FanDuel Pitching Primer: Tuesday 8/13/19
In daily fantasy baseball, success starts with nailing the starting pitcher spot in your lineup.
When compared to hitters, pitching performance tends to be much more predictable and stable throughout the course of the season. You know what you're getting from a top-level ace when you roster him: probably a dominant effort with only one or two implosions per season. In contrast, even the game's best hitters have days at the plate when they go 0-for-4.
As a result, lineup construction should begin with the starting pitcher. Each day we will highlight a starter to consider from each pricing tier, and we'll also look at one contrarian play for tournaments. Who should you consider on today's main slate?
High-Priced Option
Lance Lynn, Texas Rangers
at Toronto Blue Jays
FanDuel Price: $10,300
Do you like aces? If so, tonight's main slate is an absolute monster. There are a pile of excellent choices to peruse from, making the high-priced options somewhat tricky.
Lance Lynn stands out as an excellent choice compared to many of the rest. If some folks were under the impression that the first half was a fluke, they would be wrong -- since the All-Star break, he's recorded a 2.70 ERA and 1.11 WHIP over six starts (40 innings), and he's hit the seven inning mark four times already.
Over those 40 innings, he's whiffed 55 batters, including an 11 strikeout gem against the Houston Astros coming out of the break.
To further embolden his case, Lynn faces a Toronto Blue Jays offense that ranks in the bottom-five against the fastball, per FanGraphs. That's good news for a pitcher with over a 70% fastball rate.
If you are paying up at pitcher, peep Lynn.
Mid-Priced Option
Jack Flaherty, St. Louis Cardinals
at Kansas City Royals
FanDuel Price: $8,900
With five arms priced between $8,000 and $8,900, there's several great options to consider if spending in the middle is your jam.
Since the All-Star break, there's arguably been no hurler better than Jack Flaherty. Covering five starts and 31 1/3 innings pitched, Flaherty has whiffed 43 batters, including a minute 0.86 ERA and 0.83 WHIP.
Walks were an issue for Flaherty last year, posting a 9.6% walk rate, which gave fantasy owners a bit of a pause -- but that's actually been reduced in 2019 to 7.8%.
With a matchup in the I-70 series on tap tonight, Flaherty gets to attack a Kansas City Royals offense that has struggled. Since July 15th, they rank 21st in team wOBA (.312), 24th in isolated power (.170, ISO), and 22nd in fly-ball rate (34.4%).
Flaherty will look to continue rolling tonight in the second half against this poor offense.
Low-Priced/Contrarian Play
Zac Gallen, Arizona Diamondbacks
at Colorado Rockies
FanDuel Price: $7,000
Recommending a pitcher in Coors Field is not a task taken lightly, but Zac Gallen of the Arizona Diamondbacks may have the chops to do just that.
Despite a pile of home games since July 15th, the Colorado Rockies have not fared well as an offense -- they clock in fourth-worst in fly-ball rate (33.7%), fifth-worst in wRC+ (84), all while whiffing 22.4% of the time.
While a rookie, Gallen is no ordinary young hurler. Over 41 1/3 innings pitched, he's fired his way to a 29.2% strikeout rate, and he's done a solid job with a 0.65 home runs per nine (HR/9) innings pitched.
That thin air is certainly no joke, but with a slight breeze blowing in tonight, Gallen could make for a solid pivot play.
Matt Kupferle is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matt Kupferle also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username MKupferle. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
