Yesterday, I was able to spot a dark horse pitcher and did well with him. Boston’s Franklin Morales struck out 8 over 6 innings, and got the win against Atlanta, good enough for 17 points from $3,300 in salary at Fan Duel.
Today, I don’t see such opportunity – though Hector Noesi of the Mariners is teasing me. He did throw well against San Diego last week, and he benefits from Petco park this time out. But I don’t trust mediocre pitchers facing the same team again so quickly.
As a result, I will likely go with a relatively strong pitcher against a weaker offense. The Cubs don’t strike out a lot, but they also don’t score many runs. Arizona LHP Wade Miley has a low WHIP of 1.06, strikes out batters at 3 times the rate he walks them. He gets ground balls 48.6 percent of the time. Salary is $7,700 on Fan Duel.
Which means I need t find some cheap bats. There are lots of questionable pitchers on the hill today, though, I think I can manage that:
- SS Rafael Furcal is only 5 for 23 lifetime against KC LHP Jonathan Sanchez. But this year’s Sanchez (1.82 WHIP) does not look like the past few years. And Furcal is 7 for his last 15. For $3,000 I like those numbers.
- C Brian McCann is 6 for 20 lifetime against Aaron Cook, who fills in today for an ill Clay Buchholz. McCann has been somewhat cold at the plate, 4 for 17 in the last 4 games, but that gives him an affordable $3,200 price tag.
- OF Rajai Davis is 5 for 14 lifetime against Mark Buehrle and costs only $3,300 in salary. He is 0 for 2 in stolen base attempts though, so I hope he does not get himself out on the basepaths.
- OF Brian Bogusevic has not been consistent. But he hits right-handers, and Derek Lowe has been ugly this year. For $2,800 I’ll take my chances with a guy hitting clean-up against a very sloppy pitcher.
