Veteran daily DFS players know there are a couple rules of thumbs when it comes to selecting your pitcher or pitchers for your lineups:
- Play it safe and go with one of the best for cash games, with cost being a secondary consideration
- Take more chances and look for upside from a lesser option in a large-entry tournament
A quick and dirty filter I’ve been using lately to help decide on an arm for either scenario (but mostly cash games) is what I call “The Rule of 13.” It’s very simple. A pitchers satisfies the Rule of 13 when you’ll be shocked if they fail to total 13 combined innings and strikeouts. That’s all it takes, add up what you expect for innings and whiffs and if it is less than 13, they aren’t candidates for cash games and probably don’t have the upside for tourneys.
On one-pitcher sites like FanDuel, I’ll never use a pitcher not meeting the Rule of 13 in a cash game. On two-pitcher sites like Draft Kings and Fantasy Aces, one pitcher absolutely has to qualify while the second is at worse a borderline Rule 13 candidate.
To put the Rule of 13 in perspective, here are the pitchers that average more than 13 combined innings plus punch outs.
NAME | IP/G | K/G | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Clayton Kershaw | 7 | 8.8 | 15.8 |
David Price | 7.4 | 8.3 | 15.8 |
Felix Hernandez | 7.2 | 7.9 | 15.1 |
Yu Darvish | 6.7 | 8.4 | 15 |
Chris Sale | 6.9 | 7.6 | 14.5 |
Max Scherzer | 6.6 | 7.7 | 14.3 |
Johnny Cueto | 7.1 | 7.1 | 14.2 |
Corey Kluber | 6.8 | 7.4 | 14.2 |
Jon Lester | 6.8 | 7.1 | 13.9 |
Cole Hamels | 6.8 | 7 | 13.8 |
Stephen Strasburg | 6.2 | 7.4 | 13.6 |
Garrett Richards | 6.5 | 6.6 | 13.2 |
Tyson Ross | 6.5 | 6.5 | 13 |
Keeping in mind this is an average. The closer to 13 the pitcher sits, the more starts fall below the cutoff.
The above table didn’t include starters whose total rounded up to 13. Of course, in order for their average to be between 12 and 13, they must have several efforts that met the criteria. To add more names to the discussion, here’s the set that barely missed the cut.
NAME | IP/G | K/G | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Adam Wainwright | 7.1 | 5.8 | 12.9 |
Zack Greinke | 6.3 | 6.7 | 12.9 |
Julio Teheran | 6.8 | 6 | 12.8 |
Collin McHugh | 5.9 | 6.8 | 12.7 |
Jake Arrieta | 6.1 | 6.6 | 12.7 |
Ian Kennedy | 6.2 | 6.5 | 12.6 |
Madison Bumgarner | 6.3 | 6.2 | 12.5 |
Ervin Santana | 6.6 | 5.9 | 12.5 |
Hisashi Iwakuma | 6.9 | 5.5 | 12.4 |
Jeff Samardzija | 6.6 | 5.9 | 12.4 |
Sonny Gray | 6.6 | 5.8 | 12.4 |
Wade Miley | 6.3 | 6 | 12.3 |
Cliff Lee | 6.6 | 5.7 | 12.2 |
Jesse Hahn | 5.8 | 6.4 | 12.2 |
Jacob deGrom | 6.2 | 5.9 | 12.1 |
John Lackey | 6.5 | 5.5 | 12.1 |
James Shields | 6.5 | 5.5 | 12 |
Gio Gonzalez | 5.9 | 6.1 | 12 |
What follows is the percentage of games each of the above 31 has met the criteria so far this season with rain-shortened games excluded.I rarely play more than five or six cash games in a given night since I have a job that often starts 6 PM ET which makes it tough to make absolutely certain all my lineups are devoid of players scratched or affected by weather. I may enter more contests on the nights I have off. As such, it is extremely rare when I don’t have a starting pitcher from the top table as my cash game anchor. And if there isn’t one from that group, most assuredly you’ll find my guy in the second.
NAME | 13 + | GS | percent |
---|---|---|---|
Clayton Kershaw | 15 | 15 | 100% |
David Price | 19 | 22 | 86% |
Felix Hernandez | 18 | 22 | 82% |
Yu Darvish | 16 | 19 | 84% |
Chris Sale | 13 | 15 | 87% |
Max Scherzer | 16 | 21 | 76% |
Johnny Cueto | 15 | 22 | 68% |
Corey Kluber | 14 | 22 | 64% |
Jon Lester | 13 | 21 | 62% |
Cole Hamels | 12 | 18 | 67% |
Stephen Strasburg | 15 | 22 | 68% |
Garrett Richards | 13 | 20 | 65% |
Tyson Ross | 11 | 22 | 50% |
Adam Wainwright | 11 | 21 | 52% |
Zack Greinke | 13 | 21 | 62% |
Julio Teheran | 14 | 22 | 64% |
Collin McHugh | 7 | 15 | 47% |
Jake Arrieta | 8 | 15 | 53% |
Ian Kennedy | 9 | 22 | 41% |
Madison Bumgarner | 12 | 23 | 52% |
Ervin Santana | 10 | 20 | 50% |
Hisashi Iwakuma | 8 | 16 | 50% |
Jeff Samardzija | 11 | 21 | 52% |
Sonny Gray | 9 | 21 | 43% |
Wade Miley | 10 | 22 | 45% |
Cliff Lee | 5 | 12 | 42% |
Jesse Hahn | 4 | 8 | 50% |
Jacob deGrom | 7 | 14 | 50% |
John Lackey | 7 | 21 | 33% |
James Shields | 12 | 22 | 55% |
Gio Gonzalez | 7 | 16 | 44% |
The only five starters I consider to be completely match-up proof for use in cash games are Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez, David Price, Chris Sale and Yu Darvish. Their Rule of 13 success rate are all over 80 percent.
Next time we’ll go over the reasoning used to decide if any of the rest pass the Rule of 13 sniff test for their matchup that day.