2014 Fantasy Baseball: Top 5 Daily League Pitchers for Aug. 2

Dickey is the true definition of "high risk/high reward." The knuckle-ball specialist sports a 3.91 ERA with a 1.28 WHIP and 1.18 HR/9 rate on the season. However, over the past month, he has been pitching much better with a 3.07 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and a HR/9 rate of 0.66. His matchup against Houston may be scary due to their recent homerun barrage, but they still strike out more than any team in MLB. I recommend using Dickey in tournaments only.

Despite a rough July with a 4.22 ERA, Zimmermann's 5.4 K/BB ratio this season still ranks in the top 10 in baseball. He's also facing a Phillies team that struggles against right-handed pitching. Their .289 Team wOBA clearly portrays that. Zimmermann's last outing against the Phillies was bad as he gave up four earned runs over 3.1 innings. However, he shut them out in an earlier start in June. He should be good to go for this third match.

Many people seem to like Ervin Santana tonight, but I actually prefer his opponent, Ian Kennedy. Kennedy owns the highest K/9 rate of his career this season with an impressive 9.5 and over the past month, it's remaining over nine at 9.35. This should help against a Braves team that has struck out at a rate of 22.1 percent in 2014. Over the last 30 days, he has a 2.77 ERA; the Padres' bats have been hot lately, which should get him the win.

Ryu produced a 10.16 K/9 rate over the past month to go with a 3-1 record and a 0.64 HR/9 rate. Although his 4.45 ERA over that span isn't good, his 2.21 FIP shows he's been pitching much better than his ERA indicates. Therefore, expect luck to lean more on Ryu's side moving forward. It also helps that the Cubs have the worst strikeout rate against left-handed pitchers at 25.1 percent. In short, Ryu could easily be tonight's top pitcher.

To say that deGrom has been dominant lately would be an understatement. Over the past month, he's gone 4-1 with a 1.39 ERA, 10.58 K/9 rate and a HR/9 of zero. Tonight's game is at Citi Field and he has been just as dominant there as he sports a 1.83 ERA over six starts. He also has a favorable matchup against the Giants who have been second to last in wOBA over the past week. All of this bodes well for deGrom to continue his dominant streak.