MLB Pitching Pulse 8-3-17

By: Jason Guilbault, Updated August 03, 2017

Each day of the MLB season will bring us some major price differences among starting pitchers on all sites. These price discrepancies and the site's roster differences can alter the way we use pitchers on each site, as well as how the field of opponents will use them. Listed below are five of today's top pitchers, each with their salary listed as well as the cafe value that takes into account both the total salary cap on the site and points-per-dollar. We've also provided some betting info for you reference. The higher the cafe value, the better the points-per-dollar play is.

Alex Wood

The Braves offense got to Alex Wood two starts ago, which might cause some to look elsewhere. I don't mind looking elsewhere tonight, mainly because Atlanta doesn't have a ton of strikeout upside for Wood's current price tag. Wood is still a stable option on a slate with very limited stability. Atlanta's offense has been bottom ten over the last 30 days and have been striking out at a 21% clip. Once again, not high, but higher than their season norm. Atlanta ranks ninth in wOBA (.331) and 11th in ISO (.174) against lefties this season, with just a 19% strikeout rate. Adding the ballpark factors onto Wood, this is actually a less than ideal spot for someone of this price tier. Say we get an outing like his last against San Francisco, or even the start before against Miami where he was a little better, Wood still is not crushing the value you want from someone of these tags. Wood has been posting elite numbers this season. The 13% swinging-strike rate, the 60.6% groundball rate, and the 28.2% strikeout rate are all unreal numbers for Wood, who has never seen this type of success in his career. His three second half starts have resulted in a 17.1% strikeout rate, a 4.05 xFIP, and a 13% drop in his groundball rate. A small sample size of three starts, but it is worth noting for Wood moving forward. You can use him tonight, but I might be looking cheaper on the hill.