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It is the midway point in the 2014 baseball season. Fantasy owners know what they need to work on in order to make the playoffs. There are very few valuable players available on the waiver wire. One player worth adding on Tuesday is Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Mike Leake, who is pitching against the San Diego Padres.
While I don’t want to pick on the Padres. We all know how bad the offense is. They are last in RBI, average, on-base and slugging. Any starting pitcher would have a field day against San Diego.
I want to focus on the positives of Leake heading into this start. In his last start, he went 8.0 innings, giving up just one earned run while striking out 12 batters. He has gone eight innings in his last two starts and is riding a three-start win streak.
On the season, he has a 6-6 record with 84 strikeouts, 3.41 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. According to ESPN’s Tristan H. Cockcroft, Leake has whiffed 25 percent of the batters he has faced in his last seven starts. In comparison, he strikeout rate was just 16 percent in his previous 116 games. Those are some really good numbers for a mid-season streaming option.
Some fantasy owners are already believers in Leake, even before his start on Tuesday. He saw an increase of 14 percent ownership, totaling 28.9 percent. He is still widely available in most leagues and owners should make a move to add Leake for his next start. The Reds lineup is good enough to give Leake run support on his way to his fourth-straight win.
Bill Pivetz is a fantasy sports writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @BPiv_Sports.
