Happy Tuesday, Pitcher List fam! DraftKings and FanDuel provide the same 12 games for their featured contests tonight. It all kicks off with Dodgers-Nationals and Orioles-Yankees on the East Coast before another late-night watch party with five West Coast games. All competitions will lock at 7:05 pm Eastern, so make sure to get those lineups in before the deadline.
Pitching Kings on DraftKings
| Pitcher | Opp | DK Salary | ERA | WHIP | K% | BB% | DK PPG |
| Zac Gallen | vs. KC | $9,300 | 1.14 | 0.71 | 26.0 | 5.3 | 21.2 |
| Sonny Gray | vs. DET | $6,800 | 3.48 | 1.26 | 28.7 | 10.3 | 13.8 |
| George Kirby | vs. OAK | $6,000 | 3.60 | 1.13 | 17.7 | 3.2 | 11.2 |
This season, I didn’t have Zac Gallen on my breakout-pitcher bingo card, but here we are. There’s no denying what the former top prospect is doing these days, and I’m ready to jump on and let the good times roll against the Royals. He’s allowed one earned run or fewer in six of seven starts. He’s pitched at least six innings in four of his last five outings. And he’s struck out 29 percent of all the batters he’s faced in his previous three trips to the mound. Kansas City is an average offense versus RHPs, and they shouldn’t give Gallen too many problems on Tuesday. There’s a ton of good pitching on the board tonight, but Gallen is one of my favorite contrarian plays in tournaments.
As I just said, there’s so much good pitching available tonight. I may load up on Sonny Gray and the next pitcher I’m about to recommend in tournaments. After missing almost a month due to injury, Gray has slowly increased his workload over his last three starts and averages 19.1 DK PPG in that stretch. The Twins’ righty got away with one last time out as he struck out five batters but only produced four swinging strikes. However, I’m trusting that issue will turn around against a Detroit offense striking out 24.4 percent of the time to RHPs and producing a weak 62 wRC+ in May.
A couple of lousy road starts have really sucked up the positive feelings surrounding George Kirby. However, a return home and an easier matchup should do the trick to get the rookie back on track. Seriously though, he went on the road to face the Mets and the Red Sox (two of the stronger offenses in MLB right now), and everyone is off him! Well, not us. Without being too harsh here, Oakland is a miserable offense this month. Against RHPs, the A’s produce a .184/.243/.262 slash line with a 0.78 ISO and a .231 wOBA. I’ll officially raise an eyebrow if Kirby can’t dominate this team on Tuesday, but, for now, I’m grabbing him at $6,000 on DK and loading up on bats.
These Dudes Rule on FanDuel
| Pitcher | Opp | FD Salary | ERA | WHIP | K% | BB% | FD PPG |
| Corbin Burnes | at SD | $10,600 | 2.26 | 0.83 | 31.5 | 4.1 | 41.5 |
| Framber Valdez | vs. CLE | $9,900 | 2.68 | 1.26 | 19.7 | 9.6 | 32.25 |
| Jordan Montgomery | at BAL | $7,100 | 3.35 | 1.12 | 19.3 | 4.8 | 22.5 |
I can’t pass on the opportunity to write about Corbin Burnes. He gets the nod over Dylan Cease as my favorite high-end pitcher because he faces a weaker offense, and he just racks up quality starts left and right. Burnes collected six of them in a row before a meh start against Atlanta last time out, but I expect him to start a new streak tonight. In 2022, the reigning Cy Young winner sports a dazzling 27.4 percent K-BB rate, and he’s struck out 62 batters over 51.2 innings. He’ll face a Padres unit that’s scored three runs or fewer in five of their last seven and has a 78 wRC+ versus RHPs in May.
Astros southpaw Framber Valdez is always a good bet for a quality start, but a new pitch may be the turning point towards stardom soon. Over his last two starts, Valdez has introduced a cutter to his repertoire, and it’s coming away with some fantastic results.
| Framber Valdez: Cutter (Last two starts) | ||||
| Game | Pitches | Usage % | CSW% | SwSt% |
| at WAS | 14 | 13.3 | 42.9 | 21.4 |
| vs. TEX | 13 | 13.5 | 38.5 | 38.5 |
This new cutter helped him tie his season-high with seven strikeouts versus Texas on Thursday, and I can’t wait to watch it versus the Guardians tonight. Cleveland isn’t exactly a strikeout-upside matchup for LHPs, but I trust Valdez (and this new cutter) enough to roll him out in a tournament lineup.
At $7,100, I will take Jordan Montgomery as a punt at pitching to fill up on an expensive stack in at least one lineup. Monty’s opponent, Baltimore, is striking out 26.6 percent of the time versus LHPs in May and mustering a lowly .614 OPS when facing southpaws. I would avoid him in cash games because of the amount of high-end talent on the mound, but we can never say never in tournaments.
Tasty Stacks
Los Angeles Dodgers at Washington Nationals (Josiah Gray, RHP)
- I had the Dodgers as a stack in yesterday’s article, and I’m going right back to the well on Tuesday. They scored 10 runs off Joan Adon and the Nationals bullpen but did it without hitting a home run. Josiah Gray sports a 1.87 HR/9 mark right now, so there could be a similar amount of damage via the long ball in the second game of this series.
Houston Astros vs. Cleveland Guardians (Zach Plesac, RHP)
- Like the Dodgers, I had Houston in this spot but fell flat on my face as Triston McKenzie twirled seven innings of one-run baseball. However, that doesn’t put me off going back to the Stros, as they still have a 141 wRC+ versus RHPs in May. Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker should be considered high-upside one-offs versus Plesac, and you can even pivot towards Michael Brantley as a floor play if you need to save some salary in cash games.
Boston Red Sox at Chicago White Sox (Dylan Cease, RHP)
- Stacking the Red Sox will be a tough case to solve. I would try to find some projected roster percentage later in the day, but I feel like they will be a low-rostered stack because of how electric Cease has been pitching. If they stay low in the projections, I will grab as many of them as possible for a contrarian stack. As a team, Boston’s got a .831 OPS and .354 wOBA versus RHPs this month and could do some severe damage to Cease. On the other hand, if Cease is a popular play and you have the Red Sox stack, it could be a massive tournament night.
Value Bats
| Player | Position | Opponent | DK Salary | FD Salary |
| Mitch Garver | C | at LAA (Syndergaard) | $3,300 | $2,700 |
| Franchy Cordero | 1B/OF | at CWS (Cease) | $2,600 | $2,400 |
| Nolan Gorman | 2B | vs. TOR (Gausman) | $2,400 | $2,700 |
| Jeimer Candelario | 3B | at MIN (Gray) | $3,000 | $2,200 |
| Brandon Crawford | SS | vs. NYM (Bassitt) | $3,900 | $3,300 |
| Anthony Santander | OF | at NYY (Montgomery) | $3,000 | $3,000 |
| Joc Pederson | OF | vs. NYM (Bassitt) | $3,600 | $2,800 |
| Julio Rodríguez | OF | vs. OAK (Kaprielian) | $3,500 | $3,200 |