Early Week Streamers for August 11 – August 14

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  • By Anthony Kates

    Last Updated on August 11, 2025 1:25 am by Anthony Kates | Published: August 11, 2025

    This year, we’ve decided to do two streaming articles a week for our premium subscribers. The podcast only provides one day of streamers at a time (a day ahead), whereas the streamer articles will provide three and four day streaming outlooks, giving you a leg up on those non-premium Sports Ethos members (and those in your league who don’t use Sports Ethos at all…even though they should).

    The articles will come out every Sunday and every Thursday. You will notice that I have very few single digit percentage rostered players during the early part of the week and that’s because I do not want to assume a ton of risk early in the week. There is zero reason to be desperate before Friday, at the earliest, so there is zero reason to take on any kind of high risk stream. But, if you DO want to have risk on a daily basis with your streams, I will highlight the low-rostered and/or high risk streams that might have a modicum of upside, but I wouldn’t personally start, after I’ve discussed the streams I do recommend.

    **All stats for Monday and Tuesday streamers are through Friday’s games, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s are through Monday’s games.**

    Monday – August 11 – Probable Starters

    Cade Cavalli – WAS – @ KCR – 7%

    It has been a long climb up the mountain, but Cavalli has finally made it back to the big leagues. He made his first MLB start was back in 2022, was diagnosed with right shoulder inflammation before his second start and then missed the rest of the season. In 2023, he had Tommy John surgery. In 2024, while rehabbing from TJS, he suffered through some setbacks and dead arm. Then, this year, he spent time rehabbing more in the minor leagues, eventually making it through 74 innings, before making his second ever big league start, more than three years after his first. He looked elite against a sneaky good Athletics lineup, striking out six, walking one and allowing three hits over four and one-third scoreless innings. His fastball was generating heat up to 100 miles per hour and he had 19 whiffs. It’s easy to forget, but he was once considered one of the ten best pitchers in the minor leagues and was a top 30 to 40 prospect, so the elite pedigree is there. It’s going to be easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of having him back on the field and join MacKenzie Gore in the rotation, but he did struggle his way through Triple-A. He allowed 27 walks, 44 earned runs and 8 home runs over 65 innings, leading to a 5.35 ERA and 1.45 WHIP. I believe and the arm of Cavalli and think he will do a great job of keeping the ball on the ground (he’s always had a better ground ball rate than fly ball rate), limit home runs and strikeout batters.

    He’ll be facing a Royals team that has been performing worse than the Athletics, which is why I believe he will find the same or better success. The Royals, over the past month against right-handed pitching at home, have a 103 wRC+, 18th in the league. They have a .328 wOBA, 14th, a .757 OPS, 14th, .191 ISO, 11th, and just a 15.6% strikeout rate, second best. Their 8% walk rate is 18th. They have the third highest ground ball rate, 15th highest fly ball rate, but the lowest line drive rate in the league. They have the sixth highest hard-hit rate and the 15th highest soft hit rate, resulting in seven home runs, 19th most, tied with the Diamondbacks, Astros, Cardinals and Giants, even though they had just the 24th most plate appearances against righties at home over the past month. They scored 32 runs, tied with the Rangers and Diamondbacks for 20th, they had 27 extra base hits, 11th most, and ground into six double plays, ninth most, tied with six other teams.

    Even though Cavalli made just his second big league start in four years, he looked as dominant as we had expected, against an even better offense than the Royals. Though they’ve hit for some decent power, they haven’t translated all of those extra base hits into a ton of runs, which leads me to believe Cavalli can find success against the Royals.

