CheeseIsGood's Million Dollar Musings: Tuesday, August 24th
Happy Tuesday! After an extremely dull Monday slate, we are back to a whole bunch of everything on this 14-gamer. We’ve got pitchers to like and we’ve got batters to like. So, hurray for that, let’s jump in and see what we find.
Tuesday Night Pitching
We’ve got a big enough group of pitchers tonight that it’s a little tough to sort these guys into buckets. For a first pass, I’ve got them broken up like this:
THE TWO ACES
Corbin Burnes vs Reds
Jack Flaherty vs Tigers
SORT OF THE SECOND TIER
German Marquez at Cubs
Charlie Morton vs Yankees
Luis Garcia vs Royals
UPSIDE PITCHING, TOUGHER MATCHUPS
Andrew Heaney at Braves
Jose Berrios vs White Sox
Tanner Houck vs Twins
Tyler Mahle at Brewers
Tylor Megill vs Giants
Dylan Cease at Blue Jays
(Julio Urias at Padres)
(Yu Darvish vs Dodgers)
DECENT PITCHING, BETTER MATCHUPS
Eli Morgan vs Rangers
Madison Bumgarner at Pirates
Erick Fedde at Marlins
J.T. Brubaker vs Diamondbacks
*CHEAPER WITH POTENTIAL
Jesus Luzardo vs Nationals
Ranger Suarez vs Rays
Dylan Bundy at Orioles
THE TWO ACES
Corbin Burnes vs Reds
Jack Flaherty vs Tigers
Flaherty has made two starts since coming back off the IL, and he has a 13:1 K:BB ratio with two runs allowed in 12 innings. He got up to 92 pitches last week, so he’s close enough to full strength for me to play him as usual here. I’m not without concern as we haven’t seen quite all the way up to his full velocity or swinging strike rate, but against the Tigers with a meaningful discount from Burnes, he makes the most sense from an optimal lineup starting point.