Fantasy Baseball Week 11 Preview: Top 10 sleeper pitchers feature Matt Waldron, Ben Brown (2024)

This week's top two-start choice has one pretty good matchup (Angels) and one not-so-good one (Diamondbacks), but his destiny is tied less to matchups than the effectiveness of his knuckleball. And it's been highly effective lately, yielding a 1.96 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 12.1 K/9 over his past four starts.

The Brewers are one of the five highest-scoring teams in baseball, but on the other hand, Reese Olson has an ERA below 2.50. I'm leery enough of the pitchers with good matchups that I'd rather just start a good pitcher, which is what Olson is thanks to his two excellent secondary offerings.

Cristopher Sanchez has been throwing the ball harder this year, seemingly at the expense of control, but he's thrown it even harder in his past three starts and has walked only two in between them. Like Olson, he's facing the Brewers, but like Olson, I'd rather just start a good pitcher than a suspect one with a good matchup.

Kyle Gibson's game log has been a mix of good and bad, as usual, but his good starts tend to be of high impact in Fantasy. There's hope for at least one of those this week with the Rockies coming to town, and if we're lucky, Gibson will also turn in a quality start at the Astros.

Alec Marsh did a better job of missing bats in May, which makes the whole package easier to buy into even if his last couple starts saw him give up more runs. He'll be facing a Mariners lineup this week that's far and away the most strikeout-prone in baseball.

Ben Brown faltered against the Reds over the weekend, failing to follow up on the seven no-hit innings in his previous outing, but even with those struggles, he was permitted to throw five innings, confirming that he's being used like a conventional starter now after serving as more of a swingman previously. His next start is also against the Reds, which usually favors the offense, but it's a young and strikeout-prone lineup.

Braxton Garrett delivered a complete game shutout two turns ago and held his own against a tough Padres lineup last time out. He'll be facing a Rays lineup this week that not only ranks in the bottom 10 in runs scored but also has the second-highest strikeout rate against lefties.

Cole Irvin is another left-hander poised to take advantage of the Rays' contact issues against lefties. Granted, he's not much of a bat-misser, but when he gets beaten, it's usually because of the long ball. The Rays have delivered the second-fewest of those this year.

Having bounced between the rotation and bullpen, Albert Suarez will be making his third consecutive start when he faces the Blue Jays this week, which means he should be good and stretched out. He's performed ably in every role the Orioles have asked him to fill, having pitched to a 1.57 ERA and 0.99 WHIP so far.

Tyler Anderson has a bad strikeout rate, a bad walk rate and an xERA and FIP both in the mid-fours. He also has a 2.47 ERA. Sure, the matchups aren't great, but this is a pitcher who has defied the odds all season long. Either you believe in magic or you don't.