New York Yankees starting pitcher Luis Severino throws to the Texas Rangers during the first inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, April 26, 2016, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Here's where you can find some recommendations for tournament pitchers target for FanDuel and DraftKings. Find our main set of cash game picks HERE.
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*With just a three-game early slate today, the pitchers you see below will be for the main slate only.*
Opponent - OAK (Gray) Park - @OAK
FD - 29.61 DK - 19.59
After Chris Sale on today's main slate, the pitching options get extremely thin. On FanDuel, this is not much of a problem from a cash game perspective as we only need to roster one pitcher but on DraftKings it's a different story as we need two. There are a couple ways to go about this. I am starting with Jordan Montgomery as he is the "safest" of the next tier of pitchers. He and the Yankees are only small favorites(-112) at the moment but matchup-wise it makes perfect sense as he gets a huge park boost traveling to the Oakland Coliseum to face an A's team that has struck out over 26% of the time over the last seven days and ranks in the bottom third of the league against left-handed pitching in wOBA(.298), wRC+(87) and strikeout rate(25.4%). Montgomery has also looked very good lately winning two straight starts while limiting opponents to just eight hits and two earned runs over 13 innings while striking out 13 batters. It isn't easy to fit him in with Sale but it can definitely be done as after the two of them are inserted you will be left with an average of $3,412 per player on DraftKings.
Opponent - MIL (Davies) Park - @STL
FD - 29.56 DK - 19.58
If you wanting to possibly get a few more bats in your lineup in cash games with Sale as your #1, you will have to sacrifice some of the safety and roll with a value pitcher. I had both Verlander and Wacha on my list and after looking at each's numbers and seeing a very similar repertoire I will take the discount with Wacha. Both have a slightly above average strikeout rate over 8 K/9 and both have mid 4 ERA's. The big difference and reason for Wacha tonight is that he has done a much better job in limiting hard contact(26% to Verlander's 38%) and has an xFIP that is a full run lower overall. Next is the matchup as Verlander gets a somewhat scary one facing a scorching hot Rays team that has posted a .383 wOBA and 145 wRC+ over the past seven days. Even the splits in the matchup favor Wacha as the Brewers have been slightly worse vs. right-handed pitching while the Rays rank inside the Top 5 vs. righties. It's a risky proposition with either of them but if you want some big hitters in your lineup you will have to stomach it.
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