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Padres SP Stephen Kolek is a top waiver add for fantasy baseball

Padres SP Stephen Kolek is a top waiver add for fantasy baseball

MLB DraftKings Network

Published:

By: Zach Thompson

The Padres got a 4-0 win on Sunday afternoon to close out their road sweep of the Pirates behind a strong season debut from Stephen Kolek. Kolek burst onto the fantasy baseball scene with an impressive 20.4 fantasy points. He went 5 1/3 shutout innings with four hits, two walk and four strikeouts.

Kolek was in the mix for a starting rotation spot in spring training but ultimately lost the roster competition to Kyle Hart and Randy Vasquez. He was sent to Triple-A but struggled to a 6.38 ERA, 5.00 FIP, 1.54 WHIP and 20 strikeouts in 24 innings in the notoriously hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

The 28-year-old righty made his first MLB start of his career on Sunday after making 42 relief appearances last year and had a 5.21 ERA despite a 3.57 FIP and 3.46 xFIP. He finished the year with 39 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings.

Kolek doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but on Sunday, he showed the ability to pitch around trouble and get big outs while going right at hitters and getting them to hit the ball on the ground.

Fantasy baseball impact

Kolek is a solid pickup if you need starting pitching depth if he sticks in the Padres rotation. He won’t be much of a source of strikeouts, but he has a strong lineup behind him and showed hispotential to be a MLB starter during spring training, while posting a 2.60 ERA with 12 strikeouts over five games in the Cactus League.

He’ll be high-risk in bad matchups, but as he showed on Sunday, he can be a streaming option or a DFS play in favorable matchups like this one.

Zach Thompson
Zach has been part of the DraftKings team since 2017 and covers baseball, basketball, golf, football and any other sport that offers DFS fun. He has been playing fantasy sports since box scores were only available in the newspaper the following day. Even though he grew up almost 8,000 miles away in Guam, he is a diehard Boston sports fan but will take a fantasy value play wherever he can get it, even if it’s from the Yankees.
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is z.thompson) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skills and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.