Fantasy Baseball: Two-start pitcher rankings for Week 24 identify Vince Velasquez, Jake Junis as sleepers

A holiday on Monday means a busy week of baseball action, but September call-ups limit the number of two-start options regardless, according to Scott White.

By Scott White

Sep 2, 2018 at 5:04 pm ET • 2 min read

Monday is Labor Day, but there's no rest for these workers. Every single team will suit up for the national holiday, which means no team is stuck playing only five games in Week 24 (Sept. 3-9).

And yet ... there's a limited number of two-start options still.

September call-ups are at fault. A number of teams are looking to give a fresh face a turn this week, but without removing anyone from the rotation. So it's like they'll have a six-man rotation, at least in the short term, which means they would need seven games for any of their pitchers to make a second start. Only eight teams are actually playing seven games this week.

It's not like no pitchers from the six-game teams will have a chance to make two starts, but even those listed here are highly subject to change. You might want to go the quality-over-quantity when weighing your pitching choices this week.

The most notable of the ones owned in less than 80 percent of leagues is Vince Velasquez, who hasn't been particularly reliable since the All-Star break but has an excellent strikeout rate and killer matchups against the Marlins and Mets. He would rate among my must-start options for the week, which includes basically all of the top 12.

Just outside of that group is Jake Junis, whose slider flattened on him for much of June and July, resulting in a bunch of home runs, but who has come roaring back with a 2.95 ERA and more than a strikeout per inning in August. He's only 41 percent owned.

Junis headlines a group of sleepers that includes Trevor Cahill and Michael Fulmer. Everyone ranked 17th and up doesn't seem worth the trouble.

*RP-eligible

Two-start pitchers for Week 24
Rank	Pitcher	Start 1	Start 2
1	Max Scherzer, WAS	vs. STL	vs. CHC
2	Jacob deGrom, NYM	at LAD	vs. PHI
3	Mike Clevinger, CLE	vs. KC	at TOR
4	Jack Flaherty, STL	at WAS	at DET
5	Cole Hamels, CHC	at MIL	at WAS
6	Madison Bumgarner, SF	at COL	at MIL
7	Dallas Keuchel, HOU	vs. MIN	at BOS
8	Zack Godley, ARI	vs. SD	vs. ATL
9	Vince Velasquez, PHI	at MIA	at NYM
10	CC Sabathia, NYY	at OAK	at SEA
11	Alex Wood, LAD	vs. NYM	at COL
12	Trevor Williams, PIT	vs. CIN	vs. MIA
13	Jake Junis, KC	at CLE	at MIN
14	Trevor Cahill, OAK	vs. NYY	vs. TEX
15	Sean Newcomb, ATL	vs. BOS	at ARI
16	Michael Fulmer, DET	at CHW	vs. STL
17	Tyler Anderson, COL	vs. SF	vs. LAD
18	Reynaldo Lopez, CHW	vs. DET	vs. LAA
19	Mike Montgomery, CHC	at MIL	at WAS
20	Erasmo Ramirez, SEA*	vs. BAL	vs. NYY
21	Nathan Eovaldi, BOS	at ATL	vs. HOU
22	Zach Davies, MIL	vs. CHC	vs. SF
23	Matt Harvey, CIN	at PIT	vs. SD
24	Jose Urena, MIA	vs. PHI	at PIT
25	Adam Plutko, CLE	vs. KC	at TOR
26	Cody Reed, CIN*	at PIT	vs. SD
27	Erick Fedde, WAS	vs. STL	vs. CHC
28	Ryan Borucki, TOR*	vs. TB	vs. CLE
29	Thomas Pannone, TOR*	vs. TB	vs. CLE
30	Ariel Jurado, TEX	vs. LAA	at OAK