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Daily Fantasy MLB Pitcher Breakdown FanDuel and DraftKings- 5/9/16

Welcome to our new daily article breaking down some of the other pitching targets on this slate. We covered our system's top value plays in our daily picks article and our updates articles but here we will look at other dudes to consider.

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Stacking in DFS MLB is such an important concept if you’re looking to take down a big tournament on FanDuel or DraftKings. It’s also a good way to diversify cash games because the variance in baseball can mean wild swings (ahem) in the scoring on a particular slate. The concept is easy. You want to pile players from one or two teams into your lineups because those guys compound scores by helping each other score runs when the going is good.

Pitching Targets

Corey Kluber FD 10700 DK 13400
Opponent - HOU (Fiers) Park - @HOU
FD - 39.21 DK - 21.78

Corey "Klubot" Kluber enters this game coming off a complete game shutout against the Tigers where he fanned 7. Kluber has finally returned to his elite self and is going to be right in the Cy Young contention as he was a couple years ago. In 2015, Kluber held a combined wOBA of .272 and a hard contact rate of only 24.6%. This Astros team has shown their ability to strikeout as evidenced by their 3rd highest MLB K rate at 25.9%. When you combine that with Kluber's 28.3%, you get over 1 strikeout per 4 batters. Kluber is going to be my favorite tournament option as he should go under owned and has as much upside if not more as anyone else on the slate. I am actually consider Kluber in cash as well as I feel the strikeouts are just so safe. Another thing to note, this ballpark is not nearly as bad for right handed pitcher as it is for southpaws. The porch in right field is not short and it sitting at league average for power.

Steven Matz FD 9700 DK 9300
Opponent - LAD (Kazmir) Park - @LAD
FD - 29.54 DK - 14.87

Steven Matz is another guy who has pitched very well to start the season. In his last 4 starts, he has given up 2 earned runs and struck out 29 batters in 27 innings. Wow. Matz is proving his worth to this rotation and will continue to do so throughout the year. While the 2 earned runs per 30 innings may not be sustainable, his peripherals suggest elite numbers. With a 2.73 xFIP and a 22% hard contact rate, you can expect Matz to keep up the strong numbers. This Dodgers team is one that struggles a lot with lefties as the top bats in the lineup are left handed. The Dodgers have exhibited a 91 wRC+ against lefties thus far. For comparison purposes, the league average has been around 100 the last 5 years. Matz should be very highly owned today and while that does worry me, he has been too good to not throw in a few lineups. I do prefer him in cash games as he is very safe, however, he does not have the same upside as a guy like Felix Hernandez, Jose Fernandez or Corey Kluber.

Aaron Sanchez FD 7100 DK 6900
Opponent - SF (Peavy) Park - @SF
FD - 20.34 DK - 8.75

Here is my tournament flier of the day, Aaron Sanchez. Sanchez has really improved his stuff this year as he has upped his velocity and made a huge improvement to his changeup which will help improve his numbers vs lefties. So far this year, batters have recorded a putrid .154 batting average against his changeup and an even worse .80 against the cutter. While that is certainly not sustainable, it is very impressive for a guy that only threw 18 changeups last season. Sanchez is only 23 years old and the fact that he is improving so much year to year is a very good sign. This Giants team is one I am not scared to target pitcher against at home. At&T park is huge and you really have to get a hold of one to get it out. Let me be clear, this is only a tournament play as the Giants could certainly get a hold of Sanchez here and get him out of the game early. However, I also see a very likely situation where the Giants don't have much film on his offspeed pitches and he goes out there and confuses them the first 2 times around. As a side note, I would be careful with Sanchez once he gets hit around once. As he throws his new pitches more, there is more film to be had for the upcoming team facing him.

GPP pitchers to consider - Stephen Strasburg, Clay Buchholz, Matt Moore

Comment down below if you have any questions or comments, thanks for reading!

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