MLB

Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers to Stream in Week 1

Tom Whalen  —  @tomcwhalen Mar 27th, 2019
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​Julio Urias, Los Angeles Dodgers

Start: April 1st vs. San Francisco Giants
ESPN ownership: 17%

With the Los Angeles Dodgers rotation beset with injuries, the reigning National League champions have an early opportunity to flaunt both their young pitching depth and their aggressive management of the injured list.

The first to hop on the Dodger rotation-go-round is 22-year-old Julio Urias. A perennial tease for prospect hawks, Urias has been in the Dodgers' system since 2013, yet has logged all of 104 1/3 innings in the big show since debuting with the Major League club in 2016. And while durability concerns and innings management may cap Urias' upside for the long term, he offers arguably the most per-start fantasy upside of any widely available starting pitcher. Just check out the 25% strikeout rate across his 77-inning rookie sample from 2016, to say nothing of a dynamite 1.73 ERA across 15 2/3 innings this spring.

Add to that a plum match up against a soft Giants offense (Depth Charts projects them for the second-lowest runs scored per game in the Major Leagues), and Urias should be a priority stream in all leagues.

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