The Double Dip: Fantasy baseball 2-start pitchers for the week

It’s our final week in the 2021 episode of the fantasy baseball Double Dip — highlighting pitchers making two starts in a week. Some of the plays may be obvious — you don’t need a 1,000-word soliloquy highlighting why it’s a good idea to start Jacob deGrom twice. You just do it.

But volume is key, especially two-start-pitcher volume. This column aims to identify all the two-start hurlers, the ones who are no-brainers, the ones who are avoids, and most importantly, focus on the tough-to-call decisions.

Each week, I’ll do my best to highlight some of those tricky arms and what could come your way.

I would be remiss without thanking a lot of people for writing this column for 27 weeks this year — to Josh Collacchi, our Chief Content Officer, who worked with me to develop actionable fantasy baseball content for our readers. To Daniel Kelley, Adam Young, Tyler Gallo and anyone else I may have missed on the edit team, for making my work look far better than it is, and to deal with my constant mis-spelling of Touki Toussaint (two S’s, watch where the “i” goes), and myriad other mix-ups. To Matthew Davis, who pitched my idea and believed in growing our season-long fantasy baseball content. To Broc Miller, who read my article a countless number of times and gave me feedback on how to improve. To excellent players like John Pausma, Yancy Eaton and Bryan Vogel, who read my work and kept me going when I needed a pick-me-up. To the countless others I have undoubtedly missed, thanks for reading and your support.

Now after all that mushy stuff, let’s get to the pitchers.

All of the two-steppers (22)

Ian Anderson, ATL (vs. PHI, vs. NYM)
Zac Lowther, BAL (vs. BOS, at TOR)
Chris Sale, BOS (at BAL, at WAS)
Wade Miley, CIN (vs. PIT, at PIT)
Germán Márquez, COL (vs. WAS, at AZ)
Matt Manning, DET (vs. CWS, at CWS)
Tyler Alexander, DET (at MIN, at CWS)
Brady Singer, KC (at CLE, vs. MIN)
Walker Buehler, LAD (vs. SD, vs. MIL)
Trevor Rogers, MIA (at NYM, vs. PHI)
Joe Ryan, MIN (vs. DET, at KC)
Marcus Stroman, NYM (vs. MIA, at ATL)
Corey Kluber, NYY (at TOR, vs. TB)
Chris Bassitt, OAK (at SEA, at HOU)
Zack Wheeler, PHI (at ATL, at MIA)
Yu Darvish, SD (at LAD, at SF)
Chris Flexen, SEA (vs. OAK, vs. LAA)
Logan Webb, SF (vs. AZ, vs. SD)
Miles Mikolas, STL (vs. MIL, vs. CHC)
Drew Rasmussen, TB (at HOU, at NYY)
Hyun Jin Ryu, TOR (vs. NYY, at BAL)
Josiah Gray, WAS (at COL, vs. BOS)

The no-brainers (15)

This group should definitely be in your starting lineup — whether it’s due to matchup or just sheer brilliance, don’t overthink this one. As it gets longer in the season, you are more willing, in most instances, to chase that volume. Now, each situation may be unique — if you have outstanding ratios, you may want to be a bit more careful about damaging your ratios.

Ian Anderson, ATL (vs. PHI, vs. NYM)
Chris Sale, BOS (at BAL, at WAS)
Wade Miley, CIN (vs. PIT, at PIT)
Germán Márquez, COL (vs. WAS, at AZ)
Walker Buehler, LAD (vs. SD, vs. MIL)
Trevor Rogers, MIA (at NYM, vs. PHI)
Joe Ryan, MIN (vs. DET, at KC)
Marcus Stroman, NYM (vs. MIA, at ATL)
Chris Bassitt, OAK (at SEA, at HOU)
Zack Wheeler, PHI (at ATL, at MIA)
Yu Darvish, SD (at LAD, at SF)
Chris Flexen, SEA (vs. OAK, vs. LAA)
Logan Webb, SF (vs. AZ, vs. SD)
Miles Mikolas, STL (vs. MIL, vs. CHC)
Hyun Jin Ryu, TOR (vs. NYY, at BAL)

The run-and-hides (4)

This group should only be started out of pure desperation — the volume is nice, and it definitely could end up working out for you, but starting these hurlers is a real gamble.

Zac Lowther, BAL (vs. BOS, at TOR)
Matt Manning, DET (vs. CWS, at CWS)
Tyler Alexander, DET (at MIN, at CWS)
Drew Rasmussen, TB (at HOU, at NYY)

The meat-and-potatoes (3)

This group is one that takes a bit more thinking — the volume is nice, but the matchup could be tricky. Is it worth taking the risk on a questionable start for what could be some juicy fantasy goodness? Let’s dig in and find out.

And since they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am going to use a similar rating scale that Clay Link and Todd Zola do over at Rotowire — if I was playing in five fantasy baseball leagues, how many would I feel comfortable starting this hurler? Using that as our barometer, we should be able to appropriately deem the risk and reward that’s available if you choose to start this arm. Keep in mind — your league and team context are always key. I’m using a 12-team NFBC Online Championship format as my primary backdrop.