Johan Oviedo Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

You’re playing on DraftKings and have rostered Jacob deGrom (or Trevor Bauer or Aaron Nola), so you’re halfway home in terms of pitching tonight. Now, you just have to pair him with a cheap secondary arm. If we consider only those priced below $7.5K, then Alex Cobb just misses the cut and we are looking at Cole Irvin on down. Irvin struck out 20 of his last 72 (11.3 SwStr%), but faces a powerful and predominantly RH Toronto lineup. Eric Lauer is low upside in Philly. Kyle Gibson is viable for $7.2K in Minnesota. He’s pitched great since Opening Day, but has just a 20 K% and hasn’t allowed a HR yet, so the numbers look a bit better than they will eventually be. He faced a dangerous lineup that has had success against him. Mike Minor faces a Cleveland lineup that doesn’t strike out much and hits LHP well. Shane McClanahan blasted 98 mph heat at the A’s for four innings, striking out five of 15 batters (23.7 SwStr%) in his first regular season appearance. When Oakland batters did make contact, half of it was on the ground, but with a 94 mph EV. The issue here is that he throws either his fastball or slider over 80% of the time. He does have a changeup, but it’s not very good at this point. The Rays will likely continue to limit the workload in the early going. He threw 59 pitches first time out. He faces Mike Trout in L.A. tonight.

Now that we’ve found some fault in all the $7K arms (they’re priced that way for a reason), let’s cover some remaining options. Joe Ross ($6.9K) is in a tough spot in a hitter friendly park against the Braves. Jorge Lopez is in a high upside spot in Seattle and is a viable option here. Mitch Keller (in San Diego) has been a mess. Michael Fulmer has improved, but the Tigers are still limiting his workload. He’s also at Fenway. Anthony Kay has to face a powerful RH lineup in Oakland and likely won’t exceed twice through the order. Sam Hentges is making his first major league start in Kansas City and may not go very far. Johan Oviedo costs $6.6K and faces the Mets at home. St Louis is a very pitcher friendly park, which should be enhanced by cold temperatures tonight. He’s struck out 11 of 37 with a 17.9 SwStr% and half of his 22 batted balls have been on the ground (two Barrels). His velocity has been up more than a mile per hour, which has helped his three non-fastball pitches all to at least a 40 Whiff% so far. While it’s far too early to call this a breakout, he may be worth a GPP flier as your secondary arm at such a low price with a likely ownership rate in the single digits.