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.

NAMEIP/GK/GTotal
Clayton Kershaw78.815.8
David Price7.48.315.8
Felix Hernandez7.27.915.1
Yu Darvish6.78.415
Chris Sale6.97.614.5
Max Scherzer6.67.714.3
Johnny Cueto7.17.114.2
Corey Kluber6.87.414.2
Jon Lester6.87.113.9
Cole Hamels6.8713.8
Stephen Strasburg6.27.413.6
Garrett Richards6.56.613.2
Tyson Ross6.56.513

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.

NAMEIP/GK/GTotal
Adam Wainwright7.15.812.9
Zack Greinke6.36.712.9
Julio Teheran6.8612.8
Collin McHugh5.96.812.7
Jake Arrieta6.16.612.7
Ian Kennedy6.26.512.6
Madison Bumgarner6.36.212.5
Ervin Santana6.65.912.5
Hisashi Iwakuma6.95.512.4
Jeff Samardzija6.65.912.4
Sonny Gray6.65.812.4
Wade Miley6.3612.3
Cliff Lee6.65.712.2
Jesse Hahn5.86.412.2
Jacob deGrom6.25.912.1
John Lackey6.55.512.1
James Shields6.55.512
Gio Gonzalez5.96.112

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.

NAME13 +GSpercent
Clayton Kershaw1515100%
David Price192286%
Felix Hernandez182282%
Yu Darvish161984%
Chris Sale131587%
Max Scherzer162176%
Johnny Cueto152268%
Corey Kluber142264%
Jon Lester132162%
Cole Hamels121867%
Stephen Strasburg152268%
Garrett Richards132065%
Tyson Ross112250%
Adam Wainwright112152%
Zack Greinke132162%
Julio Teheran142264%
Collin McHugh71547%
Jake Arrieta81553%
Ian Kennedy92241%
Madison Bumgarner122352%
Ervin Santana102050%
Hisashi Iwakuma81650%
Jeff Samardzija112152%
Sonny Gray92143%
Wade Miley102245%
Cliff Lee51242%
Jesse Hahn4850%
Jacob deGrom71450%
John Lackey72133%
James Shields122255%
Gio Gonzalez71644%

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.