This article is part of our DFS Baseball 101 series.
Last year, I wrote an article each month based on team hitting. This is important to review for daily fantasy baseball when selecting your starting pitchers, especially when you need a cheaper option as a second pitcher or tournament play. You want to find a pitcher who is underpriced but in a great matchup. I will admit that those articles would take hours for me to compile all the data and break out all 30 teams, so I have a different approach this year.
Starting with FanDuel data, I break down all the team pitchers/hitters and give you the rankings along with the value reports on individual players. Here is the April and May Report:
Overall April vs. May (Opposing Starting Pitchers PPG)
One of the most important things to consider is where a team is trending. Houston, Toronto and St. Louis made the biggest strides from April to May as teams to avoid because they started hitting. Surprisingly, the Yankees saw some drop off in May while the Orioles, Mariners and Pirates declined the most. The Padres are still one of the best teams to pick on with your starting pitching.
Teams to Choose Starting Pitchers Against
Top Teams by Handedness
Teams to Avoid Starting Pitchers Against
Teams to Avoid Based on Handedness
Even with the small samples in April, a lot of the same teams are struggling against left-handed pitching. Meanwhile, half of the teams from April are still in the top 10 against right-handed pitchers in May, with most of the turnover taking place among the teams who were ranked fifth through 10th.
Best and Worst Value Starting Pitchers
Best and Worst Starting Pitchers Overall
Outside of Karns, who only has four starts, the left list is getting stronger with two months worth of data. Jason Vargas and Ervin Santana dropped off from last month. Additionally, you should start targeting hitters and stacking against the pitchers on the right.
