FanDuel Lineup and Picks for Thursday, May 31
Phillies at Dodgers
Phillies Probable Starter – Aaron Nola, RHP
2.27 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 24.6 strikeout rate
Vs LHH – .231 average, .263 wOBA, 24.5 fly ball rate and 19.8 hard contact rate
Vs RHH – .185 average, .224 wOBA, 32.0 fly ball rate and 32.1 hard contact rate
As far as single games go tonight, this is the heavyweight showdown of starting pitchers. Nola isn’t on the level of Kershaw yet but he’s having an excellent season. The Dodgers can put out a bunch of lefties which are the worse end of the splits for Nola but it’s not like lefties destroy him either. He’s in kind of a weird price point. He’s not quite into five digits but he really needs to have a good game to pay off his $9,500. We’ve seen the ceiling of 50+ points but he’s had his share of 25-30 point efforts as well. I think I’d rather save the money and play Quintana. If you want to play hitters against him, I suppose you could try Matt Kemp or Yasmani Grandal. That’s not where I’m headed tonight.
Dodgers Hitters to Target
Elite Options – None
Secondary Options – Matt Kemp, Yasmani Grandal
Dodgers Probable Starter – Clayton Kershaw, LHP
2.86 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 26.5 strikeout rate
Vs LHH – .282 average, .356 wOBA, 44.4 fly ball rate and 33.3 hard contact rate
vs RHH – .220 average, .279 wOBA, 25.8 fly ball rate and 28.1 hard contact rate
Maybe I’m being dense and I’ll change my mid through the day, but I really don’t think I’ll play Kershaw tonight. He’s coming of a decently long stay on the disabled list and you’re getting virtually no discount at $11,000. He also hasn’t quite been as good as he’s normally been the past few years either. The flip side of that argument is the high end pitching options are mostly lacking outside of this game. Barring injury, Kershaw is likely the safest play n the board for raw points. It’s still a steep price to pay.
Phillies Hitters to Target
Elite Options – None
Secondary Options – None
Home Run Pick – Pitching should be front and center in this game