CheeseIsGood's Million Dollar Musings: Tuesday, May 25th
Happy Tuesday! We’ve got a loaded 13-game slate with a plethora of aces and a large group of similar upside offenses. This is one of those nights where I’ll gloss over some very good options, and that does not mean they aren’t playable. I’m looking to get down to a manageable primary player pool on both sides, but as always, don’t fret if your analysis differs from mine. No fretting!
Hi, this is me, Dave, from the future. I just wrote the pitcher breakdown, and wanted to come add this to the top of the Musings. The pitching is SO good, I just completely glossed over an $8,000 Clayton Kershaw and I don’t even feel bad about it. Giddy Up! (I don’t know how to insert a Kramer Giddy-Up gif here, but imagine it’s here, or maybe one of the wizards will toss it in for us)
Tuesday Night Pitching
We are going to see some big pitching scores tonight, and not just from this loaded top tier of aces. My first thought on this slate with so many great pitchers is that you can drive yourself crazy trying to chase the ‘best’ play who will score the most points, but we’re more likely to end up with a slate where half a dozen or more of these guys are close enough that it is not the determining factor in winning a tournament. Sure, if we get the 15-K no hitter, then you’ll need that guy to win, but more likely, we see a bunch of 30-DK point and 50-FD point games where you’re fine regardless of whether you have a 28 or a 32. Let’s look at this loaded tier of aces with their 2021 stats:
Aces, Aces and More Aces
Jacob deGrom vs Colorado – 46.1% K, 5% BB, 0.68 ERA, 1.69 SIERA
Max Scherzer vs Cincinnati – 35.7% K, 5.6% BB, 2.24 ERA, 2.73 SIERA
Corbin Burnes vs San Diego – 44.7% K, 1.3% BB, 1.79 ERA, 1.47 SIERA
Lucas Giolito vs St. Louis – 29.3% K, 10.1% BB, 4.35 ERA, 3.76 SIERA
Joe Musgrove at Milwaukee – 34.7% K, 5.4% BB, 2.47 ERA, 2.61 SIERA
Clayton Kershaw at Houston – 29% K, 4.5% BB, 3.18 ERA, 3.12 SIERA
Jack Flaherty at Chicago White Sox – 25.8% K, 8% BB, 2.53 ERA, 3.90 SIERA
Kevin Gausman at Arizona – 29.6% K, 6.2% BB, 1.66 ERA, 3.24 SIERA
Jose Berrios vs Baltimore – 27.7% K, 7.4% BB, 3.91 ERA, 3.55 SIERA
Andrew Heaney vs Texas – 30.5% K, 7.3% BB, 5.31 ERA, 3.33 SIERA
YIKES! I see two primary story lines with these top pitchers. One is the return of Jacob deGrom and what to do with his pitch count. The second is the low salary and strong matchup for Andrew Heaney. Well, actually, let’s make it three story lines, with the third being the low pricing across the board on DK for everyone outside of deGrom and Scherzer.