The season hasn’t even started yet and we’re dealing with key players getting scratched. Yikes. After waking up ill thanks to a bout of food poisoning, Tanner Bibee will not start this afternoon’s Opening Day game against the Royals. Ben Lively will instead take the mound for the Guardians.
Bibee, who pitched to a 3.47 ERA and a 3.56 FIP in 2024, appeared to be an amazing value option at pitcher on today’s nine-game featured DFS slate on DraftKings. However, with this news, more ownership should shift to Yusei Kikuchi, who was $100 cheaper than Bibee and draws the lowly White Sox in his first outing of 2025.
As for Lively, the right-hander was a perfectly fine back-end starter last season, though his advanced numbers paint a far more negative picture than his 3.81 ERA across 29 starts. Lively also surrendered a whopping 1.61 home runs per nine to opposing LHBs in 2024, which makes Vinnie Pasquantino, Michael Massey and MJ Melendez interesting options for daily fantasy.
