Thursday is always a bit of a shorter slate in Major League Baseball, and with one game in the afternoon, that only leaves us eight games on the main slate starting at 7:00pm eastern. It certainly isn’t full of the top end talent in the game from a pitching perspective, but there are still several solid choices to help you cash your lineups. Let’s hit the highlights.
Top Tier
Walker Buehler, LAD – He has allowed more than three earned runs just twice all season long and it has been well over two months since it happened last. The Giants are one of the best feel good stories of the season, but Buehler is 10-1 and has a nice tidy ERA under 2.50. However, the reason that I love Buehler as my top play on the mound on Thursday is his history against the Giants this season. He has pitched against the boys from the bay three times, and he has lasted 19.2 innings, allowed just three earned runs, walked five and struck out 15 while collecting two wins. He has owned the Giants this season and his K/9 is 9.5 at home as opposed to 8.4 on the road.
Kenta Maeda, MIN – After a disastrous April, Maeda has been much better since, allowing more than three earned runs just once since the start of May. His strikeout numbers have also been great of late with 25 whiffs in his last 16 innings. The Angels have scored just five runs in their last three games combined and their lineup after Shohei Ohtani and Jared Walsh is certainly nothing to be concerned about. Maeda has a 2.41 ERA at home with 10.6 strikeouts per nine as opposed to a 5.50 ERA and 9.5 K/9 away from Minnesota. He has given you fits at times this season but is a strong candidate on Thursday’s shorter slate.
Mid-Tier
Blake Snell, SD – Believe me, I know it hasn’t been a good season at all. I know the ERA is over 5.00 and the WHIP is 1.60. However, this is DFS and I like the matchup. The Marlins are definitely a mediocre offense as only the Mets, Rangers, and Pirates have scored fewer runs than them in all of Major League Baseball. They also have the fourth most strikeouts against left-handed pitchers as they strikeout once every 3.23 at-bats while hitting .233 against them. Snell hasn’t been going deep into games, but he has allowed no earned runs in two of his last three starts and his 96 strikeouts in 74.1 innings is also enticing for DFS purposes against Miami.
Kwang Hyun Kim, STL – One of the few things going right for the Cardinals lately, Kim has won four straight decisions and has allowed just one earned run over those four starts. The Cubs have the fifth most strikeouts in baseball and are hitting just .226 as a team. Those numbers are slightly better against left-handed pitching, but Kim just faced them on July 10th and threw six shutout innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. Chicago also has scored the fifth fewest runs in the National League and have lost three of their last four and the win was a miracle ninth inning comeback. The Cardinals offense is sputtering some too but Kim looks on track to have a very solid outing.
Value Tier
Luis Patiño, TB – A former top prospect of the Padres, Patino has served as both a bullpen arm and a starter for the Rays. He was injured and spent some time in the Minors. He was touched up a bit his last time out, but overall, he has been great on the farm allowing just ten earned runs in seven starts with 40 strikeouts in 29.1 innings. Patino has dominating stuff it is just a matter of him controlling it and lasting long enough in the game to return good fantasy points. He will face the Indians who have scored the sixth fewest runs in the American League and are only 13 runs ahead of the second most anemic offense. Cleveland is also only hitting just .230 as a team and haven’t been scoring many runs this week.