The first day of July features two afternoon tilts, the first between two of the most storied franchises in the game as the Boston Red Sox visit the Chicago Cubs to kick off a weekend interleague set. Rich Hill is familiar with the mound in Wrigley Field as he spent his first four years of his career on the North Side from 2005 through 2008. On Friday, Hill (8% rostered in ESPN leagues) is a streamer against an offense sitting mid-pack in the league against southpaws.
- If it seems there have been an usually high number of stream-worthy pitchers this season, it's not because of the pitchers but due to so many lineups to attack. The Angels, Orioles, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Athletics, Marlins and Guardians are susceptible to lefthanders while the Orioles, Diamondbacks, Rangers, Royals, Pirates, White Sox, Rays, Athletics and Tigers are especially vulnerable to righthanders.
- With that in mind, Josiah Gray (50%), Alex Cobb (20%), Brad Keller (8%), Michael Pineda (2%) and James Kaprielian (2%) all have favorable Friday matchups. Gray faces the Marlins, Cobb draws the White Sox, Keller is slated to face the Tigers, Pineda is on track to come off the IL against the Royals while Kaprielian has a tough opponent in Seattle but is in play for those needing to make up ground on the pitching side of the ledger.
- There are a few difficult pitching decisions on Friday's docket, beginning with Jose Berrios at home against Tampa. For years, Berrios has been a set it and forget it type. He began June with three solid outings, posting a 2.45 ERA and 0.64 WHIP with 26 whiffs in 22 frames but has followed it up with two clunkers, surrendering 14 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. The Rays struggle against righties, rendering the decision even tougher. Sitting Berrios in leagues with closely contested ratios is defensible, but one of the strengths of our daily rankings is not being blinded by recency bias and Berrios is 11th out of 30 starters on the day. Trevor Rogers does not have the track record of Berrios, but Rogers was drafted in the same neighborhood as Berrios. That said, as the rankings indicate, benching Rogers against the Nationals at home makes sense. Lastly, Blake Snell is ranked high, but he's only thrown 35 1/3 innings so his struggles haven't moved his track record that much. This is a case where it's sage to override the ranking and sit him on the road against the Dodgers.
- It's rare a visiting team in Coors Field has a plethora of readily available players, but such is the case with the Diamondbacks visiting the Rockies.
- Some favorable standalone batters are Jesus Sanchez (13%), William Contreras (30%), Alex Kirilloff (28%) and Juan Yepez (13%). With the note Jon Berti (39%) is less useful in points leagues, he stole more bases in June than 18 entire teams.
