The following Spotlight Pitchers were selected by Awesemo.com writer Jake Hari. For more analysis on the slate, check out the MLB Strategy Video and Night Shift Podcast.
Gerrit Cole ($14,000 DK/$11,800 FD)
I get it if you don’t want to play him for $14K on DraftKings, but it’s hard to argue against Gerrit Cole having the best chance to be the raw-point leader for all pitchers on this small of a slate. The weather in Texas is not friendly to pitchers, but that’s where the bad things we can say about Cole stop. He’s been giving up more runs recently, but the strikeouts have still been superb, and he still ranks in the top-10 in Whiffs/Swing% with a Swinging-Strike% over 14%. The Rangers have power, but they strikeout amongst the league-lead against righties both on the year and over the last 30 days. If we can find a cheap SP2 or stack that fits with Cole, he’ll be tough to leave off of our lineups.
Jaime Garcia ($6,600 DK/$6,200 FD)
Garcia hasn’t done anything special himself that makes him a solid play, but his matchup is about as good as it gets against Baltimore. On the road against lefties this year, the Orioles have a 24% K-rate, .297 OBP, and .123 ISO to go along with a bottom-5 wRC+ (79), and that’s exactly the situation they’ll be in tonight against Garcia in Toronto. The season numbers against righties look less-than-stellar for him due to a few blow-up starts, but Garcia has been able to strikeout righties with some success (21.1% K-rate) and has looked much better at home. Clicking on Jaime comes with risk, but he has his best starts this season when he’s gotten ahead of hitters, and he’s got a solid chance to do that here against one of the league’s most impatient teams.
