Fantasy Baseball: Two-start pitcher rankings for Week 21 identify German Marquez, Brad Keller as sleepers

A high number of high-end pitchers are in line for two stats in Week 21 (Aug. 13-19) — the kind you normally wouldn't think twice about activating in those circumstances. It's 15, by my count.

(I include Nick Pivetta in that group even though he's owned in less than 80 percent of CBS Sports leagues. The strikeout-to-walk ratio is just too good.)

And then there's No. 16, who's probably as exciting of a sleeper as we've seen in this space since April. German Marquez's curveball is playing up like never before, the result of a concerted effort to stay tall through his delivery. What do I mean by playing up? Well, it has yielded a 3.15 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings in his past seven starts. At this point, it doesn't really matter to me where he's pitching, but it's worth noting he hasn't needed any such breakthrough to dominate on the road this season, where he has a 3.09 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings in 11 starts. Both of his starts this week are on the road.

Looking deeper, I could see using ground-ball specialist Brad Keller in a points league, given his favorable matchups. He would represent the cutoff for that more forgiving format, though.

Two-start pitchers for Week 21
Rank	Pitcher	Start 1	Start 2
1	Justin Verlander, DET	vs. COL	at OAK
2	Jacob deGrom, NYM	at NYY	at PHI
3	Clayton Kershaw, LAD	vs. SF	at SEA
4	Zack Greinke, ARI	at TEX	at SD
5	Luis Severino, NYY	vs. NYM	vs. TOR
6	Mike Clevinger, CLE	at CIN	vs. BAL
7	Rick Porcello, BOS	at PHI	vs. TB
8	Madison Bumgarner, SF	at LAD	at CIN
9	Miles Mikolas, STL	vs. WAS	vs. MIL
10	J.A. Happ, NYY	vs. TB	vs. TOR
11	Mike Foltynewicz, ATL	vs. MIA	vs. COL
12	Marco Gonzales, SEA	at OAK	vs. LAD
13	Andrew Heaney, LAA	at SD	at TEX
14	Nick Pivetta, PHI	vs. BOS	vs. NYM
15	Jameson Taillon, PIT	at MIN	vs. CHC
16	German Marquez, COL	at HOU	at ATL
17	Jose Quintana, CHC	vs. MIL	at PIT
18	Sean Manaea, OAK	vs. SEA	vs. HOU
19	Gio Gonzalez, WAS	at STL	vs. MIA
20	Anibal Sanchez, ATL*	vs. MIA	vs. COL
21	Brad Keller, KC*	vs. TOR	at CHW
22	Jake Odorizzi, MIN	vs. PIT	vs. DET
23	Reynaldo Lopez, CHW	at DET	vs. KC
24	Andrew Suarez, SF	at LAD	at CIN
25	Ryan Borucki, TOR*	at KC	at NYY
26	John Gant, STL*	vs. WAS	vs. MIL
27	Jaime Barria, LAA	at SD	at TEX
28	Pablo Lopez, MIA*	at ATL	at WAS
29	Tommy Milone, WAS	at STL	vs. MIA
30	Blaine Hardy, DET*	vs. CHW	at MIN
31	Heath Fillmyer, KC	vs. TOR	at CHW
32	Andrew Cashner, BAL	vs. NYM	at CLE
33	Jason Vargas, NYM	at BAL	at PHI
34	Clayton Richard, SD	vs. LAA	vs. ARI
35	Artie Lewicki, DET*	vs. CHW	at MIN

*RP-eligible