SLATE NOTES
Sunday Site Synchronicity, ten games on both main slates today.
WEATHER
- Colder than yesterday in a few spots, namely DC, nowhere near the same good hitting conditions today there as well as NY, Boston, Cincy
- Wind blowing out to LCF in Wrigley, good for hitting
- Wind blowing out to LF in St. Louis
- Wind blowing out to LF (18 mph) in Kansas City
Most of the names going today won’t “wow” you on the surface, but I don’t think this is a horrible pitching slate overall. There are a good number of ‘new’ names to go through today. Kodai Senga being the headliner, but we also have Jared Shuster (Lefty, Braves), Jhony Brito (RHP, Yankees) making debuts. As well as old faces in new places such as Jameson Taillon, Mike Clevinger, Ross Stripling, Vinnie Velasquez and …
CHRIS BASSITT
The hound dogs first start back in the AL is against an NL team and in a nice big park, just the way he likes it. I’ll be curious to see how Bassitt handles the SkyDome when they are back there but with him on the road in a big stadium he’s someone I trust to not blow up at all and carries enough strength vs LHB that he can avoid the pesky guys in the Cards lineup hurting him like Donovan, Nootbar, Gorman, etc. For now, Arenado and Goldy aren’t warmed up either and probably won’t be until taxes are filed, so pick on the Cards offense today with Bassitt.
JOE RYAN
There are three traditions in April. The tradition unlike any other in Augusta, GA, Taxes and the Kansas City Royals going from the #1 offense in Spring Training to the #30 offense in April. Every. Fucking. Year. They leave the warm weather in Arizona thinking they can hit a ton of homers only to go to cold Missouri where they can’t hit shit off a stick.
JEFFREY SPRINGS
Springs rating isn’t above a 75 on our model today, but that’s actually right where he should be. While Detroit isn’t great, they’ll be able to put the ball in play enough here that at best you get a 20 DK fpts from him. 5-6 IP, chance for the win and 6 strikeouts.
I expect a lot of other pitchers to pitch ‘well’ today, but nobody is gonna be great and I feel best about the names above for DFS…. Some others which I gave consideration on included
- Graham Ashcraft … Park scares me somewhat.
- Brad Keller … He’ll pitch well for 3 starts and then give up 9 runs on some random afternoon game
- Trevor Rodgers … Just no point, Mets dont K
- Tanner Houck … No reason to be this cute
Again, I just don’t see a ton of offense today even though the SP names won’t be wowing anyone…
White Sox vs Astros
CWS: Anderson, Robert, Benintendi
HOU: Pena, Abreu, Meyers
Both sides look alright here. I prefer the Chicago side because Luis Garcia cannot rock his baby anymore due to the rule changes and I’m not convinced he will be able to pitch well with such a drastic routine change.
Beyond that though, this is a game with no negative weather impacts and two offenses who are hitting well but not quite getting the HR pop yet on both sides. Tim Anderson looks locked in and should lead this thing off with a bang today, he’s a must from Chicago and former teammate Jose Abreu is a must from Houston.
Rays
Franco, Parades, Arozarena, Harold Ramirez/Margot
Look for a heavy RHH lineup from Tampa today, which is going to not strike out at all and favors the new rules for DFS purposes because even vs a LHP I think they’ll try to be aggressive on the bases and have lots of long innings.
Cubs
Wisdom, Swanson, Barnhardt
Mostly hoping they run into 2 HR vs Lauer, which is possible in any environment but boosted with the wind blowing out towards the scoreboard in LF.
CATCHER
- Sean Murphy
- Tucker Barnhardt
- Jacob Stallings
FIRST BASE
- Jose Abreu
- Anthony Rizzo
- Andrew Vaughn
SECOND BASE
- Whit Merrifield
- Nico Hoerner
- Jonathan India
THIRD BASE
- Isaac Parades
- Austin Riley
- Patrick Wisdom
- Yoan Moncada – Questionable, would use in a stack only
SHORTSTOP
If I could roster 4 shortstops today and not play some other positions I would. Crazy how on a slate with 10 games we have ONE position that’s loaded above all others.
- Tim Anderson
- Dansby Swanson
- Jeremy Pena
- Willy Adames
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- Randy Arozarena
- Manny Margot
- Eloy Jimenez
- George Springer
OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Joey Meneses
- Harold Ramierz
- Luis Robert
- Jake Fraley
OUTFIELD – Value
- Andrew Benintendi
- Michael Conforto
- Lane Thomas
THE DONGERS CLUB
- Tim Anderson – SS – White Sox – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- George Springer – OF – Blue Jays
- Randy Arozarena – OF – Rays
- Sean Murphy – C – Braves
- Jose Abreu – 1B – Astros
- Whit Merrifield – 2B – Blue Jays
- Patrick Wisdom – 3B – Cubs
- Michael Conforto – OF – Giants
- BONUS …………….. Dansby Swanson – SS – Cubs
TOP BETS
- White Sox ML
- Braves/Nationals under 8.5
- Twins/Royals under 9
PARLAY(s) OF THE DAY
- 1st inning Under 1.5 Runs — DET/TB, BAL/BOS, ATL/WSH, PIT/CIN, NYM/MIA, MIN/KC
TOP PROP(s) OF THE DAY
- Brad Keller over 3.5 strikeouts
No major strategy thoughts today. I wouldn’t sweat ownership at all because this is a quiet/cold April slate that won’t have a ton of action. Generally when that happens, you DO want to over expose yourself to one team, so I wouldn’t mind just rolling out 6-7 hitters in the Chicago/Houston game and going out and enjoying your Sunday with that as the core build.