Happy National Mascot’s Day! WEATHER Wind blowing out for a hitting boost in Wrigley PAUL SKENES (DK: $9500, FD: $10,300) Every young star has a team in their division which they will forever dominate and thus far Skenes has done well vs the Cubs & Cardinals but something about Skenes vs the Reds screams to me a possible 14 strikeout game. Maybe not yet, but the ball gets in too quick on the lefties for them to take advantage of PNC’s right field boost for LHH & as long as his outfield defense can chase down Elly’s long fly ball then he’ll cruise to a potential 0 ER game. DAVID PETERSON (DK: $6000, FD: $7100) Why would you pay 10k+ for Sonny Gray when you could have David Peterson against a team who can’t hit LHP? Both are gonna throw 80-90 pitches, both are gonna strikeout less than 6 guys and this one is going to cost almost half the price. JOSE SORIANO (DK: $7500, FD: $7900) For alternative cheap SP2’s consider Jose Soriano or Cubs starter Javier Assad, but Assad has some significant wind in Wrigley so go with the slightly less risky Soriano. OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS I am passing on Max Fried tonight. Yeah, it’s the Tigers, I know. But I am not comfortable with Fried only pitching once in the last 2 weeks and that one start was just 87 pitches. No, he’s not injured or anything like that but Fried is a ‘feel’ type pitcher and one of the main reasons I dont love him in April is related to just not having that feel built up. I have a secure 1A pitcher in Skenes and a pretty good 1B option in Sonny Gray (even tho he’s overpriced). So fading the guy I think could struggle (not blow up, just struggle) of the three is an easy call. GIANTS Michael Conforto, Brett Wisely, Matt Chapman Back to the friendly confines and another wind blowing out game tonight, this time we trust the Giants instead of those pathetic Red Birds. PIRATES Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz, Andrew McCutchen Fear not the first game post Coors. This is a very specific stack, I wouldn’t venture far beyond the top of the order. PADRES Manny Machado, Ha-Seong Kim, Jurickson Profar, Kyle Higashioka Manny hasn’t had much power of late, but him in Philly is a bomb waiting to happen…....
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