MLB Pitching Primer: Saturday, August 18th
Everything in the sport of baseball comes down to the hitter-versus-pitcher matchup – which makes pitching the most important element of MLB DFS play. Without an understanding of the best pitching plays on the day, your DFS efforts will be sunk! Each day, the Pitching Primer will provide you with some of the top pitching plays on the day – taking a close look at the “why” behind these picks, and helping you to identify pitchers others might overlook.
Saturday, August 18th
Arms To Trust
Jacob deGrom @ Philadelphia (Early)
Some key stats that stand out are; 1) the sparkling 2.91 overall xFIP this season. 2) A phenomenal 31.3% strikeout rate compared to a 5.8% walk rate. 3) A common occurrence with strikeout pitchers is they either give up a lot of flyballs or hard-hit rates, but DeGrom is only given up 27.9% hard-hit rate and a paltry 31.3% flyball rate. 4) Philadelphia’s projected lineup features no one with a contact rate over 80%.
Looking at all the pitchers taking the mound today there’s not a lot of trustworthy arms out there. Jacob deGrom has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year and there’s no reason to get fancy with that on this slate of games.
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