Daily Fantasy MLB Pitcher Breakdown FanDuel and DraftKings- 6/9/16

Daily Fantasy MLB Pitcher Breakdown FanDuel and DraftKings- 6/9/16

Welcome to our new daily article breaking down some of the other pitching targets on this slate. We covered our system's top value plays in our daily picks article but here we will look at other dudes to consider.

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Pitching Targets

*Note - We wrote about Gio Gonzalez and Jimmy Nelson in the Main Article and will highlight a few other top options onboth the early slate and evening slate.*

Today is one of the ugliest pitching days I can remember in awhile. It might be the worst of the whole season. Short slate and all the aces (seemingly) went yesterday leaving the scraps for Wednesday. I need to preface these other guys by saying that on a normal day, none of them would sniff any type of consideration. But this isn't a normal day by any stretch.

Nathan Karns FD 8200 DK 7900
Opponent - CLE (Tomlin) Park - @SEA
FD - 30.1 DK - 15.81
Of all the pitchers out there today, Karns has some of the best K stuff. He's striking out more than a batter an inning this season and faces an Indian squad going down on strikes 21% of the time against righties. The Tribe against Karns have the lowest run expectation at 3.7 thanks the ballpark as well. Karns' primary issue is his 3.79 walk rate. Allowing this many free passes, and working so much out of the strike zone, prohibits him from going later into games. He's made it through seven innings exactly once this season and more often is looking at a six inning ceiling. That leaves some pretty thin margins for upside. But on a wacky day I don't mind getting some of the K numbers.

Adam Wainwright FD 8000 DK 5600
Opponent - CIN (Finnegan) Park - @CIN
FD - 31.41 DK - 15.81
The good news on Wainwright first. He comes in as the biggest moneyline favorite on the day at -165 and Reds are only expected to put up about 4.2 runs (one of the lower numbers on the board). So, cool - that's the good news. Now the bad. Wainwright is clearly a different pitcher this season after coming back from injury. Just about every relevant number on him is moving in the wrong direction. The K's are down to about 5.5 per nine. The walks are up to his highest number since 2012. His 4.43 xFIP is a run higher than his career totals and the velocity is down just a bit. He's trending in the wrong direction and we are probably nearing the end of his career. All that being said, he has the highest win expectation on the board and in his last four starts he's been able to go six innings or more. Wouldn't consider him on a regular slate of games but today is irregular indeed.

Marcus Stroman FD 8000 DK 5700
Opponent - BAL (Wilson) Park - @TOR
FD - 30.65 DK - 15.45
Oof. Our system's been bullish on Stroman all year and it hasn't come close to working out. He's struggled for though there are some teeny-tiny bits of hope and optimism around Marcus. His 3.88 xFIP is more than a run lower than his ERA and he's had some run bad this season. He's getting beat up with runners on base to the tune of a 63.6% LOB% though to be fair he's never been particularly good in this area. He may struggle pitching out of the stretch. Really the most intriguing thing about him (and Wainwright too for that matter) are their prices on DraftKings. They are priced like good hitters. It's crazy low and if you roster him you are essentially guaranteeing any bat you want throughout the rest of the lineup.

 

 

 

 

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image sources

  • Mariners starter Nathan Karns delivers a pitch in the first inning.: By Arturo Pardavila III on Flickr [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Doug Norrie

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