The bright lights of Friday night bring out the aces, as there are a whopping seven with five-figure salaries on DraftKings. Two of them make the cut as touted pitching plays, and they’re joined by a bargain southpaw who might be on some avoid lists tonight due to a potentially tough matchup. The hitting selections include a cheap-ish lefty in a favorable matchup at home, a couple of teammates at Coors, and a trio of hitters playing at Texas.
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Pitchers
Charlie Morton (TB): $11,600 vs. Tigers
Morton and the Rays are the biggest betting favorites of the night at -290, per Pinnacle. The veteran righty’s 4.71 ERA in six starts spanning 36.1 innings since the All-Star break is significantly out of whack with his 2.56 FIP, 3.40 xFIP, and 3.63 SIERA in that stretch. In those half-dozen starts, he’s struck out 27.5% of batters faced, pointing to a high ceiling.
That’s saying nothing of this juicy matchup. The Tigers are last in wRC+ (74) against right-handed pitchers this year, per FanGraphs, and their 26.1 K% is third-highest. Morton won’t be completely slept on thanks to his punchout potential and tantalizing matchup, but he could be under-owned relative to his sky-high scoring ceiling. He’s only $800 cheaper than Justin Verlander and $1,500 more expensive than the next forthcoming ace whom I — and likely much of the daily baseball gaming community will — love tonight.