Identifying the top high salary and value pitcher plays from around Major League Baseball for your June 9 DraftKings lineup.
Our goal is to help you win DraftKings contests with consistently strong lineups. To accomplish that, we’ll be highlighting some higher salary players worth paying up for, and some value picks that will help you save salary in key areas. These picks are specifically for DraftKings lineups, so all references to prices and fantasy points are based on DK figures.
As always, be sure to double-check final MLB lineups and monitor weather situations before locking in your DFS lineups.
High Salary
Jimmy Nelson, Brewers (8,700): It’s an ugly slate for pitchers on Thursday. Nelson is the second-highest priced behind Washington’s Gio Gonzalez (8,900). But whereas Gonzalez has to face a solid Chicago White Sox lineup, Nelson draws a hurting New York Mets team that strikes out a lot (531, fifth in majors). That gives Nelson more upside than Gonzalez.
Nathan Karns, Mariners (7,900): Karns is coming off a brutal outing in his last start, but he’s also been alternating 20-point fantasy performances since mid-April, so that trend would indicate he’s due for a bounce-back game against the Cleveland Indians. On a short slate with such weak options, that’s the best we’ve got to go on.
High Value
Tom Koehler, Marlins (6,600): Koehler has been steady, but unspectacular, over his last six starts. Over that span, he has just one 20-plus fantasy-point performance, but he’s topped 10 fantasy points in all six. He generally won’t implode, but his upside is limited. The Marlins face the free-swinging Minnesota Twins, who rank seventh in the majors in strikeouts.
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Marcus Stroman, Blue Jays (5,700): Stroman, unlike Koehler, is very much a boom-or-bust option. He’s been hammered in three of his last four starts, but the one outlier was a 21.65-point performance. Baltimore ranks 10th in the majors in strikeouts, so the upside is there for Stroman to break out. Just don’t be surprised if he gets hit hard once again.
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