Weekly Pitching Guide – Apr 27- May 3

  • By Anthony Kates

    Last Updated on April 27, 2026 3:01 am by Anthony Kates | Published: April 27, 2026

    Every Sunday this season, I will share my pitching guide for that week. It will include a table of the projected 2-start starting pitchers and their opponents, with my recommendations on starts and sits, plus my pitching streams for the week.

    WordPress Data Table Plugin

    For my recommended pitching streams, I will only suggest pitchers who are rostered in fewer than 50% of Yahoo leagues. All starts are projected, but are subject to change due to injury, a team deciding to have a bullpen day, expand to a six-man rotation, etc. Stats are through Sunday morning.

    Monday, Apr 27

    Jack Kochanowicz – LAA – @ CWS – 7% rostered

    Kochanowicz allowed five earned runs in his first start of the season, at the Astros, but has allowed just five earned runs over his last four starts, covering 25 innings. On the season, he has thrown 29 innings, struck out 19, walked 17 and allowed just one home run. He has a fantastic ground ball rate, average statcast data (8.2% barrel rate, 42.4% hard hit rate, 91.1 MPH average exit velocity) and allows plenty of contact, but with more than half of all balls in plate hit on the ground, he has found plenty of success. Obviously, the walk rate is higher than you’d like and he doesn’t strike out a ton of batters, but he has been good far often than he has been bad and the White Sox are kind of a soft target, especially at home.

    The Sox have the fifth lowest wRC+ at home against righties in April, at 70. They are one of just four teams with an OPS under .600 and they have the second lowest ISO, .075. They’ve scored the third fewest runs even though they have the 19th most plate appearances, have hit the second fewest home runs and have been caught stealing the second most often. This is not an offense that is scary when at home and facing a right handed pitcher.

    Tuesday, Apr 28

    Payton Tolle – BOS – @ TOR – 43%

    By the time Tuesday rolls around, Tolle’s rostered percentage may have crept over 50%, but as of this moment, he is still rostered in a low enough amount of leagues that we can stream him. And stream him we shall, after his tremendous 2026 debut. He absolutely dominated the Yankees, with a 35.8% chase rate, 19.4% swinging strike rate and just a 59.1% contact rate, allowing zero barrels and only seven batters to reach a three-ball count.

    The Yankees have been a slightly better team against lefties in April than the Blue Jays have, but they have been an above-average team, with a 104 wRC+, which is the 15th best in the league. They have a .719 OPS, 15.6% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. They hit more ground balls than fly balls and have the tenth lowest line drive rate in the league, with the ninth highest hard hit rate and the tied for fifth lowest soft hit rate (tied with the Twins, Red Sox and Astros).


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    April 27, 2026, 3:01 am