Fantasy Baseball: Can Tim Stauffer Be Even Better?

Ryan LesterJun 1, 2011

Tim Stauffer wasn’t on the minds of most fantasy league owners, despite going 3-2 with a 2.10 in six starts to close out last season.

Even with some decent numbers this year (1-3, 3.60 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 51 strikeouts in 61 innings), he is owned in only about a third of fantasy leagues.

Stauffer has allowed two of fewer runs in seven of his 11 starts, with another start in which he allowed three runs in six innings for a quality start. Stauffer has seven quality starts in all.

While he is not going to make any Padres fans forget about Jake Peavy, he does have some room to be more than a streaming option.

Stauffer has one of the highest batting average on balls in play (BABIP) in the league at .328. The past two years his mark has been .263 and .292 respectively. If he can improve his luck, his WHIP could improve as well.

He also hasn’t pitched well at PETCO Park, a notorious pitcher’s park. His home ERA (3.58) is only slightly better than his road ERA (3.62). Last year he had a 2.17 ERA at PETCO. In 2009, it was 2.94.

There is room to lower his ERA if he can improve his mark at home.

Stauffer’s strand rate is just 75.5 percent, down considerably from last year’s mark of 84.1 percent as well as 2009′s 80 percent.

He is by no means a fireballer, but is K/9 ratio is up to 7.06 while his BB/9 ratio is down to 2.35. Last year, those marks were 6.64 and 2.61.

Stauffer has been good enough to win at least three games this year. He has a favorable match-up tomorrow against Houston, so perhaps he can pick up his second win today.