    High-risk: Jonathan Cannon vs Tigers, Anthony Molina @ Cardinals, Cristian Javier vs Red Sox, Bailey Falter vs Nationals, Jose Soriano vs Dodgers, Zebby Matthews @ Yankees, Taijuan Walker @ Reds, Andrew Heaney @ Brewers, Miles Mikolas vs Rockies, Yu Darvish @ Giants, Will Warren vs Twins, Jose Quintana vs Pirates, Chris Paddack @ White Sox

    Tuesday – August 12 – Probable Starters

    Emmett Sheehan – LAD – @ LAA – 24%

    Sheehan has made seven appearances this season, with five coming as a starter, and he should continue to start until Roki Sasaki is fully healthy and has made some rehab starts, so he should have a few weeks of proving himself left this season. So far, though, Sheehan has performed pretty damn well. Over his seven appearances, he has thrown 30 innings, allowed 15 runs, 10 earned, two home runs, 11 walks and struck out 31. His BABIP is around league average at .288, but his strand rate is worse than the league average at 63.3%. He has been a fly ball heavy starter, with a 48.8% fly ball rate, but has also had an elevated line drive rate of 25.6%. His statcast numbers are merely okay, with a 7.3% barrel rate and 39% hard-hit rate, but pitching in Chavez Ravine has helped him limit balls leaving the ballpark. He has allowed a league average 74.4% contact rate, but has kept his zone-contact rate to just 84%, while throwing a first-pitch strike 65.3% of the time. He hasn’t been able to maintain the absolutely elite strikeout rates from his time in the minor leagues, but a 12.6% swinging strike rate and 29.4% chase rate do lend some support and credence to his 9.3 K/9.

    Sheehan will be facing the Angels, a team whose offense has been one of the seven or eight worst in the league when facing a right-handed pitcher at home over the past month. They have an 88 wRC+, seventh lowest, .298 wOBA, eighth lowest, .672 OPS, eighth lowest and a .131 ISO, seventh lowest and tied with the Twins. They have a 25.3% strike out rate that is the fourth highest, but a 10.1% walk rate, that is the eighth highest and tied with the Reds. On the batted ball side, they have hit slightly more ground balls than fly balls, with the ninth lowest line drive rate. They have a 30.7% hard hit rate, 11th lowest, and an 11.6% soft hit rate, the fifth lowest. They had the most plate appearances at home against a RHP over the last month, by 65 plate appearances, and hit 13 home runs, ninth most and tied with the Yankees, Athletics and Marlins (each of whom has at least 186 less plate appearances against RHP over the past month). They scored 59 runs, second most, hit 34 extra base hits and ground into eight double plays, tied for first with the Reds and Marlins.

    Sheehan at times has looked as elite as we’ve expected from top level Dodgers pitching prospects, but does struggle with control from time to time. The Angels look like a great offense, until you realize the numbers are large because of volume and not because of true performance. Give me Sheehan and five or more great innings.

    Michael Wacha – KCR – vs WAS – 46%

    Wacha is on an incredible run at the moment, allowing two earned runs or less in each of his last five outings. Over the five starts, he allowed just six earned runs, one home run and three walks, while striking out 19 over 30.1 innings, earning two wins and three quality starts in the process. He’s had incredible BABIP luck, with a .176, and some strand rate luck, at 76.5%, but has allowed just a 34.9% hard-hit rate and an 87.3 MPH avgEV, so some of the luck is self generated.  Even though he has allowed more fly balls than ground balls, he has a line-drive rate near league average and an elite HR/FB rate, thanks to pitching in a pitcher’s paradise at Kauffman Stadium. He has allowed a lot of contact, what with an 82% contact rate and an 88% zone contact rate, but he also throws strikes 55.4% of the time and first-pitch strikes 58.2% of the time, so batters are going to swing at these pitches.

    The Nationals have had one of the worst offenses when facing a right-handed pitcher on the road over the past month. Their wRC+, 80, wOBA, .283, and OPS, .649, are all the seventh lowest, with their IOS ranking 13th worst, and their strikeout rate, 25.9%, being fifth worst and tied with the Braves. They had a 7% walk rate and even that was the seventh worst. Batted ball wise, they had a 46% ground ball rate, fourth highest, 34.9% fly ball rate, seventh lowest, and a 19% line drive rate, 14th lowest. They had a 32.7% hard-hit rate, the eighth lowest, and a 17.7% soft hit rate, fourth highest. They had the third-most plate appearances against RHP on the road over the past month and hit 19 home runs, the second most, and scored 63 runs, second most, while hitting 41 extra base hits, and grounding into 10 double plays, tied with the Giants for most.

