MLB

Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers to Stream for Week 20

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Dinelson Lamet, San Diego Padres

Starts: August 15th vs. Philadelphia Phillies, August 20th vs. Washington Nationals
ESPN ownership: 21 percent

We've all been waiting for tantalizing San Diego Padres rookie Dinelson Lamet to put it together and emerge as a fantasy breakout, but despite a high-90s heater and 29.1% strikeout rate, Lamet's results (5.00 ERA on the dot) just aren't cutting the mustard.

You don't need to look much further than the 13.1% walk rate on Lamet's fastball to locate the problem here: a 37.4% hard-hit rate and 14.1% homer-per-fly mark. A swoon-inducing 43.8% punchout rate on his slider will keep fantasy owners interested, though, especially against a power-starved Phillies squad that has had trouble of late with laying off pitches outside of the zone.

Of course, the weekend jaunt with Washington makes the 25-year-old righty an extremely touchy play this week (to be fair, the Nats will be without their most menacing offensive piece).

There's another interesting wrinkle to consider here. Given the power-suppressing dimensions of Petco Park, it's no surprise that Lamet sports favorable home/road splits, with a 4.03 ERA and 3.64 xFIP at Petco compared to respective 5.72 and 4.77 marks on the road.

But underlying this discrepancy is a sharp 7.2% decline in his walk rate at home. Is it possible that Lamet is more at ease in the pitcher-friendly environs of San Diego, and thus less likely to work himself into trouble with the free pass?

Conservative owners have already clicked to the next slide, but thrill-seeking streamers can smell the upside here.