Should I draft Justin Verlander or Merrill Kelly?

See our analysis of the choice to draft Justin Verlander or Merrill Kelly.

PLEASE NOTE this is a draft choice comparison analysis based upon Preseason Projections only. As the baseball season is already underway, you may instead prefer to view our breakdown of a trade for these players which is based upon several more factors including in-season performance.

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Strong Recommendation

Justin Verlander

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Merrill Kelly

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HOU · SP

ARI · SP

Injury Alert

Merrill Kelly · Shoulder (Out)

Pitching
2024 Preseason Projections
Draft Value	1.61	2.55
ADP	163.15	167.42
PROJ	277.00	342.00

W	9	12
L	7	9
SV	0	0
IP	144.0	176.0
H	129	157
ER	59	74
K	122	163
BB	40	59
ERA	3.69	3.78
WHIP	1.17	1.23

Most Recent and Popular Comparisons
	Draft Justin Verlander or Cole Ragans Draft Justin Verlander or Eduardo Rodriguez Draft Justin Verlander or Walker Buehler Draft Justin Verlander or Dean Kremer Draft Justin Verlander or Shane Baz	Draft Merrill Kelly or Chris Sale Draft Merrill Kelly or Nick Pivetta Draft Merrill Kelly or Bailey Ober Draft Merrill Kelly or Bryan Woo Draft Merrill Kelly or Shota Imanaga

Pitching
Season Statistics
PROJ	79.0	70.0
W	3	2
L	2	0
SV	0	0
IP	40.0	24.2
H	35	17
ER	16	6
K	35	21
BB	14	6
ERA	3.60	2.23
WHIP	1.23	.95

Recent News
	Justin Verlander Further Cements Status as Future Hall of Famer Published May 25th, 2024 via Last Word On Sports Justin Verlander Passes Greg Maddux, Now 10th In Strikeouts Published May 25th, 2024 via RealGM Houston Astros' Justin Verlander Shatters Records With 260th Win and Historic Strikeout Milestone Published May 25th, 2024 via EssentiallySports Will Justin Verlander get to 300 wins? Why milestone is unlikely but not impossible for Astros veteran Published May 25th, 2024 via CBS Sports Justin Verlander Strikes Out Nine In Win Published May 25th, 2024 Justin Verlander dominates A's in stellar six-inning outing Published May 25th, 2024 via FantasyPros Justin Verlander on being 10th all time in strikeouts \| 05/24/2024 Published May 25th, 2024 via MLB.com Houston Astros: Justin Verlander cracks top-10 list for strikeouts Published May 24th, 2024 via Houston Chronicle	Diamondbacks' Merrill Kelly: MRI shows healing Published May 25th, 2024 via CBS Sports Torey Lovullo updates on Merrill Kelly's injury status Published May 23rd, 2024 via Burn City Sports Fantasy Baseball Injury Reports for Pitchers - Updates for Merrill Kelly, Reese Olson, Kenta Maeda, Jon Gray, Shane ... Published May 23rd, 2024 via MSN Merrill Kelly Scheduled For MRI This Week Published May 23rd, 2024 Merrill Kelly (shoulder) to undergo MRI this week Published May 22nd, 2024 via FantasyPros Diamondbacks' Merrill Kelly: Scheduled for MRI Published May 22nd, 2024 via CBS Sports Diamondbacks updates: Merrill Kelly to undergo MRI to gauge progress on injury Published May 22nd, 2024 via The Arizona Republic Merrill Kelly - MLB Starting pitcher - News, Stats, Bio and more - The Athletic Published May 13th, 2024 via The New York Times

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