CheeseIsGood's Million Dollar Musings: Friday, May 14th
Happy Friday! We’ve got a big 13 game slate with a whole bunch of everything. We’ve got Coors Field on the slate again, but also at least half a dozen other teams with similarly high projected totals to spread out ownership and upside. Plus, we’ve got multiple aces with Scherzer, Glasnow and Kershaw headlining the slate. There are going to be a ton of options of both sides and many different ways to build lineups tonight. I’ll walk you through my favorites, but this is definitely one of those slates where you may come to a completely different conclusion on the best ways to go. Let’s jump in and see how we can start sorting through all this.
Friday Night Pitching
The Three Aces
Max Scherzer at Arizona – 35.5% K, 4.1% BB, 2.33 ERA, 2.54 SIERA
Tyler Glasnow vs NY Mets – 39.5% K, 10% BB, 2.37 ERA, 2.68 SIERA
Clayton Kershaw vs Miami – 26.1% K, 4.5% BB, 2.62 ERA, 3.30 SIERA
The 2021 numbers for this trio are very similar to what we get if looking at 2020 as well. Glasnow is the highest strikeout pitcher of this group, but the one with some control issues. Kershaw is the real-life ace with elite control but lower strikeouts, while Scherzer is sort of the best of both worlds, but with more fly balls and hard hits that give him a little added risk. None of them have outstanding matchups for strikeouts, but Kershaw’s is a little better than the others. Any one of these three are capable of an elite DFS outing any time they take the mound in any matchup, but if we’re just chasing ceiling, Kershaw really just doesn’t stack up. Already this season, we’ve seen four double-digit strikeout games from Glasnow and five games of 9+ from Scherzer. Kershaw doesn’t have more than eight strikeouts in any start. This is just who these guys are, all great in their own way.