Happy Tuesday, Pitcher List fam! The season is in full swing, and we’ve got our first super-sized Tuesday of the season on our hands. Due to some Monday weather postponements, DraftKings and FanDuel have different-sized slates for us. DraftKings offers an 11-game contest beginning with Game 2 of the Diamondbacks-Nationals doubleheader at 7:05 pm Eastern. Meanwhile, FanDuel is skipping that game and rolling with a 10-game schedule, starting at 7:10 pm Eastern, as Toronto and Boston meet for the first time this year.
Pitching Kings on DraftKings
| Pitcher | Opp | DK Salary | ERA | WHIP | K% | BB% | DK FPPG |
| Corbin Burnes | vs. PIT | $10,500 | 2.25 | 0.92 | 26.1 | 8.7 | 18.9 |
| Joe Musgrove | vs. CIN | $8,600 | 1.42 | 0.71 | 31.1 | 0.0 | 25.6 |
| Patrick Sandoval | at HOU | $6,900 | 0.00 | 1.50 | 33.3 | 16.7 | 17.4 |
After a rough outing on Opening Day, Corbin Burnes‘ second start of the season was much more like what we saw in 2021. The reigning NL Cy Young winner threw seven innings of scoreless baseball, allowing three hits and one walk while striking out eight Orioles in Camden Yards. It was a fantastic bounceback performance for the 27-year-old as his cutter and curveball returned to their award-winning 2021 stats with a 38 percent CSW rate on his cutter and a 33 percent CSW rate on his curveball. Burnes is my favorite pitcher among the 11 DraftKings games tonight and is the best guy to target among the six arms priced higher than $9,000.
Hmmm, $9,000, you say. Why such an arbitrary cut-off? Because Joe Musgrove exists, and he comes in at $8,600 with a redonkulous good matchup against the Reds. Through 215 plate appearances versus righties this year, Cincinnati is producing a feeble .181/.257/.290 slash line with a 53 wRC+ and a sky-high 27.4 percent strikeout rate. Musgrove has breezed through his first two starts with a 14:0 strikeout to walk ratio across 12.2 innings in his second year with the Padres. Also, he’s averaging 25.6 DraftKings points per start, and you’re not going to get that kind of bang for your buck with any other pitcher on the schedule.
Those first two DraftKings arms are pricey but have no fear; Patrick Sandoval is here. At $6,900, he’s worth the risk against the Astros despite the tough matchup. In his 2022 debut, the southpaw showed some control issues with three walks across four innings versus Miami. However, he limited the damage to one unearned run and boosted his day with six strikeouts. Unfortunately, there’s a severe lack of value plays at pitcher today, so if you want to avoid Sandoval, I’m totally fine loading up with two stud arms and finding the value bats to fill out your lineup (keep reading to see those!).
These Dudes Rule on FanDuel
| Pitcher | Opp | FD Salary | ERA | WHIP | K% | BB% | FD PPG |
| Framber Valdez | vs. LAA | $9,500 | 0.93 | 1.03 | 23.1 | 15.4 | 31.5 |
| Max Fried | at LAD | $7,400 | 5.73 | 1.45 | 18.4 | 2.0 | 19.5 |
| Carlos Hernandez | vs. MIN | $5,700 | 8.31 | 1.85 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 4.0 |
Among the 10 games on the FanDuel slate, I think Framber Valdez is one of two pitchers I’m most confident in providing a quality start (the other being Corbin Burnes). In 2021, the lefty made it through six innings or more in 16 of his 22 starts, and then picked up where he left off on Opening Day when he met this same Angels squad. Valdez kicked off his campaign with 84 pitches across 6.2 innings as he sent six Angels back to the dugout via strikeout and kept them off the scoreboard in the process for 48 FanDuel points. With Robbie Ray’s early-season concerns and Walker Buehler’s matchup with a battling Braves squad, Valdez is my favorite pitcher in the $9,000 price bracket.
