FanDuel Pitching Primer: Tuesday 8/27/19
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
Patrick Corbin, Washington Nationals
vs. Baltimore Orioles
FanDuel Price: $10,000
If aces are your thing, Tuesday's main slate will get you very excited as there are five big-time arms priced at $10,000 or above.
Perhaps the best of those options tonight is Patrick Corbin of the Washington Nationals, who clocks in right at the $10,000 price point. The southpaw owns a 27.9% strikeout rate on the season, and his hefty ground-ball rate (48.2%) makes him difficult to take deep.
His opponent, Baltimore Orioles, checks in with the third-lowest implied run total (3.50), and it's a lineup that whiffs the ninth-most in baseball (23.7%).
All of this adds up to a big opportunity for Corbin, who our models have as the night's top arm.
Mid-Priced Option
Andrew Heaney, Los Angeles Angels
vs. Texas Rangers
FanDuel Price: $8,200
Coming off perhaps his best outing of the season, where he struck out 14 batters, Andrew Heaney will face the same opponent today -- the Texas Rangers -- in hopes of duplicating those efforts.
Armed with a 29.0% strikeout rate, Heaney is matched up with a Texas team that has been poor at the dish this year. They strike out third-most in the league (25.8%), rank only 20th in fly-ball rate (35.1%), and are only middle of the pack in isolated power (.186, ISO).
With only 64 2/3 innings pitched to his name, Heaney may be bit off your radar, but don't ignore him. In addition to that gaudy strikeout rate, he's also got a stellar 7.4% walk rate coupled with a 14.2% swinging-strike rate.
Heaney is definitely a stellar pitching option in this spot, and his cheaper salary can help you pay up for the bats you want.
Low-Priced/Contrarian Play
Cal Quantrill, San Diego Padres
vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
FanDuel Price: $6,200
As teammate Eric Lauer showed last night, the juggernaut Los Angeles Dodgers aren't invincible, and Cal Quantrill will look to continue his strong run of form in tonight's start.
Quantrill has posted 25 or more FanDuel points in five of his last six starts, including a 40-point effort in his last outing against the Cincinnati Reds. His 21.1% strikeout rate is fairly pedestrian, but there's room for upside here with a 10.9% swinging-strike rate.
And while this LA offense is always tough to handle, as evidenced by their .366 wOBA in the last two weeks, they also provide that upside we desperately crave. They have a 25.0% strikeout rate (fifth-worst) in that same time frame.
With the game taking place in San Diego, which ranks fourth-best for pitchers in terms of park factor in 2019, Quantrill could make for a sneaky-good option, and he isn't likely to see much ownership.
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.
