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

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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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – MAY 12: Jon Lester #34 of the Chicago Cubs pitches in the second inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field on May 12, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

MLB DFS Pitching- Main Slate Pitching Plays

Jon Lester – Oh Lester, we meet again. We will begin by saying that the White Sox have the fourth highest K rate in Baseball, and it gets even worse to LHP. The price tag is also very confusing on Lester, at 7.9K with his only bag game in the last five being to the Dodgers. Anyway, this hometown match-up looks good for him, with his numbers being pretty good as of late.

Lester has been increasing his cutter usage, and decreasing the fastball. This has resulted in a much better GB rate lately for him, and he also slightly increased his curve usage which is getting him some more strikeouts. The movement and velocity on his cutter looks really solid as well. The bottom line is that you should be taking a hard look at Lester, even in cash games today.

Kenta Maeda – Maeda has been priced down to 6.7K on FanDuel which is beyond too cheap, especially at home against the Padres. They lead the league in strikeout percentage at 26.1%, and against RHH, they do not perform very well. Tatis has been red hot, along with Machado, and that’s about it for this team. The only major problem is how deep he will go into the game. With a pitcher for the Dodgers, you just don’t know. He could pitch seven innings, he could also pitch four.

The Slider is his most used pitch, followed by the fastball and change. The whiffs are pretty good on all three pitches, but the slider is giving up way too many FB. The ISO numbers are good on everything, along with the movement, and velocity stats. The big question is just how long the leash will be today. In GPP’s it is well worth the risk.