Early Week Streamers for August 18 – August 21

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  • By Anthony Kates

    Last Updated on August 17, 2025 4:53 am by Anthony Kates | Published: August 17, 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.Ā 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.

    Monday – August 18 – Probable Starters

    Dustin May – BOS – vs BAL – 27%

    To say that May has had an up-and-down season would be an understatement. He’ll strikeout eight or more batters in three straight starts, then strike out nine total batters in three starts COMBINED. One game he is allowing seven earned runs on two home runs and four walks, the next no runs on three walks. But one thing has been pretty consistent with May: when he is facing a bad team, he will usually put up a pretty decent start. When facing teams under .500 at home (in LA or Boston), he has made nine appearances, throwing 51 innings, allowing 18 runs (17 earned), 19 walks, six home runs and striking out 53. That’s a 9.34 K/9, 1.06 HR/9 and 3.35 BB/9, all three better than his season-long numbers. He has an ERA of 3.00, which is almost two full runs lower than his season-long ERA and a WHIP of 1.35, which equals his season-long WHIP. He had a barrel rate of 5.9%, better than his season-long rate, and a hard-hit rate of 44.4%, virtually equal to his season-long rate. I say this to say, he pitches well against bad teams and bad offenses at home and he is coming off of one of his best performances of the season.

    And now he gets to face an Orioles team that has performed exceptionally poorly on the road when facing a right-handed pitcher over the past month. They have had one of the worst offenses on the road against RHP over the past month, as they are one of three teams with a wRC+ under 70. Their 64 wRC+ is the second worst, as is their .260 wOBA and their .589 OPS. Only the Orioles and the Tigers have an OPS under .600. Their ISO is the third lowest, .119, while their 22.7% strikeout rate is the 15th highest in the league and their 5.7% walk rate is the lowest in the league. They have the seventh highest ground ball rate, 44.5%, and the seventh lowest fly ball rate, 37%, tied with the Reds, and their line drive rate is 18.5%, 10th lowest in the league. They had the fifth lowest HR/FB rate, 7.7%, even though they had the 2nd highest hard hit rate, 39.3%, behind only the Yankees, and the eighth lowest soft hit rate, 13.7%. Over the past month, against RHP on the road, the Orioles have 299 PA, the 23rd most in the league, but have hit just six home runs, second fewest, and scored just 23 runs, fewest in the league and tied with the Guardians – who had 79 less PA. They had 20 XBH, fourth fewest in the league, and ground into five double plays, 17th most and tied with the Rockies, Mets and Phillies.

    I am rocking with May because of how he performs against bad teams and because of how poorly the Orioles have been producing as of late.

    Brady Singer – CIN – @ LAA – 45%

    The Brady Singer-Jonathan India swap that the Royals and Reds pulled off this past off-season has clearly been a win in year one for the Reds. He has been a more than solid #4 or #5 starter for the team, posting improved strikeout and home run rates, even though he has allowed a career high fly-ball rate at one of the most home run happy stadiums in the league. He’s allowed more than three runs in a start in just seven of twenty-four starts and, unfortunately, two of those seven were during his most recent seven game stretch. In his starts @ Pittsburgh and @ Washington, he game up a combined 11 earned runs, two home runs and six walks, over just six innings. In his five other starts (all at home: Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Colorado and Miami), he allowed just six earned runs, two home runs and four walks. He struck out 39 over 36.2 innings, had a .323 BABIP (above league average) and a 73.7% strand rate (slightly above league average) with a 41.4% ground ball rate and 36.4% fly ball rate (the ground and fly ball rates are reversed on the season). He’s limited batters to just a 4% barrel rate, a 34% hard-hit rate, a 31.8% chase rate and an 11.1% swinging strike rate.

    He’ll be facing an Angels team that has been well below average against right-handed pitchers at home over the past month. They have an 84 wRC+, the eighth lowest in the league, a .293 wOBA, seventh lowest and tied with the Twins, a .660 OPS, seventh lowest, and a .135 ISO, ninth lowest. They had the highest strikeout rate in the league at 27.8%, though their walk rate was middle of the league, 8.9%, tied with the Orioles. They had the 12th highest ground ball rate, the 14th highest fly ball rate and the eighth lowest line drive rate. They had the seventh lowest hard-hit rate and the fourth lowest soft hit rate, resulting in 14 home runs, the tenth most and tied with the White Sox, Brewers and Mets, even though they had the second most plate appearances facing a right-handed pitcher at home over the past month. They scored 62 runs, the third most, ground into seven double plays, the eighth most and tied with the Twins, Rangers and Braves, and stole 12 bases, the fourth most in the league.

    This is a seemingly risky stream for one big reason: Singer has been much worse on the road than at home, with five of his seven games allowing more than three runs coming on the road, but that doesn’t mean he is terrible in every road game. And taking on a team that seems successful based on volume, that strikes out a lot and doesn’t hit a lot of home runs, is the right kind of match up for Singer to have on the road.

