Happy Tuesday, Pitcher List fam! The rare 16-game day is upon us in baseball, thanks to the Twins and Guardians doubleheader. DraftKings includes it in their 15-game contest, but FanDuel is electing to go without either matchup and roll with 14 games. For DFS purposes, I may avoid both teams entirely as you never know who will sit the first game and how that’ll affect late-inning substitutions for both squads. Both sites lock their competitions at 7:05 pm Eastern, so get those lineups in before you miss out.
Pitching Kings on DraftKings
| Pitcher | Opp | DK Salary | ERA | WHIP | K-BB% | CSW% | DK PPG |
| Zack Wheeler | vs. ATL | $10,800 | 2.77 | 1.11 | 22.4 | 29.7 | 20.4 |
| Shane Baz | vs. MIL | $7,600 | 4.15 | 1.08 | 18.9 | 28.2 | 12.8 |
| Keegan Thompson | vs. CIN | $6,600 | 4.37 | 1.31 | 11.4 | 25.1 | 11.7 |
Last week, a not-so-pretty outing versus the Texas Rangers saw Zack Wheeler’s quality-start streak snapped at six. However, the 15.8 DK points he came away with tied his lowest output since April 23rd, when he seemed to turn his season around. Over that 10-game stretch, the Phillies ace went 6-1 with a 1.60 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 25.2 percent K-BB%, and averaged 25.3 fantasy points per game. He’s an elite arm, taking on a banged-up Braves team. Give me all the Wheeler I can handle on Tuesday.
There’s farrr too much swing and miss potential in Shane Baz’s profile for me to ignore him at $7,600 versus the Brew Crew. After struggling in his season debut against Minnesota, Baz bounced back with 13 strikeouts in his next two starts over 10.2 innings. The risk with Baz is the Rays don’t like a situation in the second inning and decide to yank him off the mound just because they are the Rays, and that’s what they do. So I’m limiting my Baz exposure to tournaments only and avoiding him in cash games. In June, Milwaukee strikes out 23.8 percent of the time against righties and their .229/.307/.387 slash line leaves them as a below-average offense with a 94 wRC+.
Let’s throw caution to the (Wrigley Field) wind and see if Keegan Thompson can produce another clean, strikeout-heavy outing. On the positive side, the 27-year-old constructed back-t0-back starts with nine strikeouts against Atlanta and seven strikeouts versus Pittsburgh while averaging 27.8 DK PPG. In addition, Cincinnati’s .122 ISO against righties this month shows us they don’t do much damage. Unfortunately, on the bad side, Thompson is a flyball pitcher, and, as of this writing, the wind is projecting to blow out at Wrigley Field. This could spell disaster for the Cubs pitcher. Thompson is only for the boldest tournament managers with an appetite for risk. However, a little bit of strikeout upside combined with a lousy opponent and a cheap salary has him on my radar as a precarious option.
These Dudes Rule on FanDuel
| Pitcher | Opp | FD Salary | ERA | WHIP | K-BB% | CSW% | FD PPG |
| Carlos Rodón | vs. DET | $10,600 | 2.70 | 1.09 | 22.6 | 30.2 | 38.5 |
| Brandon Woodruff | at TB | $9,400 | 4.74 | 1.24 | 21.5 | 29.0 | 28.77 |
| Patrick Corbin | vs. PIT | $6,600 | 6.60 | 1.79 | 9.9 | 25.8 | 18.8 |
While Detroit isn’t as bad as you think versus lefties in June (124 wRC+), it would feel like a disservice not to write up Carlos Rodón as a DFS option. The Giants lefty has come back from a quarter-season blip with a vengeance. Three straight quality starts with at least eight or more strikeouts will quickly boost your profile towards the top of the pitching ranks. Like Nick Pollack says during his SP Roundup, “Aces gonna ace.”
The good: Tampa Bay strikes out 25.6 percent of the time to right-handed hurlers in June. The bad: Woodruff is coming off a month-long IL stint due to a hand injury. The ugly: A 4.74 ERA and 1.24 WHIP don’t inspire a ton of confidence. However (!!), scared money don’t make money and the underlying metrics signal to me that the Brewers righty was going through a bit of early-season bad luck. I wouldn’t slot the 29-year-old into my cash game lineups, but he’s certainly worth a shot if you’re a multiple-lineups-each-night kind of DFS player. A 3.26 SIERA and 13.2 percent swinging-strike rate show me enough good in Woodruff to see what we’ve got in his first start back.
The days of Patrick Corbin the ace have walked the planked (that’s one), but a matchup with the swing-friendly Pirates could steady the ship (that’s two) for one evening. The Nationals’ lefty accumulated at least five strikeouts in three of his last five starts and has cut back on the walks problem that plagued him earlier in the season (four allowed in his previous three games). When battling southpaws, the Pirates don’t walk (4.5 percent), strike out a ton (28.7 percent), and their .639 OPS in June has them searching for answers rather than buried treasure (that’s three). But, like Brandon Woodruff above, Corbin is only for those of us who play several entries a night and shouldn’t be in cash game rosters.
Tasty Stacks
Houston Astros at New York Mets (Carlos Carrasco, RHP)
- These teams met each other last week in Texas, and it didn’t go great for the Mets. Carrasco allowed three long balls and five earned runs over 2.1 innings before leaving with a back issue. The oft-injured pitcher could have another short outing on Tuesday, as Houston’s .249/.339/.451 slash line and .202 ISO has them among the elite offenses in June once again. A pricey, two-person stack of Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker is never a bad option.
Baltimore Orioles at Seattle Mariners (Robbie Ray, LHP)
- Is Baltimore good? They’ve won five of six and averaged 5.6 runs per game in this mini-run of form. They lit up George Kirby for seven earned runs on Monday, and tonight, they’ll meet Robbie Ray and his 13.7 percent HR/FB rate. The Orioles’ blistering .884 versus southpaws gives me more than enough confidence to roster these guys as a low-rostered stack.
Value Bats
| Player | Position | Opponent | DK Salary | FD Salary |
| Adley Rutschman | C | at SEA (Ray) | $3,500 | $2,600 |
| Darin Ruf | 1B/OF | vs. DET (Skubal) | $3,200 | $2,600 |
| Rob Refsnyder | 2B | at TOR (Stripling) | $2,800 | $2,700 |
| Evan Longoria | 3B | vs. DET (Skubal) | $3,300 | $2,500 |
| Jose Iglesias | SS | vs. LAD (Kershaw) | $2,800 | $2,600 |
| Anthony Santander | OF | at SEA (Ray) | $3,800 | $2,900 |
| Lane Thomas | OF | vs. PIT (Quintana) | $3,300 | $2,700 |
| J.J. Matijevic | OF | at NYM (Carrasco) | TBD | $2,000 |