunners allowed, Niese is fortunate to only have been touched for one earned run. Despite generally solid peripherals, Niese is not a recommended add to a fantasy staff. He has missed time with shoulder issues each of the last two years, making him hard to depend on, and he simply does not miss enough bats to generate significant fantasy value and the weakness of the Mets offense makes it difficult to use him as a streaming option.
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