19 Thoughts and Key Stats on 19 Underrated Fantasy Starting Pitchers

Looking for pitchers to target in trades? Look no further.

It’s trade season, both in fantasy baseball and in real-life baseball.

Or, at least, something very close to it in real life with the trade deadline approaching next month.

At any rate, this is a mini guide of sorts to the potentially undervalued fantasy starters to consider acquiring via trade (or even via the waiver wire if a few of them happen to not be on a roster in your league).

Well, to be exact, 19 undervalued fantasy starters.

Whether you’re looking for long-term injury replacements, are seeking to add quality innings in general, want to acquire bounce-back rotation options or are on the lookout for potential league-winning options, these 19 starting pitchers are very much worth a look as fantasy trade options.

So, without further ado, in no particular order…

1. Jack Flaherty

Flaherty struggled mightily in his last two starts (prior to Wednesday), surrendering 15 earned runs in his last seven innings on 11 hits, four home runs and eight walks. It was an uncharacteristically not great pair of starts for the veteran, who (including the two starts in the last few weeks) has only given up seven or more earned runs in a start just six times in his career.

He was sporting a 3.41 ERA and a 3.74 FIP prior to his last two starts and still sits in the 84^th percentile league-wide in strikeout rate (28.4%).

Furthermore, in Flaherty’s most recent outing, he logged a 37% CSW rate and generated 19 swings and misses on g pitches against the Athletics, striking out seven in six innings while giving up three runs, all of which came via a Nick Kurtz home run.

Add in that he’s pitching with a Tigers team that he thrived with last season and gets the fantasy benefit of a Detroit team with both a high-powered lineup and a very pitcher-friendly ballpark, and Flaherty should have plenty more fantasy success this season.

2. Ben Casparius

Casparius has worked in a variety of different roles for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season, including as a high-leverage reliever, a starter, a bulk pitcher and as a long reliever so it’s not as if his Stuff+ numbers are in the sample size of a full-time starter, or at the very least someone who throws a full-time starter’s workload of innings.

But, among pitchers with at least 50 innings, Casparius is second in the league in Stuff+ and tied for the league lead in Pitching+, per FanGraphs data.

Here’s Casparius in comparison to the league’s leader (minimum 50 innings pitched) in Stuff+ (Hunter Greene) and the league’s leader in Pitching+ (Tarik Skubal)

• Hunter Greene: 59.2 IP, 125 Stuff+, 121 Pitching+

• Tarik Skubal: 96 IP, 117 Stuff+, 122 Pitching+

• Ben Casparius: 52.2 IP, 119 Stuff+, 122 Pitching+

If he continues to see pitcher win chances as a bulk pitcher after Shohei Ohtani, or simply maintains these kinds of Stuff+ and Pitching+ numbers in a larger sample size resembling a starter’s workload, Casparius could be a league winner.