Daily Fantasy Baseball 2015: Best MLB Pitcher Stats, Picks for April 9 – Bleacher Report

If a loaded slate of MLB games tends to overwhelm you in daily fantasy baseball, we have just the time for you to play at DraftKings—evenings of getaway Thursdays. With just three night games on tap, the variables are reduced and you can dive more deeply into the minutiae, as we do below, outlining the best pitcher stats and picks for April 9.

Starting Pitchers

CC Sabathia, New York Yankees ($8,700)

• Good: Jose Bautista ($5,000) has just three hits in 26 career at-bats against him (.115) with eight strikeouts.
• Bad: Sabathia gave up seven hits and four earned runs (6.00 ERA) in his lone start against the Toronto Blue Jays in 2014.
• Ugly: Sabathia had career worsts with a 5.28 ERA and 1.48 WHIP last season.

Ian Kennedy, San Diego Padres ($7,800)

• Good: Angel Pagan ($3,900) might be off to a hot start, but expect him to cool off here, as he is hitting just .207 (6-for-29) in his career against Kennedy.
• Bad: Buster Posey ($4,400) looks like a must-play again, hitting .417 (15-for-36) off Kennedy.
• Ugly: The injury-hit San Francisco Giants didn’t need any more injuries, but Brandon Belt ($4,300) is unlikely to play with a mild groin strain, even if he might avoid the DL, per Alex Pavlovic of CSNBayArea.com.

Belt said MRI revealed just a very mild strain. He’s optimistic he’ll avoid DL, may try to take BP today.

— Alex Pavlovic (@AlexPavlovic) April 8, 2015

Justin Masterson, Boston Red Sox ($6,700)

• Good: He hasn’t given up a homer in the 105 at-bats against players on the Philadelphia Phillies roster.
• Bad: Jeff Francoeur ($2,300) beat the Red Sox with a three-run homer Wednesday night and should be in the starting lineup again, hitting .310 (9-for-29) off Masterson.
• Ugly: In his lone start against the Phillies last season, Masterson gave up five runs in three innings and a .429 BAA.

Tim Hudson, San Francisco Giants ($6,200)

• Good: Three of the San Diego Padres’ regulars (Justin Upton ($4,500), Yonder Alonso ($3,600) and Jedd Gyorko ($3,800)) have had little to no success against Hudson (5-for-25, .200 with no extra-base hits, no walks and just one RBI).
• Bad: Don’t count on Clint Barmes ($2,800) being in the lineup, despite his solid start (.429). He is just 1-for-13 (.077) against Hudson in his career.
• Ugly: One Padre who has owned Hudson is Matt Kemp ($4,700), making him a must-play on Thursday night. Kemp is hitting .364 (8-for-22) with a homer and two doubles.

Daniel Norris, Toronto Blue Jays ($6,000)

• Good: Norris is coming off a great spring. He was one of just three pitchers to go 4-0 in spring training, posting a 2.93 ERA and a .220 BAA, per MLB.com. Norris just missed leading all pitchers (by one) in spring strikeouts (30).
• Bad: Norris is just 21 years old, making just the second start of his career, and he will have to do it at Yankee Stadium—not exactly a friendly environment for someone so wet behind the ears. 
• Ugly: Most of the Yankees’ best bats are left-handed, or switch-hitters better from the left side. This is ugly on the Yankees side. Only six teams were worse in spring training against left-handers (.246), per MLB.com. Only four Yankees have a single career at-bat against Norris, although Brian McCann ($4,000), a lefty bat, does have a homer in that at-bat.

David Buchanan, Philadelphia Phillies ($5,100)

• Good: Only two Red Sox have faced Buchanan in their career: Pablo Sandoval ($4,300) and Allen Craig ($3,200). They both went 0-for-3. Craig struck out twice, but he is unlikely to be in the lineup anyway.
• Bad (For the Red Sox): Buchanan went 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA and .182 BAA in spring training, and the Red Sox didn’t face him in the Grapefruit League, or in his 2014 rookie year.
• Ugly: Outside of inexperience, there isn’t much ugly to note in this matchup for the Phillies sophomore, but here is something: The Red Sox are a significant favorite to win the game Thursday night.

Best Picks by Position

Here is a suggested lineup, if you like to play the numbers game with the historical matchup data:

Note: All batter-pitcher matchup data comes from BaseballSavant.com, unless otherwise noted.

Daily fantasy baseball is going strong at DraftKings! Get FREE entry into a $10,000 MLB contest today.

Follow @EricMackFantasy

Eric Mack, one of the giants among fantasy writers, is the Fantasy Football Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, where you can ask him endless questions about your team, rip him for his content and even challenge him to a head-to-head fantasy game.