Fantasy Baseball: 4 Pitchers to Stream for Week 26
Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners
Starts: September 25th at Oakland Athletics, October 1st at Los Angeles Angels
ESPN ownership: 46 percent
It's been a hard and decisive fall from power for King Felix Hernandez, whose injury-hastened decline has seen him cobble together 80-plus innings of 4.57 ERA ball in 2017, with a 4.96 fielding independent pitching (FIP) that suggests things aren't even as bad as they could be.
A quick gloss of his work since returning from a shoulder injury earlier this month might have you believe that Hernandez is continuing to toil, but the six earned runs he's allowed in seven September innings seems to be the product of some atrocious batted-ball luck: check out the 2.24 FIP over that two-game sample, to say nothing of the minuscule 12.5% strand rate.
There might not be enough time for Hernandez's fortunes to regress, but with two starts on tap this week in a pair of pitcher-friendly ballparks, there's a decent chance the former ace can squeeze some last-minute value for roto players looking to fortify their position in the final week of the season.
Assuming the Mariners stick to their current rotation, that Angels start is of particular interest. Los Angeles has been a very shaky producer off both the changeup and slider this year, and those are pitches that Felix has continued to wield to good effect despite his overall struggles, limiting hitters to 66 and -6 weighted runs created plus (wRC+), respectively.
