Fantasy baseball: Four under-the-radar pitchers who could help

With so many established pitchers floundering this season, staff writer Tim Hubbard shows there are plenty of non-household names that can help bolster any fantasy owner’s rotation.

Mike Leake

SP | Cincinnati

It wasn’t until the Reds scrapped plans to move Aroldis Chapman into the rotation in late March that Leake slipped out of camp as the team’s fifth starter. It has proven to be a great decision. Leake has been Cincinnati’s best starter the last two months, going 6-2 with a 1.86 ERA since May 1.

Jeff Locke

SP | Pittsburgh

Locke was solid, if unspectacular, in seven minor league seasons and after a call up to the Pirates last year, but the left-hander has broken out in 2013, going 6-1 with a 2.03 ERA. He’s allowed only four earned runs in his last seven starts.

Corey Kluber

SP | Cleveland

Take out a May 10 start in which Detroit roughed him up for eight runs in 42/3 innings, and Kluber has been consistently solid since joining the Indians’ rotation in late April, posting a 2.93 ERA in his other 10 starts. He can also help owners in the strikeout department, averaging almost one per inning.

Eric Stults

SP | San Diego

A middling stop-gap starter with the Dodgers from 2006-2009, Stults, 33, landed in San Diego last year and went 7-1 with a 2.78 ERA after the All-Star break. This season he has a 3.25 ERA and 1.09 WHIP, and has allowed two or fewer runs in eight of his last 10 starts.