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MLB DFS Pitching Gems Of The Day July 6: Mad Max In CY Young Form

By Brandon Lauderback

LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 11: Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (31) throws a pitch during a MLB game between the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 11, 2019 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 11: Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (31) throws a pitch during a MLB game between the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 11, 2019 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 13: CC Sabathia #52 of the New York Yankees makes his first start of his last season in Major League Basebal against the Chicago White Sox during their game at Yankee Stadium on April 13, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 13: CC Sabathia #52 of the New York Yankees makes his first start of his last season in Major League Basebal against the Chicago White Sox during their game at Yankee Stadium on April 13, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /

MLB DFS Pitching- Early Only Pitching Plays

CC Sabathia – The “Ageless Wonder” Sabathia gets a rematch with this same Tampa team that he dominated two games ago for 46 FD points. Tampa is known for being a team that is much better against RHP, the major threats they have for LHP are Garcia, and Diaz. Tommy Pham has struggled against lefties this year, leaving players like Heredia, Adames, Zunino, and d’Arnuad as the remaining RHH. That’s plain out ugly. I think Sabathia carries a little extra momentum into this game, after two very strong performances in a row. He has a 42% GB rate, 4.38 SIERA, 4.46 xFIP, giving up most of the power to RHH, which this lineup has very little of.

Sabathia uses his cutter the most, followed by the slider, and change. In June the cutter saw a decent increase in whiffs, with the change still over 30%. The change, and slider both had above a 50% GB rate, with the main problem being how much ISO the slider and cutter gave up. Tampa is eighth in the league in strikeouts, with that number being even higher for LHP. Also keep in mind this game is being played at one of the best pitcher parks in all of baseball, Tropicana Field. Sabathia is one of the best plays on the day, and will be overlooked.

Rick Porcello – It is very unlikely that many people will be considering Porcello today. In his last two starts he put up nine and negative 17 FD points. However, one of the games was against NY in that awful tiny ballpark in London where like 30 runs were scored. The other was against Toronto where he pitched six innings before collapsing. Today is his chance at redemption against one of the worst teams in the league, Detroit. Porcello has a 4.17 SIERA, and 4.31 xFIP with a 42% GB rate.

Porcello has a versatile pitch mix, using a fastball, slider, and sinker all around 28% of the time, mixing in the curve, and change. Compared to last year the whiffs are down on basically everything, but the GB are up. It is a very strange trend for a guy who is having a pretty bad season. The velocity and movement are also comparable, which means only one thing. He has simply been very unlucky. The good thing is he had a decent game against Detroit early in the season, and this lineup has the second worst K rate in the league. Rick is a deep GPP play that has some upside depending on which version of him shows up.