MLB Sim Sports Picks for 6/24/20 on FanDuel
Finally, we have a light at the end of the tunnel.
Opening Day: July 23 or 24
Season: 60 games
Location: Home ballparks
Health and safety: "MLB's foremost priorities" pic.twitter.com/PWOu9GolDh
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 24, 2020
These sims have been fun, everybody. But real baseball is less than a month away. I'm gonna go ahead and celebrate.
With that being said, there's still an incentive to keep playing these simulated slates (outside of, ya know, money). They give us practice to get ourselves back into DFS shape before the real entry fees start to fly.
So let's dig into tonight's slate and try to get our groove back.
Below are the starting pitchers for this evening, which locks at 8:06 pm ET. Stats are from 2019 and limited to just games started, so you may see slight changes in the overall numbers of some players who made appearances out of the bullpen. Opposing strikeout rate and wRC+ are last year's numbers against a given pitcher's handedness using updated active rosters, per FanGraphs.
| Pitcher | Salary | Opp. | SIERA | K% | BB% | Opp. K% | Opp. wRC+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerrit Cole (R) | $12,000 | BAL | 2.62 | 39.9% | 5.9% | 21.5 % | 86 |
| Lucas Giolito (R) | $10,000 | DET | 3.57 | 32.3% | 8.1% | 25.6 % | 82 |
| Charlie Morton (R) | $9,700 | OAK | 3.54 | 30.4% | 7.2% | 22.8 % | 109 |
| Mike Minor (L) | $9,400 | @SEA | 4.51 | 23.2% | 7.9% | 23.4 % | 106 |
| Miles Mikolas (R) | $8,800 | @MIA | 4.39 | 18.9% | 4.2% | 24.4 % | 95 |
| A.J. Puk (L) | $7,500 | @TAM | -- | -- | -- | 27.1 % | 99 |
| Jose Urena (R) | $7,300 | STL | 4.98 | 15.8% | 7.1% | 23.6 % | 94 |
| Yusei Kikuchi (L) | $6,900 | TEX | 5.17 | 16.1% | 6.9% | 26.4 % | 97 |
| Michael Fulmer (R) | $6,700 | @CWS | -- | -- | -- | 25.6 % | 107 |
| Vince Velasquez (R) | $6,600 | @ATL | 4.42 | 24.6% | 7.9% | 22.4 % | 100 |
| Tyler Chatwood (R) | $6,400 | @CIN | 5.10 | 21.4% | 12.2% | 24.3 % | 95 |
| Joe Ross (R) | $6,300 | PIT | 5.24 | 19.8% | 11.5% | 20.1 % | 94 |
| Jose Urquidy (R) | $6,200 | MIN | 3.77 | 25.9% | 4.3% | 20.9 % | 119 |
| Michael Wacha (R) | $6,100 | @SFG | 5.19 | 18.3% | 10.1% | 24.0 % | 89 |
| Jake Odorizzi (R) | $6,000 | @HOU | 4.14 | 27.1% | 8.1% | 16.3 % | 129 |
| Andrew Suarez (L) | $5,900 | NYM | 6.47 | 14.3% | 14.3% | 23.4 % | 114 |
| Wade Miley (L) | $5,800 | CHC | 4.80 | 19.4% | 8.5% | 24.5 % | 94 |
| Felix Hernandez (R) | $5,700 | PHI | 5.02 | 17.5% | 7.7% | 24.5 % | 90 |
| Derek Holland (L) | $5,600 | @WAS | 5.16 | 25.0% | 14.3% | 20.2 % | 106 |
| Alex Cobb (R) | $5,500 | @NYY | 4.96 | 13.3% | 3.3% | 23.4 % | 119 |
To help get you started, let's go through some of the top pitchers and stacks on the slate.
Pitchers
Gerrit Cole ($12,000) is a no-brainer against Baltimore. It's an exorbitant price, but no one has a higher ceiling tonight.
Of course, Lucas Giolito ($10,000) has a dream matchup of his own versus the Tigers. Note that most projections see him taking a slight step back (Steamer gives him a 27.0% strikeout rate), but he should still be able to put up big numbers.
Charlie Morton ($9,700) is in less of a juicy spot against Oakland, but don't forget that his home ballpark should help suppress runs. He figures to be less popular than Cole or Giolito and can still rack up the punchouts.
A.J. Puk ($7,500) is on the other side of that Athletics matchup, facing a Rays lineup that whiffs often. He threw just 11.1 innings out of the bullpen last year, so the simulated pitch count might not be high, but he profiles as a high-strikeout arm. That's enough to pique our interest at this salary.
Stacks
The Washington Nationals should be on your shortlist against lefty Derek Holland, who was lit up for a 6.08 ERA over 84.1 innings between the rotation and bullpen in 2019. And don't let the high strikeout rate above scare you. That came over just eight starts, and if you include his bullpen work, it drops to just 21.8%. Juan Soto ($4,200) can still excel in a lefty-lefty matchup, and Victor Robles ($3,200) and Ryan Zimmerman ($2,800) are inexpensive pieces.
The New York Yankees may be in an even better spot, taking on Alex Cobb in Yankee Stadium. Cobb only made three starts last year, but he's had a strikeout rate in the teens dating back to 2016. You know the top guys if you can fit 'em in, and Gary Sanchez ($3,000) and Aaron Hicks ($2,900) look like solid values at their respective salaries.
Also, consider the Chicago White Sox against Michael Fulmer or the Philadelphia Phillies versus Felix Hernandez. Fulmer was mediocre when we last saw him pitch in 2018, while Hernandez has really fallen off the past two campaigns.
The author of this article has no involvement with the MLB Sim Sports simulations powered by numberFire and has no knowledge of the results of tonight’s contest.
