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Look for our fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings, hitter upgrades and downgrades daily to help you make smart fantasy baseball lineup decisions and for MLB betting tips. MLB game odds are provided by Caesars Sportsbook, and fantasy advice is geared towards ESPN 10-team leagues with standard scoring.

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What you need to know for Wednesday's MLB Games

By Todd Zola

After a Tuesday slate with everything contested under the lights, day baseball is back with matinees comprising over half of Wednesday's action. The games commence at 12:35 p.m. ET in the Steel City with an interleague affair featuring the Pirates hosting the Astros. The last game on the docket begins at 9:45 p.m. ET in San Francisco between NL West rivals Giants and Dodgers.
Griffin Canning (.2%) is slated to come off the IL for his season debut, at home against the Nationals. It's always a risk trusting a pitcher coming off the IL, but Canning threw five innings in his last rehab starts, fanning 10, albeit for Single-A Inland Empire. Still, the relevant point is Canning is stretched out sufficiently to qualify for a potential win, and the opposing Nationals sport the 20th ranked weighted on-base average (wOBA), despite an early-season series in Coors Field.

Starting pitcher rankings for Wednesday

Pitchers are ranked in order of their Forecaster/Daily Notes projected fantasy points (FPTS), using ESPN's standard scoring system (2 points per win, minus-2 per loss, 3 per inning, 1 per K, minus-1 apiece per hit or walk allowed, minus-2 per earned run allowed).

T: The pitcher's handedness. OPP: Opposing team. RST%: The pitcher's roster percentage in ESPN leagues. ML: Caesars Money Line. O/U: Caesars Over/Under for runs scored. For the projected stat line, W% is the team's win probability using ESPN projections, IP is innings pitched, ER is earned runs allowed and K is strikeouts.

If a team is planning on using an "opener" to start their game, but will rely on a "bulk pitcher" to follow him on the mound after 1-2 innings, the bulk pitcher is listed and indicated with an asterisk.

FPTS	Pitcher	T	Opp	Rst%	W%	IP	ER	K
14.1	Zack Wheeler	R	MIA	98.6%	62%	6.1	2.3	6.7
13.5	Brandon Woodruff	R	@ARI	99.5%	59%	5.8	2.2	6.8
13.3	Spencer Strider	R	CIN	99.7%	57%	5.5	2.1	7.2
12.9	Blake Snell	L	@NYM	88.9%	53%	5.5	1.9	6.5
12.7	Clayton Kershaw	L	@SF	95.3%	60%	5.3	1.7	6.0
12.2	Kevin Gausman	R	DET	99.4%	61%	5.7	2.4	6.6
10.8	Tylor Megill	R	SD	11.9%	47%	5.3	2.1	5.4
10.4	Logan Gilbert	R	@CHC	94.2%	54%	5.5	2.5	5.5
9.7	Marcus Stroman	R	SEA	79.2%	46%	5.4	2.4	5.1
9.4	Hunter Greene	R	@ATL	86.3%	43%	5.2	2.7	6.4
9.2	Taj Bradley	R	BOS	1.0%	56%	5.1	2.3	5.0
9.1	Drey Jameson	R	MIL	4.8%	41%	5.5	2.7	5.7
9.1	Jose Urquidy	R	@PIT	19.9%	55%	5.3	2.6	4.8
9.1	Alex Cobb	R	LAD	45.5%	40%	5.2	2.2	5.2
9.0	Griffin Canning	R	WSH	0.2%	56%	5.1	2.4	4.8
8.9	Sonny Gray	R	CWS	47.8%	54%	5.0	2.3	5.0
8.7	Lucas Giolito	R	@MIN	85.5%	46%	5.4	3.0	6.0
8.6	MacKenzie Gore	L	@LAA	19.4%	44%	5.3	2.6	5.3
8.4	Ken Waldichuk	L	@BAL	0.8%	56%	5.2	2.8	4.8
8.1	Chris Sale	L	@TB	76.9%	44%	4.7	2.2	4.9
7.7	Edward Cabrera	R	@PHI	13.5%	38%	4.5	2.1	4.8
7.7	Nathan Eovaldi	R	KC	61.1%	55%	5.3	3.4	5.5
7.5	Rich Hill	L	HOU	0.5%	45%	4.8	2.4	4.4
7.3		L	@TOR	7.7%	39%	5.2	2.8	5.1
6.8		R	NYY	0.1%	50%	4.9	2.9	4.9
6.0	Dean Kremer	R	OAK	1.1%	44%	5.1	3.1	4.1
5.0	Clarke Schmidt	R	@CLE	4.2%	50%	4.1	2.5	3.9
4.5	Jack Flaherty	R	@COL	37.0%	59%	4.7	3.5	4.7
3.8	Brad Keller	R	@TEX	2.2%	45%	5.1	3.9	4.6
1.1	Jose Urena	R	STL	0.1%	41%	4.7	4.3	3.7

Best Sub-50% Rostered Hitters for Wednesday

Best and worst hitters from the day are generated by THE BAT X, a projection system created by Derek Carty using advanced methods like those used in MLB front offices, accounting for a variety of factors including player talent, ballparks, bullpens, weather, umpires, defense, catcher pitch-framing, and lots more.

Fantasy baseball pitcher rankings, lineup advice for Wednesday's MLB games

What you need to know for Wednesday's MLB Games

Starting pitcher rankings for Wednesday

Best Sub-50% Rostered Hitters for Wednesday

Worst Over-50% Rostered Hitters for Wednesday