Artie Lewicki Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

The White Sox have enough strikeouts in their lineup and overall poor plate discipline to make Artie Lewicki useful potentially useful in a daily fantasy setting if pairing him with a higher priced pitcher tonight, but there's no denying he's allowed far too much hard contact. His .395 xwOBA, 91.2 mph aEV, 9.1% Barrels/BBE and 45.5% 95+ mph aEV are all worst on the board. Adding his 10 innings from last year to 34 this year, batters from either side of the plate are above a .400 xwOBA against him for his career. The White Sox do have a few competent bats against RHP, but more importantly, they have a couple of very cheap ones atop the order in Nick Delmonico (98 wRC+, .176 ISO vs RHP last calendar year) and Yolmer Sanchez (107 wRC+, .179 ISO). Jose Abreu (124 wRC+, .255 ISO), Daniel Palka (107 wRC+, .277 ISO) and Avisail Garcia (110 wRC+, .191 ISO) could be useful here as well. One note is that players should realize that Lewicki does not pitch deep into games and the Detroit bullpen has been quite capable themselves over the last month (3.68 FIP, 13.9 K-BB%). The White Sox still find themselves in unfamiliar territory, behind only four teams with a 4.57 run line.

If the top priced pitchers all come with some level of concern, is there enough on the middle of the board to bypass them completely? Perhaps not in terms of upside, but there are some useful pitchers. Miles Mikolas struck out just one of 25 Marlins and does not have what we normally look for in a strikeout rate for our daily fantasy pitching (16.9%). However, in more than half of his 23 starts, he’s recorded a seventh inning out and he’s allowed more than two runs just six times this year. He has the lowest aEV on the board (85.1 mph) in a great park with a reasonable price tag around $8K. He probably won't win someone a GPP, but he probably won't lose a cash game either. Marco Gonzales has a league average strikeout rate and has recorded a seventh inning out in seven of 23 starts. Oakland isn’t as negative a run environment as Seattle, but still no the negative side and despite a predominantly right-handed lineup, the A’s tend to lean more towards an average offense against southpaws. He's struck out 11 of 42 A's faced this year and costs around $8K as well. Andrew Heaney faces a hot Padres' offense (131 wRC+, 20.9 HR/FB last seven days) that has some right-handed pop. Despite allowing at least three runs in seven of his last 10 starts, he’s also completed seven innings in six of those starts and is still missing bats at a league average rate over that span (21.1 K%). He costs a bit more than $8K on either site and the Padres have a 15.6 K-BB% vs LHP. On the lower end of the board, Sean Reid-Foley makes his major league debut. He's not a highly regarded prospect, but has been above a 27% strikeout rate over 23 AA and AAA starts this season. The Royals have just a 20 K% vs RHP, but just an 80 wRC+ at home and 82 wRC+ vs RHP. Artie Lewicki has struck out 25 of 96 AAA batters over the last month and then five of 10 Angels. The White Sox have an 18.5 K-BB% on the road, 19.2 K-BB% vs RHP, and 30.4 K-BB% over the last seven days.

Even without Mookie Betts, the Boston Red Sox have the top implied run line on the board (5.8) against Artie Lewicki and the Detroit Tigers. Only two other teams are above five runs. Boston bats will be popular tonight as the absence of Betts makes them a bit cheaper, though it's hard to call any of the bats in the top half of the lineup cheap. J.D. Martinez (163 wRC+, .365 ISO vs RHP last calendar year) is one of the top bats on the board. In 25 major league innings (one start), Lewicki has a 7.6 K-BB% with batters from either side of the plate exceeding a .340 wOBA and xwOBA and 36% hard hit rate. Andrew Benintendi (135 wRC+, .215 ISO) and Mitch Moreland (119 wRC+, .259 ISO) are top left-handed bats here. Eduardo Nunez (117 wRC+, .165 ISO) is the value play for $3.2K or less. He has a lineup leading 217 wRC+ over the last seven days.

Artie Lewicki is a 25 year-old former eighth round draft pick in 2014 for the Tigers. He was names as an honorable mention (Future Value below 40) by Fangraphs in their pre-season organizational ranking in December without any standout tools. There's no pressure on him today, as the guy he's replacing in the rotation is just some marginal arm the Tigers traded away named Verlander. Lewicki has thrown just 31 innings above AA, striking out 27.1% of batters he's faced at AAA in that small sample. That's well above a league average strikeout rate he ran at AA for 177.1 innings over the last two seasons and a point or two higher below that. He has, however, exhibited solid control with a walk rate of 6.5% or below at every stop since high A ball. The Royals, who he'll host in his debut, are projected by Vegas for 4.87 runs, nearing the middle of the board, but still on the top half for the day slate. Kevin has not yet weighed in with the day's forecast, but the Weather page shows a strong wind (18 mph) potentially blowing in from right in this game. There is that element of the unknown in a pitcher making his major league debut, so the Royals may not necessarily be the offense to target for players here. Not a single bat in today's lineup has a wRC above 100 with a hard hit rate above 30% over the last week. Lorenzo Cain has a 181 wRC+ over the last week, but with a 10.5 Hard%. He has just a .130 ISO vs RHP this year. Eric Hosmer (143 wRC+, .193 ISO vs RHP) and Mike Moustakas (130 wRC+, .292 ISO vs RHP) are the top choices. Salvador Perez (104 wRC+, .221 ISO) and Brandon Moss (73 wRC+, .225 ISO) have shown power vs RHP as well. Melky Cabrera (107 wRC+, .134 ISO vs RHP) has improved on his season numbers since being returning to the Royals.