    Wacha is on pace to finish as a top 50 fantasy starting pitcher for the third year in a row and it shouldn’t come as any surprise at this point. Limiting runs and base runners is a recipe for success, especially when facing a team like the Nationals, whose high run, home run and extra base hit totals come more from their high volume of plate appearances and less because of their actual performance on the field. Let’s see if Wacha can extend his streak of two earned runs or less and five or more innings on the mound to a sixth game.

    Jacob Lopez – ATH – vs Rays – 29%

    Who could have guessed that Lopez would end up one of the two or three best starters for the Athletics this season? He is tied with Jeffrey Springs for second most fWAR among Athletics pitchers, albeit in 54.1 less innings. He has the best strikeout rate, the second best home run rate and the best ERA of any starter on the team. He’s made 14 starts on the season and has allowed more than three earned runs in just three of them. Since joining the rotation permanently on June 8, he’s been absolutely wonderful, with a 10.61 K/, 3.12 BB/9 and a 0.78 HR/9, to go along with a 2.34 ERA (3.18 FIP and 3.72 xFIP). And he has been great over his last five: 27 innings, seven earned runs, three home runs, 11 walks and 30 strikeouts, earning three wins and one quality start. He is currently on a 17 inning scoreless streak, has a .238 BABIP and an 88.7% strand rate over the five game stretch, and has some pretty elite statcast data: 85.8 MPH avgEV, 30.3% hard-hit rate and a 7.6% barrel rate. He is a fly ball heavy starter, with a 46.2% rate that is nearly 11 points higher than his ground ball rate, but the low exit velo’s and low hard-hit rates help keep those fly balls in the park. He has a slightly elevated contact rate, with an elite zone-contact rate, an 11% swinging strike rate and a 27.1% chase rate. Since June 8, he has been the ninth best starter in the American League and the ace of the Athletics rotation.

    The Rays haven’t just been terrible against left-handed pitchers over the past month, what with a 59 wRC+, the second lowest in the league, they’ve been absolutely dreadful against left-handed pitchers on the road over the past month, with just a 37 wRC+. It is the second lowest in the league and they are one of three teams under a 40 wRC+ on the road over the past month, but they have at least 60 plate appearances more than the other two teams. They also had the second lowest wOBA, .223, and OPS, .512, that is tied with the Mets. Their .148 ISO is the 14th lowest, their 30.9% strikeout rate is third highest and their 5.5% walk rate is fifth lowest. On the batted ball side, they had a 45.6% ground ball rate, seventh highest in the league, a 36.8% fly ball rate, 16th highest, but a 17.5% line drive rate, ninth lowest. They had the sixth lowest hard-hit rate, 29.6%, and the fifth highest soft hit rate, 18.3%. They had the third most plate appearances against left-handers over the past month and hit six home runs, sixth most and tied with the Angels, Orioles and Guardians, and scored 16 runs, tenth most and tied with the Padres. They had 11 extra base hits, ninth most and tied with the Guardians, and hit into just one double play, one of ten teams with zero or one double plays.

    I believe Lopez will have a great game because of how poorly the Rays have performed over the past month when facing lefties on the road. Though it seems like they’ve performed well based on their volume stats, this performance is based on a high volume of plate appearances and not because they are performing well. I think Lopez can extend his scoreless streak past 20 innings and earn another win.

    High-risk: Mitchell Parker @ Royals, Jack Leiter vs Diamondbacks, Nestor Cortes Jr. @ Giants, Simeon Woods-Richardson @ Yankees, Janson Junk @ Guardians, Tyler Anderson vs Dodgers, Spencer Arrighetti vs Red Sox, Kyle Freeland @ Cardinals, Brady Singer vs Phillies, Shane Smith vs Tigers, Dustin May @ Astros, Dean Kremer vs Mariners, Anthony DeSclafani @ Rangers, Logan Allen vs Marlins, Matthew Liberatore vs Rockies


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    August 11, 2025, 1:25 am