It’s a little early in the season to have a Wednesday to enter a bunch of lineups, skip all the conference calls and head to the bar is it not?
Actually, no, it’s never to early to do that.
10 game MAIN slate starting at 1PM today on both sites which includes the 4PM games. With most of starting at 1PM local times in their regions we have limited shadow issues today as well, which is really good and there are zero weather concerns so lets just skip right on past that.
The issues with today’s slate would include:
- Your wife or SO nagging you about some Summer vacation plans or something or other that she probably mentioned two months ago.
- The lawn needing that first real good mowing.
- The bartender not being the regular and not knowing who you are.. I feel like this is higher on the issues list.
- Microsoft Teams
- See #1
- Pitchers being Pitchers
These games could/should have some shadows in them
- Mets at Phillies – 4PM local start
- Cards at Marlins – 4PM local start — assuming roof is open.
TREVOR BAUER – $10,200
Everyone else has some issues and Bauer is facing one of the worst offenses to start the season in the Oakland Athletics. It really feels like Oakland is going to struggle to hit at home all year long which is typical for them in that giant ballpark. Bauer looked like a man on a mission in his first start in Coors Field and faces a weaker lineup than Bieber does today so he gets the nod up top.
AARON NOLA – $9,200
Nola hasn’t exactly been a stud ace in day games the past two seasons, his ERA Is nearly double that of what it is in night games. His first day game start this year though was on Opening Day and wen’t extremely well against the Braves. I would look here for a spot where he can utilize some mid inning shadows for sure to help keep him safely in play.
JACK FLAHERTY ($7,800) and PABLO LOPEZ – $6,800
We head to Miami where you are looking live at a day game following a 6PM game in South Beach. Now, I doubt the Cardinals went out too heavy last night but none the less I would lean the pitchers here in this game and consider it a decent spot to get two mid/low range priced players together on DK in an SP stack. Flaherty is the wild card, he had a rough 2020 campaign and didn’t start off exceptionally sharp on Opening Day but it was in a tough ballpark vs a team who knew him very well in the Reds. I expect Flaherty to have that breakout game soon and today he’ll start to slowly build up to it with a DK score that should be 2x his price. Lopez probably can’t give you 7 innings and won’t have the K upside that Flaherty or others has, but he’s fairly reliable at not getting blown up and has favorable splits on his side vs the Cards lineup.
Did not want to recommend but considered:
- Dallas Keuchel (This smells like a Mariners underdog win)
- Hyun-Jin Ryu (If we get word the roof is closed then ok)
- Kenta Maeda (too many LH bats for Tigers today)
MINNESOTA TWINS
Nelson Cruz, Jorge Polanco, Byron Buxton, Andrelton Simmons
Matt Boyd has never been one for consistency and he was decent in his last outing and now faces nothing but RH bats. The Twins are playing extremely well in this series, led mostly by Nellie Cruz who once again is just hitting nothing but tanks and now gets a lefty — oh boy. The Cruz-Polanco-Buxton part of the order should do damage today but if Boyd manages to face Andrelton Simmons (batting 9th!!@#@!#) twice then he’ll definitely exit the game before seeing the order a third time. Simba is the 4th leg on this stack.
WRIGLEY
This isn’t one of those 9-7 games in Wrigley Field because Woodruff and Hendricks are decent enough and neither lineup is an exceptionally hitting lineup. But there is good value here with 13+ mph wind to left field and temps in the low 70’s. The Cubs should move Joc up to the lead off spot to get him going in my mind.
TORONTO
Marcus Semien, Cavan Biggio, Bo Bichette, Vlad Jr., Teoscar
Go right back to the Jays if this roof in Texas IS open. They closed it last night late because of wind advisories and supposedly the roof has a locking mechanism which won’t allow it to open if there are wind gusts of a certain amount. It’s ironic because the damn stadium is below sea level but hey, what do I know about engineering on stadiums (not much really but I do write an article on stadiums every year, so yeah). Top of the order for Toronto.
SNEAKY GAME
White Sox vs Mariners
Eaton/Moncada/Abreu & Haniger/France/Murphy
The Mariners showed how bad they are vs LHP on Monday when Carlos Rodon mowed them down but Dallas Keuchel pitches to so much contact that I expect them to wake up a little today. However, the Justin Dunn vs Chicago match-up is the side which should produce 1st inning runs here (that’s a good bet, 1st inning Over). Moncada/Eaton/Grandal all get good split match-ups vs him and Robert/Abreu certainly do not stink. Look here for a late game stack to consider but it really feels like last nights Jays-Rangers game and we could see Seattle wind up being the sneaky play (Haniger/France/Moore/Murphy).
CATCHER
- Willians Astudillo
- Willson Contreras
- Will Smith
Woah… No, I did not do that on purpose.
FIRST BASE
An incredibly random and tough position on this slate. Vlad Jr checks the most boxes but I wouldn’t mind getting off the reservation a little here.
- Vlad Guerrero Jr
- Eric Hosmer
- Ty France
SECOND BASE
Love all three of these guys today and you can’t really move them around on DK, so Polanco and Semien should be used in stacks and Schoop is a one off play.
- Jonathan Schoop
- Jorge Polanco
- Marcus Semien
THIRD BASE
Very deep today. Love Biggio and Machado knows Gausman and fits well vs him. I also do not want any Blake Snell as the Giants hit LHP well so Longoria in the same game is a good play.
- Cavan Biggio
- Manny Machado
- Evan Longoria
SHORTSTOP
- Andrelton Simmons
- Ha-seong Kim – Value at only $2700
- Xander Bogaerts
OUTFIELD – MT Rushmore
- Nelson Cruz
- Teoscar Hernandez
- Austin Meadows
- Mookie Betts – Mookie should Ambush Luzardo with a lead off double.
Tier 2
- Christian Yelich
- Byron Buxton
- Bryce Harper
Value
- Mitch Haniger
- Joc Pederson
- Darin Ruf … Just how your mother likes it Trabek
- Austin Meadows – OF – Rays – Chairman of the Dongers Club
- Manny Machado – 3B – Padres
- Joc Pederson – OF – Cubs
- Jonathan Schoop – 2B – Tigers
- Byron Buxton – OF – Twins
- Andrelton Simmons – SS – Twins
- Vlad Guerrero Jr – 1B – Blue Jays
- Willson Contreras – C – Cubs
- BONUS ……………… Bryce Harper – OF – Phillies
BETS
- Mariners / White Sox 1st Inning OVER
- Giants / Padres OVER 7.5