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.
Chris Sale (L) vs Tampa Bay Rays | ||||||
Splits (2017-2018) | wOBA Allowed | K% | BB% | GB% | Hard% Allowed | ISO |
Vs. LHB | .240 | 32.6% | 4.5% | 45.6% | 17.5% | .066 |
| Vs. RHB | .268 | 36.2% | 5.3% | 38.7% | 31.3% | .165 |
Opposing Team Splits Vs. Pitcher Handedness | ||||||
wOBA | ISO | wRC+ | K% | BB% | Hard% | Implied Run Total |
| .330 | .160 | 110 | 23.5% | 9.2% | 34.8% | 2.8 |
There are two prime pitchers on this slate, and one is Chris Sale. He gets a Tampa Bay offense that has some decent numbers against left-handers, but they still strikeout a ton. Sale has yet to allow more than three earned runs in a start, and has 9, 15, and 12 strikeout games over his last three starts. Sale owned Tampa Bay last season, and it is unfair to compare this team to last because there are some new faces or healthier faces in the lineup. Sale threw six scoreless innings against this team on Opening Day, finishing with nine strikeouts. The strikeout prop for Sale is one of the highest on the slate, and it is hard to see him finishing with less than seven or eight strikeouts in this start. Sale's 2018 strikeout numbers are about the same. This Tampa team will be load up right-handed bats, but there isn't a lot of concern here. None of them really hit sliders all that well, the ISO numbers for Wilson Ramos and C.J. Cron are the only real things that stand out, but the contact rates are still less than 70%. Tropicana is not a place that gives away cheap home runs either, so I don't expect Sale to allow a few random home runs in this spot like he has a few times this season. Tampa Bay has the lowest implied total on the slate, and while Faria has pitched well at home, Sale is a good shot at a win. I prefer Cole just a little bit more, but this is a spot to feel comfortable with Sale.
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