2014 Fantasy Baseball: 5 Pitchers Who Will Help You Win Your Daily Leagues on Aug. 9 (Evening Edition)

Shields isn't the sexiest pick today, but that's mostly due to his moderate 7.43 K/9 rate for the season. Additionally, his 6.68 strikeout rate over the past month is even less sexy. However, he still remains a safe and solid option against a San Francisco Giants team that's been sputtering a bit lately. It also helps that the Royals have been swinging hot bats lately and give Shields a great chance for the win. As mentioned earlier, he is safe.

Richards runs into a great matchup tonight against the Boston Red Sox. The struggling BoSox are ranked 28th in team wOBA over the last seven days and that's an improvement from where they were ranked over a two-week span, which was dead last. As for Richards, over the past month he has a 2-2 record with a 2.19 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and an 8.03 K/9 rate. The Angels hitters should be able to provide enough run support to get him the quality start and win.

Over the past month, Darvish has a 2-1 record with a 2.16 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and an insane 11.88 K/9 rate. He also gets to face the Houston Astros, that own the worst strikeout rate in the league with 23.4 percent. Additionally, over the last seven days, they have been ranked 16th in wOBA. They were able to beat up on Darvish in their last meeting, but were dominated by him the meeting before that. Tonight should be another dominant one for Darvish.

Liriano is one of those pitchers that can have his ups and downs. Fortunately, he's having one of his "up" streaks as his 2.17 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 10.24 K/9 rate have been extremely impressive. Tonight he gets to face the San Diego Padres and their offense isn't very good. Granted they were hot to begin the month, but that flame has seemed to fizzle now. This makes for a perfect matchup for Liriano to keep his own flame going.

Cole Hamels has been downright filthy over the past month with a 1.22 ERA, 0.76 WHIP and 9.24 K/9 rate. Tonight he gets to face a dismal Mets team that's been ranked dead last in team wOBA over the past week. Additionally, they were ranked third to last over the last two weeks and dead last once again for the past month. Therefore, this matchup couldn't get any better for Hamels and makes him the clear-cut top pitcher for tonight.