Below we’ve got a discussion of the starting pitching situation as well as the best teams to use for stacks for Saturday’s nine-game evening slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. We’ve also got projections derived from FanGraphs’ Depth Chart projections and rankings of the top plays at each position.

Pitching Perspective

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Stay away from Felix Hernandez tonight. Instead of explaining it myself, I’ll just direct you to Mike Podhorzer’s recent post on King Felix. Stay away.

Other than Felix, the evening slate’s more recognizable starters are all worth considering. None of those starters is more noteworthy than Jose Fernandez. He has struggled a bit with control in the early going, but he’s racking up strikeouts at an incredible rate (39.1 percent K%). The problem with a lot of walks and a lot of strikeouts, though, is generally a high pitch count. The Marlins are reportedly managing his innings and pitch counts anyway, and Fernandez hasn’t pitched into the seventh inning in any of his three starts so far. That hurts his chances of recording a win, but the high strikeout rate mitigates that. The big question is whether he’s worth paying up for. Given the fairly thin pitching options in this slate, he’s probably worth spending on. But in GPPs it might make sense to fade him as he should be highly owned.

The other recognizable names to consider are Michael Wacha and Steven Matz. Wacha has pitched very well as he owns a 2.76 ERA and 2.48 xFIP through three starts. The matchup against the Padres in San Diego is obviously a good one. He’s not necessarily a better value on DK or FD, and he’s priced appropriately on both sites. Matz’s 7.27 ERA looks horrendous, and it’ll take some time for his numbers to recover from allowing seven runs in less than two innings in his first start. But he bounced back in a big way in his last start with seven scoreless innings. All told he has 10 strikeouts and four walks in 8 2/3 innings. He’s priced better on FD than DK, but he might be easier to trust on a two-pitcher site like DK. His salary on DK isn’t bad, but there’s not a ton of value in it.

As for value options, Dan Straily is probably worth a look considering how cheap he is. A .129 BABIP is the main reason for his 2.70 ERA, and his xFIP of 4.39 is more indicative of Straily’s ability. But a 4.39 xFIP is only somewhat below average, and Straily’s salaries today are well below average as he’s the second cheapest starter on each site. The matchup with the Cubs is a tough one but there’s some upside in it with strikeouts, and the value potential might make him worth a shot in a GPP.

A safer value option is Chase Anderson. Anderson isn’t a big strikeout guy as he has 13 strikeouts in 16 innings so far. He tends to be slightly below average in the strikeout department, but that’s good enough given how good his control is. His walk rate was better than average last year, and he has walked just two batters so far this season. His home ball park is a tough one for pitchers, but his matchup with the Phillies today offsets that to some degree. Anderson is a better value on FD, but he’s still a viable SP2 option on DK.

Stack Options

Chicago Cubs – While Dan Straily is an option, he’s only a GPP option, which means the hitters he’s facing are still in consideration. Straily has struggled, as many pitchers do, against opposite-handed hitters. Straily owns a career xFIP of 5.15 against left-handed hitters. So guys like Anthony Rizzo and Jason Heyward are good plays today. Heyward in particular is priced well. And it’s not like Straily owns right-handers as his xFIP against them is a tad above 4.00. I’d probably stick to the lefties in cash games, but throw in some right-handers in a Cubs stack if you like. Addison Russell, Javier Baez and Jorge Soler are all nice values.

Los Angeles Dodgers – Coors. The Dodgers will face Tyler Chatwood who does what he can to manage Coors by keeping the ball on the ground at a healthy clip, but it’s hard to ignore lefties against him. He has a career xFIP of 4.70 against lefties, and his walk rate against lefties isn’t far off from his strikeout rate against them. Any lefties are in play, and Yasiel Puig and Justin Turner could be used to fill in the gaps in a stack.

Pittsburgh Pirates – Speaking of guys who struggle with lefties, Rubby de la Rosa! Rubby has a career xFIP of 4.73 against lefties and has allowed 1.43 home runs per nine to them. His numbers were even worse against lefties last year with a 5.15 xFIP and 2.06 HR/9. Gregory Polanco, John Jaso and Matt Joyce are all good targets. Marte and McCutchen could be used to fill in gaps in a GPP stack.

Player Rankings

Catcher

1. Yasmani Grandal
2. Chris Iannetta
3. Miguel Montero (better value on FD)
4. Devin Mesoraco (better value on DK)
5. Jontah Lucroy

First Base

1. Adrian Gonzalez (better value on FD)
2. Anthony Rizzo (better value on FD)
3. Mark Reynolds
4. John Jaso
5. Matt Adams

Second Base

1. Chase Utley (better value on FD)
2. Ben Zobrist (better value on
3. Kolten Wong
4. Neil Walker
5. D.J. Lemahieu (better value on DK)

Third Base

1. Kris Bryant (better value on FD)
2. Justin Turner
3. Maikel Franco
4. Jake Lamb
5. Aaron Hill

Shortstop

1. Javier Baez
2. Corey Seager (better value on FD)
3. Jonathan Villar
4. Addison Russell
5. Ketel Marte

Outfield

1. Carlos Gonzalez
2. Yasiel Puig (better value on FD)
3. Jason Heyward
4. David Peralta
5. Gregory Polanco
6. Nelson Cruz
7. Joc Pederson (better value on FD)
8. Jorge Soler (better value on FD)
9. Domingo Santana
10. Alejandro de Aza
11. Scott Schebler
12. Odubel Herrera

Starting Pitcher

1. Jose Fernandez
2. Michael Wacha
3. Steven Matz (better value on FD)
4. Dan Straily (better value on DK)
5. Chase Anderson (better value on  FD)

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