It’s tough to get away from the chalk at pitcher today, but both of the guys mentioned below come up near the top of Awesemo’s rankings, so we’ll break them down for you a little more. The bats are where tournaments will be won tonight, so make sure you check out the Rankings, Spotlight Hitters and Spotlight Stacks after you’ve decided on your pitcher(s). Awesemo will tell you what he likes about each guy
Lance McCullers ($12,300 DK/$8,500 FD)
“McCullers is at home against a strikeout-heavy Padres team, and Vegas is on McCullers’ side here too as San Diego’s team total is only 3.2.”
McCullers (“A” points grade) is going to be a hard guy for me to leave off my roster tonight because of his immense strikeout upside. There are bats we want to pay up for, but McCullers has the best chance of being the raw points scorer for pitchers on this slate even if you don’t agree with the $12,300 price tag on DK. He should see 4-5 righties in the lineup that K near 30% against right-handed pitchers, so even if he gives up a couple of runs, McCullers should make up for it with strikeouts. He’s my favorite pitcher of the night in all formats on DraftKings.
Luis Castillo ($8,700 DK/$7,100 FD)
“Castillo is a road favorite in Pittsburgh tonight where he should see some great pitching weather. At this price point on FanDuel, he’s hard to ignore because of his strikeout upside and the opposing team total (4).”
Castillo posted a 21.2% Swinging-strike rate in his first start even though he let up a bunch of runs. He’s going to have some starts like that, but his swing-and-miss stuff is some of the best in the MLB already, and there are some strikeouts in this Pirates lineup and the temperature in the low-40s shouldn’t hurt him. Assuming the Pirates roll out a normal lineup, Castillo should face 5 right-handed hitters (including opposing pitcher Trevor Williams), of which he has struck out at a nearly 30% rate. He may not have the best chance for a win, but I think he’s the only guy on the slate that could match McCullers in strikeouts tonight. Castillo is a nice value in Awesemo’s rankings (“B” DK value/”A” FD value), and assuming this game doesn’t have too many weather concerns, he’ll likely make my one lineup tonight.