It's a top-heavy set of pitcher rankings for Thursday's slate of daily fantasy baseball action, and you can expect a heavy forecast of strikeouts from the guys at the top. ]Excluding the two afternoon games, it's a relatively small evening schedule of 10 games from which there are plenty of pitchers to choose.
Jacob deGrom, Danny Salazar and Yu Darvish, all high strikeout pitchers, face teams in the top 10 for K-rates against righties. James Paxton doesn't necessarily have the best strikeout matchup, but he has won his past seven starts and recorded 25 strikeouts in his past 19 innings. It's hard to hop off the Paxton train.
In value prices, Zach Davies and Brad Peacock have been pitching extremely well and have favorable matchups. Lower in the rankings, Carlos Rodon has been a strikeout machine with 11, 9 and 11 Ks, respectively against low-strikeout teams. He faces another one in the Astros. He may continue his hot streak, but it'll be a tough test against a hot-hitting Astros team.
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Daily Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Pitchers
| Rank | Pitcher | Team | Opp |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacob deGrom, RHP | NYM | @PHI |
| 2 | Danny Salazar, RHP | CLE | @TB |
| 3 | Yu Darvish, RHP | LAD | @ARI |
| 4 | Sonny Gray, RHP | NYY | @TOR |
| 5 | James Paxton, LHP | SEA | vs LAA |
| 6 | Gerrit Cole, RHP | PIT | @DET |
| 7 | Brad Peacock, RHP | HOU | @CWS |
| 8 | Zach Davies, RHP | MIL | vs MIN |
| 9 | Lance Lynn, RHP | STL | vs KC |
| 10 | Dinelson Lamet, RHP | SD | @CIN |
| 11 | Marco Estrada, RHP | TOR | vs NYY |
| 12 | Carlos Rodon, LHP | CWS | vs HOU |
| 13 | Tanner Roark, RHP | WSH | vs MIA |
| 14 | Luis Castillo, RHP | CIN | vs SD |
| 15 | Dan Straily, RHP | MIA | @WSH |
| 16 | Anthony Banda, LHP | ARI | vs LAD |
| 17 | Jason Hammel, RHP | KC | @STL |
| 18 | Kyle Gibson, RHP | MIN | @MIL |
| 19 | Vince Velasquez, RHP | PHI | vs NYM |
| 20 | Tyler Skaggs, LHP | LAA | @SEA |
| 21 | Chris Smith, RHP | OAK | vs BAL |
| 22 | Wade Miley, LHP | BAL | @OAK |
| 23 | Drew VerHagen, RHP | DET | vs PIT |
| 24 | Blake Snell, LHP | TB | vs CLE |
Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks: Thursday, August 10
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The main slate tonight is 10 games, with pitching being more dominanat tonight than hitting. We don't have many high projected run totals, but Vegas likes Washington, Houston, and the Dodgers to score slightly more than the rest of the field. Similar to last night, the slate if wide open in terms of what direction you want to go. We saw two top pitchers struggle last night, as well as the Astros and Brewers do nothing as the top projected hitting teams.
If playing the early slate, I like Gerrit Cole and Dinelson Lamet for pitching, and I'd target the Pirates for hitting while also riding Joey Votto's 15-game hit streak. Good luck! -- Ben Scherr
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