Not often, but every now and then you run up against a pitching slate that, to put it kindly, is underwhelming. Such is this Saturday night’s shuffle of starters. Zack Greinke is the biggest name on the board, but his 6.16 ERA is equally large. He’s also coming off an outing where he gave up seven earned runs. So with that, I give you the Relative Position Value Per Dollar (RPVPD) of this group to help figure out how to put our best foot forward in uncomfortable shoes.

(*Using DraftKings Pricing)

PlayerFPPGRaw RPV Salary Pts per $RPV Per Dollar
Rick Porcello24.50.893 $       8,200$3350.644
Jared Eickhoff24.50.893 $       8,200$3350.644
Mat Latos20.00.545 $       7,000$3500.628
Kevin Gausman19.70.522 $       7,700$3910.584
Derek Holland15.50.197 $       7,700$4970.472
Ross Stripling12.2-0.058 $       6,300$5160.451
Yordan Ventura18.10.398 $       9,500$5250.442
Michael Pineda13.00.004 $       7,200$5540.411
Wei-Yin Chen14.70.136 $       9,000$6120.349
Chris Rusin7.8-0.397 $       5,300$6790.277
Matt Shoemaker7.3-0.436 $       5,000$6850.271
Chase Anderson9.8-0.243 $       6,800$6940.262
Francisco Liriano13.50.043 $       9,900$7330.220
Wade Miley8.7-0.328 $       7,400$8510.095
Colin Rea7.8-0.397 $       6,700$8590.086
Zack Greinke9.3-0.282 $       9,200$989-0.052
Trevor Bauer5.6-0.567 $       8,500$1,518-0.614
Alfredo Simon1.0-0.923 $       5,800$5,800-5.169

As you can see, Zack Greinke does not fare well in terms of cost efficiency based on his slow start. In tournaments, he may actually be an intriguing contrarian play based off his career production and recent struggles. For cash games, he’s not the best building block. It didn’t take long for Trevor Bauer to end up back in the Indians rotation (thanks to an injury). His average fantasy points are skewed based off his bullpen role. Bauer was an absolute lineup killer last year in home starts (5.61 ERA in Cleveland back in 2015). However, on the road his 2015, his 3.32 ERA was much more appealing. Philadelphia is a small ballpark, but Bauer could be a sneaky tournament play as a second arm despite his current standing on this list.

Francisco Liriano is far from the most cost efficient option, but at home against the Reds he’s certainly one of the safer cash game options. The rest of this group however is littered with question marks. Even the most cost efficient on the board, Boston’s Rick Porcello, is terrifying. For a guy with a career K/9 mark of just 5.9, Porcello’s current 10.5 mark is downright shocking. He’s also been far less hittable than in year’s past (6.7 H/9 in ’16 vs. 10 H/9 career mark). But is this change you can believe in? Probably not, but baseball is a game of streaks and Porcello is riding high right now. He’s only given up six earned runs in his last 20 innings and the Yankees offense he’s facing is struggling mightily. Porcello will turn into a pumpkin at some point, but right now he’s the shiniest port in this storm.

Mat Latos has also made strides in resurrecting his career in the early going. Unfortunately, his strikeout rate has not risen with him, making him a very risky option in hitter friendly Baltimore. Philadelphia’s Jared Eickhoff is prone to the typical rookie peaks and values. We’ve see him at his best (vs the Mets 7 IP, 9 K’s) and at his worst (@MIL 5IP 7 ER) already in this young season. That fluctuation makes him a difficult cash game play. Derek Holland is facing an Angels’ offense that’s picked up the pace of late, but he’s been steady all year. He rivals Liriano on this night as the “safest” play. What he lacks in ceiling, he makes up for in efficiency. That will allow for some big bats to make it to your team. Wei-Yin Chen is also a less risky play than most, but Milwaukee is a tough ballpark.

If you’re looking for upside, Kevin Gausman is your man. He went five innings and struck out seven in his debut last week. As long as he can limit the home run ball that plagued him last year, Gausman has a chance to take a nice step forward in 2016 in both season long and daily formats. If Gausman is the diamond in this rough, Michael Pineda is the cubic zirconia. Pineda has had four starts this year. In two he gave up two earned runs in the other two six and seven respectively. His body language when things go awry is off putting and he’s way too volatile despite the tempting salary ($7.2K). The Boston environment, both in fan base and lineup, could make for a short night for the Yankee right hander.

On a night like this, it’s better to be “not wrong’ than try to and be fancy and fail. We’ve hopefully targeted some cash game plays as well as some tournament darlings with RPVPD. All you can do is put your best foot forward and avoid paying for players that will hamstring you budget. Players that fail you and cost you too much money make for a bad night of daily fantasy.

Joe Pisapia (@JoePisapia17) is the seven-time best-selling author of the Fantasy Black Book Series for baseball and football. He hosts Fantasy Sports Tonight on Sirius/XM Fantasy Sports Radio and the Dear Mr. Fantasy Podcast.