Fantasy baseball Monday advice – Festa, Sanchez among top streaming options

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Party with Festa

The Minnesota Twins are in the thick of the AL Wild Card race, currently competing with the Kansas City Royals for the third spot while trying to keep the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners at bay. Everyone involved is dealing with injuries, so they are counting on under-the-radar players to step up.

The Twins have played the last month without their co-ace RHP Joe Ryan. Fortunately, their other ace, RHP Pablo Lopez, has picked up the slack, as has RHP Bailey Ober. Ober has also incurred a couple of hiccups, which makes the second half contributions of RHP Simeon Woods Richardson much more important.

Rounding out the Twins rotation is a pair of rookies: RHP Zebby Matthews and David Festa. Both are 24 years old and aren’t considered top prospects, but they have MLB aspirations.

On the surface, it appears that Festa is struggling. He sports a 2-5 record with a 4.75 ERA over 47 1/3 innings. Nine of his 10 appearances have been starts.

Things look a lot better under the hood, specifically a 3.28 xFIP and 3.26 SIERA. Festa has been victimized by a low 70.5% left on base mark.

The most encouraging metric is Festa’s 22.6 K-BB% mark. Granted, he’s around 100 innings short of qualifying, but if he did, he’d rank fourth overall in the category. Clearly, Festa would have been hard pressed to maintain elite peripherals over a full season. However, the stellar K-BB% helps show that Festa has pitched better than his surface.

On Monday, Festa (4.8% rostered) is in a great spot to improve his record and ERA. The Twins open a home set with the Los Angeles Angels. The visitors tote the league’s least potent offense facing right-handers into Target Field. Furthermore, they placed two-thirds of their starting outfield on the IL over the weekend. Festa isn’t the top ranked steaming option on Monday’s ledger, but he’s my pick to click.

Everything else you need to know for Monday

• Monday begins the second week of the first round of playoffs in standard ESPN leagues. Good luck to everyone competing for a berth in the finals. Nine evening affairs comprise the docket, with three games kicking off the action at 6:40 p.m. ET.

• The highest ranked streaming option is Philadelphia Phillies LHP Cristopher Sanchez (37.9% rostered). The Phillies open a home series with the Tampa Bay Rays. Sanchez has logged four straight quality starts with a 2.60 ERA and 0.94 WHIP over 27 2/3 innings. He punched out 22 while walking just a pair over that span. Over the past month, the Rays have struggled facing lefties, fanning at a 27.6% clip with a low .261 wOBA.

• Recently, the Cleveland Guardians have put a bit of a distance between themselves and the Royals and Twins, but the race is far from over. This does not bode well for the Chicago White Sox as they continue to try to avoid historical futility. On Monday, the Guardians visit the White Sox with RHP Ben Lively taking the hill for the guests. Lively is coming off a couple of subpar efforts, but the White Sox lineup has cured the ills for many a hurler.

• Miami Marlins RHP Valente Bellozo is coming off one of his best efforts of the season, hurling six scoreless frames at home against the Washington Nationals. That said, Bellozo only fanned one in that outing, bringing his total to just 33 in 47 2/3 innings. Even so, Bellozo is in play as a Monday spot starter by virtue of a juicy road date with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Over the past month, the Pirates sport the sixth lowest wOBA facing right-handers.

Starting pitcher rankings for Monday