FanDuel Pitching Primer: Monday 4/19/21
Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-salary studs. These guys take up by far the biggest chunk of your cap space, but they also offer the highest ceiling. And in the case of pitchers, the high-salary options typically come with the highest floors, too.
For hitters, we're looking for guys with big numbers, strong matchups, and with players around them that are likely to produce well, too, increasing our chances for runs and RBI. For pitchers, we want big strikeout numbers, while the ability to go deep in a game and pick up a win is also valuable.
With your high-salary picks playing such a big role in your lineup, you need to be right on these guys, so let's take a look at a few top-end options you can count on to anchor your lineup today.
High-Salaried Option
Joe Musgrove, San Diego Padres
Vs Milwaukee Brewers
FanDuel Salary: $10,500
Sometimes free agency signings and trades work, and sometimes they don't -- it's certainly an early read and hard to take any victory laps so soon, but man, the San Diego Padres signing of Joe Musgrove seems to be working out pretty darn fine.
After throwing a no-hitter a few starts ago, it could be a bit scary to pay up for Musgrove in light of his last outing given that he only went four innings. But, here's reasons to believe on the right-handed arm that owns an identical 0.47 WHIP and ERA -- he faces a Milwaukee Brewers team that hasn't been at their best yet, and they have struck out a 25% clip with a .625 OPS against rightes like Musgrove.
Our algorithm pegs him for a crisp 35.9 points on the night, so this should be a smash spot.
Mid-Salaried Play
Danny Duffy, Kansas City Royals
vs Tampa Bay Rays
FanDuel Salary: $8,300
The Tampa Bay Rays have been an interesting target to stack against for DFS purposes -- they can get loose in a hurry, and they do an outstanding job of matching up against opposing pitchers. But they also whiff a ton, and this year, they clock the seventh-highest strikeout rate at 27.1%.
So far this season, southpaw Danny Duffy of the Kansas City Royals -- over 12 innings pitched, he's given up one earned run and struck out 11 batters.
If you are looking for an arm in the mid-range, peep Duffy, who we peg for a solid 23.5 points.
Low-Salaried Play
Joe Ross, Washington Nationals
FanDuel Salary: $7,600
There's plenty of reasons to have some worry around right-hander Joe Ross of the Washington Nationals -- the veteran has logged 11 scoreless innings this year but only garnered a total of 13 swings and misses.
However, this St. Louis Cardinals offense stinks -- he's got a .299 wOBA and a 25.0% strikeout, and they were absolutely housed by Philadelphia Phillies pitching this weekend, including Aaron Nola's nine-inning shutout in the series finale.
Ross has been a strike-throwing machine -- in his last start, ironically against the Cards, he threw 63 pitchers for 89 strikes, and he was great getting ahead of 16 out of 22 batters. If he can attack this ugly offense again, Ross could be a very valuable 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.
