MLB Sim Sports Picks for 6/1/20 on FanDuel
Do you miss Major League Baseball? Yeah, we do, too.
Enter MLB Sim Sports, a free-to-play format that simulates the baseball games that were originally scheduled for play each day. Starting pitchers and batting orders are announced in advance, and then games will play out through numberFire's custom simulator.
Starting pitchers will have a simulated pitch count that we won't know beforehand but should be roughly based on their performance last season. Hitters will play the whole game, so there's no fear of pinch hitters and the like.
Best of all, the simulation is meant to replicate real life, so all the usual things you typically analyze in MLB DFS -- player skills, matchups, park factors, and platoon splits -- are in play here, so you can approach this in much the same way you would on a real baseball slate.
Below are the starting pitchers for tonight's slate, which locks at 8:02 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 | @SEA | 2.62 | 39.9% | 5.9% | 25.9 % | 88 |
| Jack Flaherty (R) | $10,400 | TOR | 3.68 | 29.9% | 7.1% | 25.2 % | 85 |
| Mike Clevinger (R) | $9,600 | BOS | 3.31 | 33.9% | 7.4% | 19.9 % | 105 |
| Yu Darvish (R) | $9,100 | CIN | 3.55 | 31.3% | 7.7% | 24.3 % | 95 |
| Chris Paddack (R) | $9,000 | @SFG | 3.83 | 26.9% | 5.5% | 24.0 % | 89 |
| Jose Berrios (R) | $8,800 | TAM | 4.28 | 23.2% | 6.1% | 24.3 % | 99 |
| Hyun-Jin Ryu (L) | $8,600 | @STL | 3.77 | 22.5% | 3.3% | 22.4 % | 96 |
| Zac Gallen (R) | $8,500 | COL | 4.24 | 28.7% | 10.8% | 22.5 % | 86 |
| Blake Snell (L) | $8,300 | @MIN | 3.56 | 33.3% | 9.1% | 20.4 % | 123 |
| Josh Lindblom (R) | $8,300 | @WAS | -- | -- | -- | 21.5 % | 96 |
| Mike Soroka (R) | $7,900 | @LOS | 4.28 | 20.3% | 5.9% | 20.2 % | 122 |
| Alex Wood (L) | $7,400 | ATL | 4.67 | 19.6% | 5.9% | 22.7 % | 106 |
| Anibal Sanchez (R) | $7,100 | MIL | 5.07 | 18.8% | 8.2% | 22.8 % | 102 |
| Andrew Suarez (L) | $6,700 | SDP | 6.47 | 14.3% | 14.3% | 24.5 % | 107 |
| Antonio Senzatela (R) | $6,500 | @ARI | 5.50 | 13.1% | 9.8% | 21.8 % | 96 |
| Nathan Eovaldi (R) | $6,300 | @CLE | 5.33 | 21.6% | 12.9% | 22.1 % | 96 |
| Patrick Sandoval (L) | $6,100 | @TEX | 4.89 | 22.8% | 11.4% | 26.4 % | 97 |
| Wade Miley (L) | $6,000 | @CHC | 4.80 | 19.4% | 8.5% | 24.5 % | 94 |
| Yusei Kikuchi (L) | $5,900 | NYY | 5.17 | 16.1% | 6.9% | 23.6 % | 126 |
| Jordan Lyles (R) | $5,500 | LAA | 4.53 | 24.4% | 9.2% | 20.3 % | 109 |
To help get you started, let's go through some of the top pitchers and stacks on tonight's slate.
Pitchers
Gerrit Cole ($12,000) was masterful in 2019 and is up against the lowly Mariners. He's the no-brainer top choice despite the exorbitant price tag.
Jack Flaherty ($10,400) and Yu Darvish ($9,100) are strong consolation prizes, though, drawing plus matchups against the Blue Jays and Reds, respectively.
Zac Gallen ($8,500) stands out as the best potential value play. The road-tripping Rockies shouldn't put up much resistance, and his 28.7% strikeout rate is just a hair behind guys like Flaherty and Darvish.
Stacks
Mike Trout ($4,500) and the Los Angeles Angels are in Texas, and as mentioned in previous helpers, that should mean a park factor boost for hitters. Jordan Lyles posted decent numbers last season, but season-long projections aren't buying into him, with Steamer giving him a 5.25 ERA with a 20.0% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate.
In addition to Trout, Anthony Rendon ($4,000), Shohei Ohtani ($3,500), and Justin Upton ($3,300) are top options to go deep. Tommy La Stella ($3,100), Jason Castro ($2,800) and Brian Goodwin ($2,300) are nice values with the platoon advantage.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Brewers could be in a good spot against Anibal Sanchez. There was a wide discrepancy between Sanchez' ERA (3.85) and SIERA (5.07) last year, and projections pretty much universally view him as the latter for his 2020 ERA.
That's excellent news for the Brewers, who boast Christian Yelich ($4,200), Keston Hiura ($3,300), and Avisail Garcia ($3,200) as strong choices, with the rest of the lineup priced below $3k.
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.
