MLB Pitching Primer: Friday, April 20th

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.

Friday, April 20th

Arms To Trust

Justin Verlander at Chicago White Sox

It is kind of weird to see Verlander leading off here when you factor in that we have names like Kershaw, Scherzer, and Syndergaard on this slate. What separates Verlander a little for me here (especially from those first two names) is the matchup.

Against right-handed pitching last season, the White Sox ranked 23rd in wRC+ (90), 27th in wOBA (.307), and 22nd in ISO (.162). On top of those underwhelming numbers, they had the sixth highest K% in that split at 23.7%.

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About the Author

meansy53
Andy Means (meansy53)

Andy Means (aka meansy53) was a walk-on with the esteemed Duke University basketball team for 3 years before graduating in 2004. He also has a Master’s in Accounting from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and has been playing DFS since 2014. He has qualified for multiple Live Finals and displays his extensive basketball knowledge as a host of our top show – NBA Crunch Time. In the summer of 2022, Andy took over the role of Premium Content Director for the RotoGrinders Network, overseeing the vast array of content that is created on RotoGrinders, ScoresAndOdds, and FantasyLabs. Follow Andy on Twitter – @ameansy
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