The story of the day is going to be weather in a couple of games. Remnants of a tropical storm are heading up the east coast and should cause a PPD in Baltimore between the Jays and Orioles which completely shifts the dynamic of tonights slate (in a good way). The Pirates are in New York to face the Mets and I swear the Pirates have played every single non 15 game slate this season and will most likely be done with their schedule by August 31st at the rate they are going. I mention this because they too have some rain concerns but not a PPD risk like Baltimore.
There are three more new series starting up today
Royals at Indians
Tigers at Twins
Reds at Brewers
Max Scherzer vs Yu Darvish
The marquee pitching match-up of the day is out in PETCO as a series littered with early runs should come to a screeching halt with Max and Yu on the hill. Neither guy has much of a hole that you look to target in match-ups and neither is coming in with bad form or inflated pricing tonight. So my path to building out today would be to lock these two in together.
In terms of deciding on just one on FanDuel, go with Darvish as Trent Grisham LEAPS off the page against Max tonight.
Others?
For multi entry purposes to spread out exposure these guys are next highest on my list today, but main lineup I would try to go Max & Yu
- Taijuan Walker – It’s the Pirates, so the strikeouts wont be insane but the damage should be minimal
- Tyler Mahle – Has really come back to earth and I like Yelich a lot tonight, the 30 point ceiling games are long gone.
So with Max and Yu Darvish being the pitchers you want tonight the focus on hitting is centered entirely around a value stack on this shorter slate. With Toronto likely being PPD that eliminates any consideration to deviate to away from this strategy today.
Detroit Tigers
Among the three teams I like here, Detroit faces arguably the worst SP (J.A. Happ) and a really bad bullpen. Weather is okay in Target Field tonight as well and the obvious Tiger is Jonathan Schoop but he is $5,400 and not the reason we are on Detwaaat. Instead, Niko Goodrum, Miguel Cabrera ($3,000) and Jeimer Candelario ($3,400) are the core value plays here — along with Schoop — to focus around.
Kansas City Royals
Another value team with a couple hitters who are playing really well lately and going into a friendly park for them. That would be ones Carlos Santana and Andrew Benintendi.
Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati is back in Milwaukee and gets Adrian Houser. Houser tends to vomit on the mound and have long innings. The bottom of the Reds order is a $$ stack tonight consisting of Naquin-Suarez-Tucker B and of course if we are stacking Cincinnati in Milwaukee we have to play Joey Votto too.
CATCHER
- Tucker Barnhardt
- J.T. Realmuto … DK price remains broken here as he is $3,500 once again. His last four games have produced 10-17-12-8 DK points. Match-up isn’t fantastic but price is.
- Roberto Perez … Has a .524 xSLG split vs Duffy’s profile.
FIRST BASE
Old man night at first Base!
- Joey Votto … I don’t see any scenario where the Reds put up a big # without Votto, so stacking Reds requires Votto.
- Carlos Santana
- Miguel Cabrera
SECOND BASE
- Jonathan Schoop (FD)
- Jeff McNeil
- Whit Merrifield
THIRD BASE
- Eugenio Suarez
- Jeimer Candelario
- Kris Bryant (Questionable – Hamstring) … Like JT the price is discounted here a bit, but KB has been relatively cold of late so it’s justified. That said Eflin lives in the heart of the zone a lot and has been hit hard by RH this year plus he’s worse away from Citizens Bank Park. KB is a nice one off on non Max-Yu lineups.
SHORTSTOP
- Niko Goodrum
- Amed Rosario
- Kevin Newman
- Andrelton Simmons
OUTFIELD – Mt Rushmore
Lots of value here.
- Christian Yelich
- Tyler Naquin
- Andrew Benintendi
- Jesse Winker
OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Trent Grisham
- Bryan Reynolds
- Franmil Reyes
OUTFIELD – Value
- Ryan O’Hearn
The Dongers Club
- Andrew Benintendi – OF – Royals – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Trent Grisham – OF – Padres
- Miguel Cabrera – 1B – Tigers
- Eugenio Suarez – 3B – Reds
- Andrelton Simmons – SS – Twins
- Jonathan Schoop – 2B – Tigers
- Christian Yelich – OF – Brewers
- Tucker Barnhardt – C – Reds
- BONUS …………………………… Kris Bryant – 3B/OF – Cubs
HR PARLAY
- Benintendi + Cabrera + Yelich + Bryant
BETS
- Reds / Brewers OVER 8.5
- Nats / Padres UNDER 7
LINEUP CONSTRUCTION THOUGHTS
THE HIGHEST CHALK STACK(S)
Indians, Twins, Tigers
This assumes Jays/Os are PPD….
LOW(er) OWNED GOOD TEAMS
None
LEVERAGE STACKS/PLAYS
Pirates
DK PITCHERS
Max and Darvish
FD PITCHERS
Darvish