MLB

FanDuel Pitching Primer: Tuesday 8/18/20

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle Aug 18th, 2020
After a wild night of offense, who are we looking to start at pitcher tonight?

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. Which pitchers should you consider on today's main slate?

High-Priced Option

Yu Darvish, Chicago Cubs

Vs. St. Louis Cardinals

FanDuel Price: $9,900

We have three high-priced arms over $9,000 today -- it is very nice having choices when we look at the top-flight arms.

For the top grouping, I am going with the middle of the three with Yu Darvish of the Chicago Cubs. The reason is that the Cardinals, despite being 3-2, have been really dreadful offensively since returning from their COVID-19 hiatus.

Over those five games, the Birds rank sixth-worst in team wOBA (.301), 11th worst in team isolated power (.164, ISO), and third-worst in ground-ball rate (49.6%).

Pay up for Darvish and take those points.

Mid-Priced Play

Tony Gonsolin, Los Angeles Dodgers

Vs. Seattle Mariners

FanDuel Price: $7,100

Let's try this one again.

Look, when you're wrong, you gotta own it, and boy was I wrong yesterday on Ross Stripling. Holy catfish. The Seattle Mariners, as the kids say, were lit, smashing him early and often after the Los Angeles Dodgers took a 6-2 lead.

However, I don't think Tony Gonsolin will suffer the same fate. While it could be his last start of the year, as he seems to continue to be shuffled back and forth from the alternate site, he's been impressive with a 29.0% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate, and 40.0% hard-hit rate.

The Mariners are slated for only a 3.72 implied run team total, so nab Gonsolin.

Low-Priced Option

Corbin Burnes, Milwaukee Brewers

At Minnesota Twins

FanDuel Price: $6,700

This play certainly is not for the faint of heart against a Minnesota Twins' lineup that when they are cookin', man are they nasty to match up with.

But, there's some slivers of hope if you roster a guy like Corbin Burnes of the Milwaukee Brewers. While the Twins are explosive, with Josh Donaldson out of action, this offense has slumped to only a .316 wOBA (16th), and they are whiffing a solid 23.6% of the time.

Burnes owns a juicy 36.4% strikeout rate so far, so let's see if he can make for a fun, low-owned 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.