    High-risk: Tyler Alexander @ Braves, Austin Gomber vs Dodgers, Victor Mederos vs Reds, Nestor Cortes Jr. vs Giants, Jack Leiter @ Royals, Matthew Liberatore @ Marlins

    Tuesday – August 19 – Probable Starters

    Walker Buehler – BOS – vs BAL – 22%

    Buehler’s first season in Boston has been a bit underwhelming, but like May on Monday, he performs better against bad teams than anyone else. In his last six starts against teams under .500 (both on road and at home), he has thrown 39 innings, allowed 18 earned runs, six home runs, 12 walks and struck out 29. His 4.15 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 1.38 HR/9, 2.76 BB/9 and 6.69 K/9 are all better than his season long numbers. He has already thrown a decent game against the Orioles this season and will look to bounce back after two poor outings back-to-back at home three weeks ago. He had a 6.9% barrel rate and a 34.2% hard-hit rate in these games, both much better than his season long numbers. He’s not the elite producer of his youth and may never recover the ability to dominate at a high level, but he should be able to continue to pitch well against bad offenses.

    Speaking of bad offenses, the Orioles have had one of the worst offenses on the road against RHP over the past month, as they are one of three teams with a wRC+ under 70. Their 64 wRC+ is the second worst, as is their .260 wOBA and their .589 OPS. Only the Orioles and the Tigers have an OPS under .600. Their ISO is the third lowest, .119, while their 22.7% strikeout rate is the 15th highest in the league and their 5.7% walk rate is the lowest in the league. They have the seventh highest ground ball rate, 44.5%, and the seventh lowest fly ball rate, 37%, tied with the Reds, and their line drive rate is 18.5%, 10th lowest in the league. They had the fifth lowest HR/FB rate, 7.7%, even though they had the 2nd highest hard hit rate, 39.3%, behind only the Yankees, and the eighth lowest soft hit rate, 13.7%. Over the past month, against RHP on the road, the Orioles have 299 PA, the 23rd most in the league, but have hit just six home runs, second fewest, and scored just 23 runs, fewest in the league and tied with the Guardians – who had 79 less PA. They had 20 XBH, fourth fewest in the league, and ground into five double plays, 17th most and tied with the Rockies, Mets and Phillies.

    Though Buehler hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire, the Orioles have been dreadful. I am risking Buehler on a Tuesday because I think that he can limit the Orioles offense a second time this season and position himself and the Red Sox to win the game.

    Jacob Lopez – ATH – @ MIN – 53%

    I know this is cheating technically, since we focus on starters rostered in under 50% of leagues, but Lopez should be rostered in far more leagues, so we are going to talk about him some more. Lopez allowed five earned runs over five innings against the Texas Rangers back on July 21. In four starts since then, he has thrown 24 innings, earned three wins and two quality starts, striking out 28, allowing just six walks and has allowed zero runs or home runs. Since he became a permanent fixture of the Athletics rotation on June 8, Lopez has made 12 starts. He has earned just six wins and five quality starts in that time frame, but he has also allowed a run in only five of the twelve starts. He has a 10.72 K/9, a 2.78 BB/9 and a 0.70 HR/9. He has a 2.09 ERA and a 2.90 FIP. His statcast numbers are elite: 86.2 MPH average exit velocity, 4.5% barrel rate, 33.1% hard-hit rate. He allows more fly balls than ground balls and has a less than great 24.5% line drive rate, but has allowed just a 72.9% contact rate and an amazing 79.7% zone contact rate, even though he has a zone rate of 51%. He attacks hitters, with a 66% first pitch strike rate, has generated a 12.6% swinging strike rate and a 28.1% chase rate. Since he became a full-time starter on June 8, he has generated the 10th most fWAR out of ALL big league starters, the eighth highest strikeout rate, the ninth lowest home run rate, fourth best ERA/ninth best FIP and the second lowest ground ball rate of the top 50 starters in the league. And he’s doing this throwing a fastball-slider combo 66% of the time.

    And he is facing a Twins team that is in the bottom third of the league when it comes to offensive production against left-handed pitching over the past month. They have an 89 wRC+, the ninth lowest and tied with the Pirates and the Phillies, a .297 wOBA, also ninth lowest, and a .667 OPS, also ninth. Their .124 ISO is the third lowest, while their 19.6% strikeout rate is the eighth best in the league and their 8.3% walk rate is in the middle of the league. When it comes to batted balls, they hit more ground balls than fly balls, but have the third highest line drive rate, 24.6%. They had the 11th lowest hard-hit rate and the fifth highest soft hit rate, resulting in just seven home runs, 20th most, tied with the Marlins and Pirates, even though they had 301 plate appearances against left-handed pitching over the past month, the 13th most in the league. They scored just 24 runs, 21st most and tied with the Cubs and Rockies, they had 19 extra base hits, 19th most and tied with the Dodgers (who had 58 less plate appearances) and ground into 10 double plays, the most in the league.

    Lopez is on a 24 inning scoreless streak at the moment, just five innings away from tying Cubs rookie Cade Horton for longest scoreless streak of the season, and facing a Twins team that has struggled to score runs against a left-hander, so it seems like the world is coming together for Lopez to tie and, maybe, surpass Horton’s streak. Give me this rookie starter handling his own against a struggling Twins offense and extending his scoreless streak to 29 innings or more.

    High-risk: Jake Irvin vs Mets, Shane Baz vs Yankees, Mike McGreevy @ Marlins, Kai Wei Teng @ Padres, Emmett Sheehan @ Rockies, Kyle Hendricks vs Reds, Bradley Blalock vs Dodgers, Shane Smith @ Braves, Tomoyuki Sugano @ Red Sox, Bryce Elder vs White Sox, Eduardo Rodriguez vs Guardians


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    August 17, 2025, 4:49 am