This is how Thursday MLB slates should be. A heavy afternoon set of games and the two sites decided we don’t want to have fun with the Brewers and Pirates, so that game is an island showdown game. Same is true for the Athletics and Yankees later tonight and FanDuel opted out of the Dodgers/Nationals 4PM game this afternoon. MLB is obviously avoiding the NFL Draft tonight and that’s probably a wise move. WEATHER Everything SHOULD play but Jays and Royals will have some showers lingering around throughout the game. A who’s who lineup of GOOD pitchers going today. Wheeler, Verlander, Yamamoto, Ragans, Castillo and we have double MacKenzie’s as Gore and Tristan are both going. ZACK WHEELER (DK: $10k, FD: $10.6k) The Phils are looking to gain a split in Cincinnati and their pitching has come back to reality the last two games and could use some length here today. Enter Zack Wheeler, who despite flirting with a no hitter last game only threw 106 pitches, nothing out of the norm for him and there’s no reason to not expect another 100 and 7 innings today. With Elly continuing to hit outside the top 3, there’s also good reason for Wheeler to get through to a third time and not have much damage against him. SIMEON WOODS RICHARDSON (DK: $4000?????????) On the other end of the spectrum, Simeon Woods Richardson, who falls into the “This guy has 3 names but NO hyphen” category and has been a long time “prospect” who hasn’t really amounted to shit gets to face the fucking White Sox at min $4k price on DraftKings. This isn’t our typical “rookie pitcher making his debut” either, because he does have a 6 IP start under his belt, and obviously — it’s the WHITE SOX. And yes, his name is 10000% one of those Madden player generated names that comes up in year 5 of your franchise mode. Dude would be way cooler if he dropped the Richardson or claimed that as his middle name. Simeon Woods, that’s a good name. Well, minus the Simeon part. JUSTIN VERLANDER (DK: $8800) I don’t see any reason to bite on Verlander instead of Wheeler on FanDuel, but it’s okay on DraftKings where ownership could be low. JV should hit 85-90 pitches & there is no Wrigley wind issues here either. The veteran will be fine. Other Pitching Notes…...
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