Fantasy baseball pitcher rankings, lineup advice for Wednesday’s MLB games

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What you need to know for Wednesday’s MLB Games

By Todd Zola

• After a Tuesday slate with everything contested under the lights, day baseball is back with matinees comprising over half of Wednesday’s action. The games commence at 12:35 p.m. ET in the Steel City with an interleague affair featuring the Pirates hosting the Astros. The last game on the docket begins at 9:45 p.m. ET in San Francisco between NL West rivals Giants and Dodgers.

• It’s not an easy day to find pitchers to stream, as many of those with rostership levels below 50% face potent lineups. It’s not often the top option has a road start, but with Jose Urquidy (19.0% rostered in ESPN leagues) taking the hill in PNC Park, he gets the nod. Urquidy has fanned 11 with just two walks in his first two outings, spanning 9.1 frames. The Pirates don’t whiff much, but their offense is one of the least potent in the league and will be without Oneil Cruz for most, if not all of the season, giving Urquidy and the Astros a good chance at a victory.

• Another option resides in the desert where Drey Jameson will make his first start of the season when the Diamondbacks entertain the Brewers in an afternoon affair. It’s not an ideal setup with Brandon Woodruff starting for Milwaukee. Jameson lost out on his bid to be in the rotation to start the season but has been promoted from long relief with Zach Davies on the IL. James has eight strikeouts in 8.1 innings, and the Brewers 25.9% strikeout rate is the seventh highest in the league through Monday’s action.

• Griffin Canning (.2%) is slated to come off the IL for his season debut, at home against the Nationals. It’s always a risk trusting a pitcher coming off the IL, but Canning threw five innings in his last rehab starts, fanning 10, albeit for Single-A Inland Empire. Still, the relevant point is Canning is stretched out sufficiently to qualify for a potential win, and the opposing Nationals sport the 20th ranked weighted on-base average (wOBA), despite an early-season series in Coors Field.

• MLB isn’t alone with new rules in 2023 as ESPN’s standard fantasy game has tweaked the scoring and shortened the active roster. In previous years, the Twins Sonny Gray (47.8%) would have a rostership over 50%, especially coming off a dominant outing where he fanned a career high 13 in seven frames against Houston. Next up is a White Sox club experiencing injuries to their hitting and pitching. Eloy Jimenez and Tim Anderson are on the IL while Yoan Moncada will likely be out of the lineup until Friday as he tends to a sore back.

• Many looking for offense will be focused on Denver where it will be over 80 degrees when the Rockies and Jose Urena host the Cardinals and Jack Flaherty. In what’s fast becoming Coors Field East (and North), the Blue Jays mostly righthanded lineup draws Tigers southpaw Eduardo Rodriguez. Whit Merrifield (33.5%), Danny Jansen (18.7%) and Kevin Kiermaier (1.2%) will likely comprise the bottom third of the Toronto order, but they will all have the platoon edge on a lefty yet to find his footing this season. Through two starts, Rodriguez has just six punch outs in 10 stanzas with four walks and three homers allowed.

Starting pitcher rankings for Wednesday