MLB Pitching Pulse: 4-16-18

Pitching is the lifeblood of a DFS lineup, and an important part of keeping those tabs open deep into the night. For those new with us, the Pitching Pulse is focused on providing information on four to five pitchers that are viable in various formats. This is a premium article that will give away one free preview pitcher, while the rest will be for premium members. We take a deep dive into pitchers across all salaries, looking for exploitable matchups, game theory plays, and identify the nightly chalk. Our information comes from our optimizer, FanGraphs, and other various MLB sites listed below. Feel free to comment below, or find us on Twitter at @BrentHeiden1, @JGuilbault11, and @dfcafe. We focus on Main Slates across all content, but will feature blurbs about other slates at times, and can be reached via Twitter or comments.

deGrom was in unusual form against the Marlins in his last start, as he allowed four earned runs and seven hits in six innings, but he has otherwise been solid this season. In his first two outings, against St. Louis and Washington, we saw deGrom hurl 11.2 innings, striking out 12 hitters, and allowing just three runs. He has has managed a win in two of his three games, as he has a potent Mets offense behind him, and should be in line for one tonight if he can limit the damage against a terrific Nationals offense. deGrom has notched a 24.7% strikeout rate to start the season, to go along with a 1.13 WHIP and 3.06 ERA, and he has managed to keep his hard contact at 24.5%. Left-handed hitters have done the most damage to him, posting a .251 wOBA and 40% hard contact rating against him, and his 50% flyball rating to the handedness is slightly concerning when facing off against hitters like Bryce Harper, but he is also striking out lefties at a 34.6% clip. He relies pretty heavily on his slider, tossing it over 20% of the time to hitters on both sides of the plate, while also mixing in his 95 MPH four-seam fastball, a changeup, and curveball. While the Nationals appear to be a disciplined team at the plate, striking out just 19.6% of the time against right-handed pitchers, it should be noted that Adam Eaton is on the DL and Anthony Rendon has missed the past few games with a toe injury, which has led to Washington adding high-strikeout bats like Moises Sierra, Michael Taylor, and Matt Adams to the lineup. Obviously, guys like Trea Turner, Ryan Zimmerman, and Bryce Harper can get to deGrom in this spot, but he has done a good job of limiting them in the past, leading me to believe he can do so again tonight.