FanHouse Brett Anderson

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Thursday leaves us with another shortened schedule of baseball, and as usual, that leaves us with not many good options for the Stream Team. Luckily though, there's one rookie pitcher that stands out above the rest: Brett Anderson.

The Oakland A is finishing his rookie season strong, winning his last four starts (at home against Seattle, in Minnesota, and at home against Cleveland and Texas). He has definitely saved his best baseball for September, as his 4.12 ERA is the lowest it's been all season.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

Yesterday we spot-started Hiroki Kuroda again, and he was brilliant yet again. He threw six innings while giving up two runs, but both were unearned. He also threw in six strikeouts on his way to an easy win for the Dodgers. His six innings with no earned runs drops our September ERA to 3.26, using pitchers that are available in a majority of your leagues. I hope you're winning your championship game, and now I'll do my best to give you a bigger lead.

OAKLAND -- The A's rebuilding plan may appear to be progressing quickly with the team's hot streak, but don't expect GM Billy Beane to make any big splashes on marquee players this winter to fill out the picture.

He tried that last winter. Didn't work.

Only after the A's got rid of Matt Holliday, Jason Giambi and Orlando Cabrera, essentially handing the wheel to the young players, did the team start to win. So the youth movement will continue.

"We'd look to add some guys, but we're going to be very disciplined," Beane told FanHouse. "We're trying to build something. We're not going to go crazy in the offseason."

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

With the lack of options available to us yesterday, I have to say I'm pleased with the effort turned in by Ryan Rowland-Smith. He wasn't going to get us another win, since he was facing John Lackey in Anaheim, but he went 7 innings and allowed just 3 runs, striking out 5 guys along the way. I hope those 5 Ks will be the difference in your H2H playoff! We streamed Hiroki Kuroda today against the Giants -- hopefully he'll stick to his impressive ratios in a win.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

On Saturday, Brett Anderson struck out six batters while allowing three runs in five innings, nabbing us a win. Today, Mike Pelfrey pitched eight innings of one-run ball, securing us another win. Even with a 5.51 ERA through the first six games of September, the Team has an excellent 25/9 K/BB ratio and 4 wins in 6 starts. The main culprit has been our spot starters' tendency to give up home runs, as they've combined for 8 HRs allowed in this first week of September.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

I've picked Brian Anderson four times this year. The first time was an eight-inning, two-hit shutout just after the All-Star break. Anderson went on to throw two more quality starts the next two times I selected him before getting lit up on August 14th, giving up seven runs in five innings. He hasn't made an appearance in this column since -- until now.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

After giving the Team three quality starts, Brett Anderson didn't have his best stuff working last night, giving up seven runs in five innings against the White Sox. It seems there's no middle ground for us in August; our spot-starter either pitches well and gets a quality start and a win (nine of each in August), or he gets completely rocked and ruins our ratios. Between Nick Blackburn, Manny Parra and now Anderson, this was likely a week where the Team ruined any shot of winning ERA and WHIP.

Hopefully we can put together a couple wins and double-digit strikeouts over the weekend to mitigate the damage a bit. Tom Gorzelanny pitches against the Pirates today.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

Despite a couple of games with ugly ratios in recent starts, the Team has secured nine wins in 13 August games, posting a 3.56 ERA and 1.20 WHIP with 70 Ks in just under two weeks. Not a bad use of one roster spot, in leagues that allow for streaming, of course. We're rolling again with Brett Anderson today against the White Sox, a team he had great success against in his first start against them.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

Wednesday was a great day for spot-starter Tommy Hunter. The Texas rookie dominated the Tribe, throwing 7.2 innings of shutout ball, striking out five and earning a win. Hunter has allowed just 14 runs in nine starts this year; knowing that, I'd run out and add him to my mixed-league team immediately.

Today, I went with Manny Parra, who was torched by the Padres. Parra gave up 13 hits and six runs in 5.2 innings, but even though he wrecked our ratios, there was some positive aspects to the start. We did get seven strikeouts from Parra, and the Milwaukee offense came through with 11 runs of support while he was in the game, giving the Team another win.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

On Saturday, San Diego rookie Mat Latos pitched yet another gem, allowing one run in six innings while striking out seven. The Padres' offense gave the kid enough support to earn another win.

Sunday, Brett Anderson coasted through six innings before running into some trouble in the seventh, where he allowed three straight hits before exiting the game. All three runners eventually scored, so Anderson wound up with a bit of a pedestrian line. At least he gave the Team another win, our sixth in August.