Fantasy baseball: Attack these pitching staffs in your title pursuit

This is it! The final week!By this time next week, your league will be crowning its champion.All that sits between you and fantasy glory is seven days when you need to stay on top of your team, and use every possible advantage you can find.To aid with your final push, Roto Rage is focusing on five pitching staffs worth attacking, so make sure your lineup is stacked against them.On paper, the Rangers’ final two opponents (Athletics and Angels) are not all that intimidating, especially when you consider Texas’ potential starters include Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Kumar Rocker, Andrew Heaney, Nathan Eovaldi, Jack Leiter.

On paper, that looks pretty solid … but looks can be deceiving.DeGrom looked good in his season debut but lasted just 3 ²/₃ innings in that outing, and his workload will be monitored.Scherzer is in the same boat as deGrom.Heaney has pitched less than six innings in 11 of his past 13 starts while Rocker is striking out 15.4 per nine but has lasted seven innings in his first two starts.

Leiter has not worked more than five innings in any of his seven appearances, and Eovaldi has a 5.44 ERA with eight homers allowed over his last eight starts, half of which lasted less than six innings. Why is this important? The Rangers’ bullpen entered Friday with the sixth-worst ERA, the fifth-most homers allowed and issued the second-most walks in the majors.Oakland’s Zack Gelof (12.4 percent) has four stolen bases and hit .308 with a .809 OPS in his first 17 games this month.Lawrence Butler (42.2 percent) hit .317 with 20 homers, 49 RBIs, 49 runs, 11 stolen bases and a 1.006 OPS in 65 games before Friday.

Brent Rooker (90.5 percent) should obviously remain in your lineup as he hit .367 with nine homers, 27 RBIs, 19 runs, four stolen bases and 1.078 OPS in his past 27 games.For the Angels, Taylor Ward (50.9 percent) entered Friday with at least one hit in 24 of his past 28 games since Aug.20, hitting .305 with nine homers, 15 RBIs, 21 runs, two st...