Speaking of the battling Braves, Max Fried has seen his price plummet to the depths of mediocrity on FanDuel. While there’s no denying it’s been a tumultuous start for the young left-hander, I’m not ready to give up. While you look across the board and cringe to see the Dodgers as Fried’s Tuesday opponent, not all hope is lost. It’s still early, but the guys in blue aren’t lighting up the scoreboard, especially against southpaws. Through a week and a half, Los Angeles has a 0.058 ISO (yes, you read that correctly) and a .256 wOBA versus left-handed hurlers. I love betting on this kind of pitcher in DFS as they can create a leverage opportunity on the rest of the field. Buy the Max Fried dip!
Sometimes you have to throw your hands up and have a little YOLO in your life. And that’s what I’m doing with Carlos Hernandez against the Twins. As a pitcher, Hernandez is not great. As an enabler, Hernandez is perfect. His meager price tag ($5,700) gives DFS managers the chance to grab any bat they want at every hitting position on FanDeul. Want to load up on Coors? Go for it! Build a massive game stack in Boston? Why not. Plus, Minnesota is striking out an eye-popping 29.1 percent of the time against right-handers this year. So there’s even a tiny whiff of strikeout-upside with the Royals righty.
Tasty Stacks
Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox (Nathan Eovaldi, RHP)
- There’s not a ton to break down here, as the Blue Jays will be a viable stacking option until further notice. However, they still need to be mentioned because it feels like they could put up double-digit runs any night of the week. Nathan Eovaldi is having a strange start to 2022 as a 4.50 ERA, and 6.56 FIP is concerning, but a 2.56 SIERA and 30.2 percent K rate show signs of promise. I’m thinking the up-and-down nature of his season continues versus Toronto, and they proceed to pile on the Boston righty’s miserable 3.6 HR/9.
Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies (Kyle Freeland, LHP)
- It’s okay to take the free space, and that logic applies to the Phillies in the Mile High City on Tuesday. I was surprised there weren’t more fireworks in the series opener on Monday, but I’ll chalk that up to Aaron Nola being on the mound for Philly and Chad Kuhl making a sacrifice to the pitching gods. However, I’m not sure it’ll work two days in a row for Colorado with Kyle Freeland taking the ball for the Rockies. I’m not kidding when I saw every Phillies hitter should be on your radar tonight. As a unit, they’ve compiled a .279/.376/.523 slash line against southpaws in 2022, and their 151 wRC+ against left-handers only trails St. Louis in the National League.
Texas Rangers at Seattle Mariners (Robbie Ray, LHP)
- This is my sneaky stack of the evening as a hot-hitting Rangers outfit collides with a pitcher struggling to find his footing in 2022. So far, Texas is pummeling left-handed pitchers with a .953 OPS, .416 wOBA, and .264 ISO. Meanwhile, Robbie Ray gave up 13 hard-hit balls in his previous outing against the White Sox. So this feels like an early-season match made in heaven for some low-rostered Rangers bats.
Atlanta Braves at Los Angeles Dodgers (Walker Buehler, RHP) – DraftKings only
- I’m not sure what happened in the DraftKings algorithm overnight, but the Braves are crazy cheap for Tuesday’s slate. So don’t be afraid to get a ton of them in your lineup and take advantage of this bizarre blip.
Value Bats
| Player | Position | Opponent | DK Salary | FD Salary |
| Austin Nola | C | vs. CIN (Sanmartin) | $3,600 | $2,800 |
| Rowdy Tellez | 1B | vs. PIT (Brubaker) | $2,900 | $2,4o0 |
| Ozzie Albies | 2B | at LAD (Buehler) | $3,600 | $4,000 |
| Alec Bohm | 3B | at COL (Freeland) | $3,800 | $3,100 |
| Bobby Witt Jr. | 3B | vs. MIN (Archer) | $2,900 | $2,800 |
| Austin Riley | 3B | at LAD (Buehler) | $2,900 | $3,800 |
| Taylor Ward | OF/3B | at HOU (Valdez) | $3,600 | $2,400 |
| Yandy Diaz | 1B/3B | at CHC (Steele) | $4,500 | $2,500 |