CheeseIsGood's Million Dollar Musings: Tuesday, August 17th
Happy Tuesday! We’ve got a full slate tonight with 15 games on DK and 14 on FD. The difference in the sites is the second game of the Red Sox-Yankees doubleheader being included on DK. There is a lot less obvious hitting upside than we saw last night, but more based on a bunch of pretty good pitchers, but not much in the way of arms that you’ll be thrilled to roster. It doesn’t take long at all before we run into the big question of the night with the Padres facing German Marquez in Coors Field. Marquez’ talent combined with the relatively disappointing night from San Diego on Monday should keep expectations and ownership in check here. We’ll get to that, but first, let’s see what we can find on the mound tonight.
Tuesday Night Pitching
This slate is one of those where almost every pitcher on the board is close enough to good that they deserve to have their name mentioned, but almost none of them are really someone you want to play. I’m going to start with a few different buckets, and then I’m going to start trimming them quickly.
The Lone Ace
Corbin Burnes at Cardinals
A Bunch Of Good Pitchers
Sandy Alcantara vs Braves
Adam Wainwright vs Brewers
Logan Webb vs Mets
Framber Valdez at Royals
Chris Bassitt at White Sox
John Means at Rays
Kyle Hendricks at Reds
Alek Manoah at Nationals
Tyler Anderson at Rangers
Huascar Ynoa at Marlins
Kind Of Maybe, No
Kyle Gibson at Diamondbacks
Caleb Smith vs Phillies
German Marquez vs Padres
Luis Gil vs Nathan Eovaldi (DK)
Cheaper or Matchup Maybes
Dylan Bundy at Tigers
Vladimir Guerrero vs Mets
Bailey Ober vs Indians
David Price vs Pirates
Casey Mize vs Angels
Mr. The Ace
Corbin Burnes is the ace, the only ace, and it’s really not close at all. Even if you want to see the huge 15-K start last week as an outlier because it was the Cubs, Burnes is the SP1 on this slate. Even if you also want to remove his other big start in July and just look at the games where he’s been OK with 5-6 strikeouts, I can’t put anyone else close to him on this slate. The strikeouts are far and away the highest, he doesn’t walk anybody and he’s as close to consistent as any pitcher in the league. The matchup is not great, but whoop-dee-doo. We’ll be able to make a case to fade him on FD with the extreme difference in salary, but on DK, just play Burnes, don’t be silly.