DraftKings.com Team of the Day

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Starting Pitchers

If you like to spend big on pitchers and get the safest options possible, Clayton Kershaw ($12,700) and Cole Hamels ($11,700) probably have the best matchups of the stud pitchers going tomorrow against the Mets and Pirates, respectively.

But if you’re looking to save a little coin on the mound, there are several good options tomorrow: Jonathan Niese home to the Dodgers ($9,100), Hisashi Iwakuma @ Houston ($9,000), and Patrick Corbin @ San Francisco ($8,100).

The three are remarkably similar pitchers. They all have about league average strikeout skills and above average walk rates. Of the three, Iwakuma is off to the best start. He’s issued only two walks in 26.1 innings and has a 1.69 ERA. He’s obviously not going to have a sub-2.00 ERA all year, but the regression may not begin against the Astros. He’s been the best and has the best matchup, so he’s one of my two picks at SP. As for Niese and Corbin, both have struggled with control early, so I’m looking at either one of the studs above, or one of the two cheaper options below.

Ross Detwiler ($7,300) and Carlos Villanueva ($5,000) are both off to amazing starts with ERAs of 0.90 and 1.29, respectively. Villanueva is particularly intriguing tomorrow because of the price; five grand is as cheap as pitchers get on DraftKings. But he’ll face Cincinnati, which isn’t a good matchup for any pitcher. But it’s even worse for Villanueva because his bugaboo is homers, and Cincinnati is a park that yields quite a few homers. I like Villanueva, but I’m probably staying away tomorrow regardless of the price.

As for Detwiler, he’ll face a Cardinals team that is currently 24th in wRC+ (87). If you can’t afford Kershaw or Hamels to go along with Iwakuma, Detwiler is probably your best bet,

C – Alex Avila, $3,400: Avila, a lefty, will face a righty, and not a good one at that in Wade Davis.

1B – Mark Reynolds, $5,100: There is a saying that there is no such thing as a hot streak in daily fantasy, but it’s hard to ignore what Reynolds has done lately. He homered in four straight last week, and has seven homers on the year. He’ll face a lefty (he’s a righty) in a Chicago park which is favorable to long balls.

2B – Kyle Seager, $4,100: Again, it’s dangerous to look at recent performance when picking players, but Seager has an eleven game hit streak going and has homered in two straight. He’s got a lefty-righty matchup against a not-so-great pitcher (Bus Norris) in a good park to hit in (Houston).

3B – Adrian Beltre, $4,800: Another lefty-righty matchup.

SS – Everth Cabrera, $3,500: Ditto.

OF – Andrew McCutchen, $5,400: The matchup with Hamels is good in the lefty-righty sense, but obviously you don’t like to start hitters against stud pitchers. However, Hamels isn’t great at holding men on base, so I think Cutch has a good chance to swipe a bag if he gets on base.

OF – Will Venable, $3,800: Venable is facing Yovani Gallardo who threw his curveball almost 20% of the time last season despite the fact that he had a negative pitch value for that pitch. Venable was very good against curveballs last year, so with another favorable lefty-righty matchup, Venable is a nice, cheap option.

OF – Matt Joyce, $3,500: Blah, blah, blah, lefty-righty blah, blah, blah. Oh, and Phil Hughes sucks.