Fantasy Baseball: 5 Starting Pitchers to Stream in Week 1

Hyun-Jin Ryu, Los Angeles Dodgers

Starts: April 2nd at Arizona Diamondbacks, April 8th at San Francisco Giants
ESPN percentage owned: 7.0%

Red flags abound for once-heralded lefty Hyun-jin Ryu. He is a perennial health risk, having pitched just over 130 MLB innings in the last three seasons. He occupies a Los Angeles Dodgers rotation that is infamously fickle with allowing starters to pitch deep into games. Meanwhile, his on-paper success last year comes with major caveats, particularly the sizable gap between his 3.77 ERA and 4.74 FIP.

All that said, Ryu is at least nominally healthy to start this season, and as a pure matchup play, the Dodgers' lefty is lined up quite nicely for Week 1.

Ryu's first assignment is at Chase Field, which was once virtual kryptonite for fantasy streamers, but now represents (at least in theory) a soft landing spot for pitching matchups. Chase is no AT&T Park, of course, but luckily enough, Ryu gets to finish off his long Week 1 with a road date in San Fransisco.

The sweeten the pot, both the D-backs and the Giants were subpar producers against the curveball last season, and the curve remains Ryu's bread and butter. He limited hitters to a measly 43 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) across 334 curveballs thrown last season with a strong 34.9% strikeout rate on that pitch.

Ryu is hardly a sure thing, especially with the specter of the early hook looming from the ever-stingy Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, but fantasy owners in a pinch won't find too many stronger matchups on their waiver wires.