Daily Fantasy MLB Pitchers for FanDuel and DraftKings - 6/18/17

Here's where you can find some recommendations for tournament pitchers target for FanDuel and DraftKings. Find our main set of cash game picks here.
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Pitchers

Jacob deGrom FD 9800 DK 10600
Opponent - WSH (Ross) Park - @NYM
FD - 34.57 DK - 22.85

We touched on Robbie Ray and Yu Darvish in the main picks article, who remain elite plays at the high-end of starting pitching. DeGrom isn't really too far off, but is still a slight step down. He is coming in around $10K on both sites and deserves to be owned in all formats. He's been the only arm that has somewhat been consistent, other than Matt Harvey consistently stinking. He's holding a combined .320 wOBA, albeit a BABIP of .340 will not help. We will see that number come down and the wOBA will always follow. He will stay home in Citi Field and introduce the Nationals. The Nationals can swing the damn stick. We know that. The top 5 of this order are extremely dangerous and not guys I'm ever really looking to target. The thing is that Jacob DeGrom is just as good of an equalizer when healthy, so you never really know how things are going to go. DeGrom is far more talented than most pitchers on the day and that alone can ride you to the promise land on a slate like this. Robbie Ray and Yu Darvish both have better match-ups, which is why it's tough to like DeGrom over them in cash games. Still, if DeGrom is able to work through the order quickly the first and second time, he will have similar upside to Ray and Darvish. Personally, Ray and Darvish are my 2 favorites with DeGrom a distant 3rd.

Buck Farmer FD 6400 DK 5800
Opponent - TB (Faria) Park - @DET
FD - 26.13 DK - 17.53

I don't really have a great reason why, but I have rostered Buck Farmer in each of his last 2 great starts. He was extremely cheap and doesn't really have bad numbers. Farmer was up last year and pitched well, covering for Justin Verlander when he was injured. I think Farmer deserves a shot in the rotation and it looks like everybody is seeing that. The reason most young arms fail is that of what? Command. With Farmer, that will never be an issue. He walks just 4% of batters, which is in the upper-echelon of MLB pitching. He has historically been around 8-9 K per 9, so I would ignore the short sample of 11.5 for this season. The point is, we have a very cheap, talented pitcher facing off with a very lackluster lineup. The Rays are always a bit scary target, but the numbers suggest the upside is there. Against righties, they strikeout 25.3% of the time, which is 2nd worst in all of baseball to the Padres at just 25.6%. Farmer has shown what he can do when his pitches are working and this could very easily be a game where he can put it together. One problem I could see with Farmer is he may end up getting popular. There are a ton of expensive options on this slate and I could see people forcing themselves to pay down so they can get more bats. If that does seem to be the vibe and Farmer is looking to be very heavily owned, I'll take some Corey Dickerson and run the other way. It's all part of baseball.

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