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MLB DFS pitching primer: Monday, 8/19 – Do pitchers matter?

By Dan Palyo

DFS MLB: MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 14: Kyle Gibson #44 of the Minnesota Twins delivers a pitch against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim during the first inning of the game on May 14, 2019 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
DFS MLB: MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 14: Kyle Gibson #44 of the Minnesota Twins delivers a pitch against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim during the first inning of the game on May 14, 2019 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /
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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – AUGUST 03: Kyle Gibson #44 of the Minnesota Twins looks on and tips his cap against the Kansas City Royals on August 3, 2019 at the Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twins defeated the Royals 11-3. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – AUGUST 03: Kyle Gibson #44 of the Minnesota Twins looks on and tips his cap against the Kansas City Royals on August 3, 2019 at the Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twins defeated the Royals 11-3. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images) /

MLB DFS Pitching Primer: Monday, 8/19

Welcome back to the Monday edition of the MLB DFS Pitching Primer! I’m Thunder Dan and I’ll be covering pitching for MLB DFS on all season long at FanSided Fantasy. I’m including both FanDuel and DraftKings pricing and will be covering my favorite pitching options for both sites.

If you haven’t noticed yet,  FantasyCPR is now officially FanSided Fantasy, your one-stop site for everything fantasy sports-related. I know everyone on our staff is really excited about the transition and the opportunity to grow our reach to more fantasy sports fans!

Today we have a 9-game main slate on both sites. It’s not a very deep slate in terms of pitching and as the title of this article implies, I will be recommending only mid-tier and cheap pitchers today because sometimes pitching DOESN’t matter.

For example, yesterday I scored 272 FanDuel points with 8 points from my pitcher, Thomas Pannone who was 6300. The opportunity cost of paying up for Jack Flaherty for another 4400 in salary would never have allowed me to fit Rafael Devers, Mike Moustakas, and other high priced bats.

As much as this pitching analyst hates to admit it by August MLB DFS is a lot more about finding the offense than it is nailing the pitching. However, if you find the right cheap pitcher that goes off AND the winning stack or combination of bats then you now have a lineup that can contend for a GPP takedown.

The goal of the primer is to help you narrow down your pitching options for both your GPPs and cash games. Analyzing pitchers and pitching match-ups is something I really enjoy and I hope to give you a detailed analysis of why I think each pitcher makes for a compelling cash or GPP play.

I am going to recommend four different pitchers today. A usual I’m trying to keep my player pool relatively small here on a medium-sized slate. All pitchers in this article are 8k or less on FanDuel (Draftkings did some crazy pricing with pitchers today so almost every decent option is overpriced).

We have the return of my “Gas Can of the Night” feature today as well as my cash and GPP rankings at the end of the article with my final thoughts.

Let’s start with my favorite option for your cash games. He’s very affordable and has the best matchup on the slate. I’m just not sure I would call him an ace.