The following Spotlight Pitchers were selected by Awesemo.com writer Jake Hari. For more analysis on the slate, check out Awesemo’s Rankings and Ownership Projections.
Tanner Roark ($9,100 DK/$8,900 FD)
Roark is a clear overprice on DraftKings tonight, but there aren’t many places to spend your salary anyways, so I’m looking for good plays regardless of price. He’s not a spectacular pitcher, but there are very few that I like, and he’ll get mostly righties tonight in St. Louis and he’s been solid at creating ground-balls (47%) and soft-contact (29%) against them all year. He’s gone at least 7 innings in each of his last 4 starts, but 6 and a few strikeouts with a chance at a win may do the trick on a slate that has limited options.
Julio Teheran ($8,200 DK/$8,000 FD)
Teheran will likely be one of the chalkiest options on the entire slate, but whenever a righty gets the Rockies outside of Coors, he deserves consideration. Teheran, like Roark, is much better against right-handed bats, as he’s striking them out over 25% of the time with a WHIP under 1 and an xFIP under 4 this season. Colorado has been as bad as any team outside of their home park this year (82 wRC+ versus righties on the road), so despite the ownership tax, Teheran is clearly one of the best plays of the night.
Clay Buchholz ($9,500 DK/$8,500 FD)
Playing Clay Buchholz for $9,500 on DraftKings in the year 2018 almost feels wrong, but looking at the numbers and the nature of the slate, he makes a lot of sense. Again, pricing isn’t going to be a huge issue with no pitchers above $10K on DK, so a guy that has shown strikeout upside as well as the ability to go 6+ innings is certainly in play. Add in the matchup against San Diego (25.7% K-rate, .127 ISO, .299 OBP vs. RHP) in one of the pitcher-friendliest parks in the MLB, and you’ve got yourself a guy that has upside for 20+ DK points. As a -125 favorite in the best pitching environment on the slate, I’m in for another solid Buccholz performance at (hopefully) low ownership.