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.
Rich Hill ($9,600 DK/$10,000 FD)
With pricing not being much of an issue on the main slate because there are no Coors bats (and really no expensive stacks at all), Hill should be a very popular option at home against Milwaukee. He’s striking out over 28% of righties this year and has done a better job at limiting hard-contact as of late, which should be helpful in his home park. In his last 2 starts, Hill has Swinging-Strike rates of 13.7% and 15.8% which is very encouraging after struggling to reach double digits many times in prior starts. I’m usually lower than the field on Hill, but on a slate where you’re mostly looking for your pitchers to get you 18-20 points, he is arguably the safest option and it won’t be tough to fit him in your lineups.
Cole Hamels ($7,900 DK/$7,700 FD)
Hamels gets a solid matchup in his Cubs debut tonight against a Pirates team that has struggled against lefties all season, and looks even worse as of late. Versus southpaws over the last month, the Pirates have a just a 69 wRC+ with a 23.4% K-rate, and Hamels has shown he can miss bats at a solid rate, as he’s posted a 12.3% Swinging-Strike rate on the year. With no real lefty-mashers in the Pirates lineup, Hamels is a solid value at under $8K on DraftKings, and has a decent shot at pacing all starters in points on a rough main slate for pitching.
Kyle Freeland ($8,600 DK/$8,300 FD)
Going with the theme of safety, Freeland is someone that’s shown a good floor, scoring at least 11 DK points in every start away from Coors this year. The Cardinals have a bunch of righties, but many of their hitters (Fowler, Munoz, Bader, DeJong, Carpenter) are striking out above 23% against lefties on the season, so there is certainly some swing-and-miss for Freeland to take advantage of. He is not the sexiest of options, but he should be able to create a lot of ground balls, and the ability to get near 100 pitches (98+ in 9 out of his last 10 starts) on this shallow of a slate is valuable when looking at some of the risky low-tier options.