It almost never makes sense to roster a non-starting pitcher in daily fantasy, but sometimes it does. Today might be one of those times.
At some point this season, the Tampa Bay Rays realized that they don’t have enough starting pitchers. Rather than use an inferior psuedo-starter every fifth game, they decided just to throw a bunch of relievers instead. They made headlines a couple weeks ago when Sergio Romo started a game, and then they made headlines again when he started two games in a row.
Romo is not starting today, but Ryne Stanek is, and he’s unlikely to go for more than two innings.
Here are the starters on today’s DraftKings day slate:
- Andrew Heaney (Angels): $10,700 at Detroit
- Daniel Mengden (Athletics): $9,100 vs. Tampa
- Ryan Carpenter (Tigers): $5,400 vs. Los Angeles
- Stanek: $4,000 at Oakland
Ownership levels will likely be very high on the two expensive pitchers, and with only four starting pitchers in the slate it will be relatively hard for DFS players to differentiate their lineups at the position — but maybe not if they take the contrarian approach of rostering a reliever, such as Rays pitcher Ryan Yarbrough.
Likely Yarbrough for #Rays https://t.co/XPUQOKtqQh
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) May 30, 2018
It’s risky to roster a reliever, but Yarbrough should be getting the nod for Tampa after Stanek is done, and the sharp high-stakes players have recently shown interest in him.
The first time Yarbrough came out of the pen in relief for a short-scripted starter (May 19), not too many fantasy players expected him to rack up points.
Amazingly, he went 6.1 innings, got the win and put up 21.25 points.
On May 25, the most recent time he was scheduled to follow Romo in a start, the high-rollers were all over him.
Yarbrough once again did an excellent job in relief, going seven innings and striking out eight batters en route to 25.55 points. And keep in mind that his May 25 outing came on a 14-game slate, so sharp players had 28 starting pitchers to choose from, and they still opted to roster him.
The Rays are +129 road dogs, it’s normally not a great idea to roster road underdog pitchers, and the wind is blowing out to right field in Oakland at 14 mph, but you need to find ways to get creative on a small slate. Leaving salary on the table, taking hitters toward the bottom of the order, and even rostering a reliever all serve to differentiate lineups in guaranteed prize pools.
If Yarbrough has another outing of five-plus innings and five-plus strikeouts, he could end up being a GPP winner.
Photo credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Pictured above: Ryan Yarbrough
