MLB Pitching Primer: Sunday, August 19th
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.
Sunday, August 19th
Arms to Trust
Mike Clevinger vs Baltimore
Let me preface this by saying that on this 10 game main slate there aren’t any elite pitchers that are easy plug-and-play in this category. So I’m going give Mike Clevenger the nod as the best option I can find. The numbers are fine, as he sports a 4.05 xFIP and 23.8% strikeout rate. The overall plate IQ rating is 69.26 this morning, and that’s a very high number. The big appeal here is the Baltimore lineup is pretty bad these days and the guys projected to be starting this morning features six high strikeout hitters, one high walk hitter and only two high ISO hitters. He’s as quality of an arm as there is on the slate with a good matchup. All those things combine make him someone I can trust.
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