WEATHER
No issues
Yet another awful pitching slate, which having less games to pick from compounds the issue tonight. When I say awful it’s not so much the names as it is the construct of how we get there.
SHOHEI OHTANI (DK: $11,500)
If Ohtani gave up homers then maybe we could find a fault here, but he doesn’t. And the Twins are not a team who really can step in having not seen him in forever and give him problems. There’s only one path to getting around not having him and that’s him getting busted for betting on womens tennis — which I doubt is happening — so just play him, enjoy the 25+ point outing and move on, because nobody else will touch him today.
GAGE JUMP (DK: $8800)
Alright, I’ll take notice and take the great park & bad Giants offense here to trust the kid. Another case of a college pitcher getting up to speed pretty quickly though & while I avoid any rookie pitcher earlier I do acknowledge when they look comfortable. Gage has ‘jumped’ (sorry, had to do the pun) into the A’s rotation with some favorable opponents (Angels, Rockies, Cubs before they started juicing again) and he gets another tonight.
TREY YESAVAGE (DK: $8400)
After his first 7 starts this year resulted in 0 HR allowed, Trey has given up 5 over his last 3 in June. Could be a sign of the baseballs changing as two of the games were at home and not really prone to heavy humidity/warmth. But with a thin slate on pitching options and his strikeout upside still being strong I would put him back in the mix that he is able to fix the HR trend. His downside is 3+ HR, but these aren’t the Astros of old, they do have whiffs in the lineup.
OTHER SP NOTES
- Imanaga vs Senga finally tonight at Citi Field for the second game. With the first one going over and the path of the Cubs the lean is Mets and under, but I would generally just stay away from this game all together.
- JP Sears is back and with the Padres. He was terrible in the minors.
BREWERS
My patience is wearing thing with this series and specifically you Brice Turang, and you Christian Yelich. No clean path for Lowder to get through the Turang-Bauers part of this lineup.
- Turang
- Yelich
- Bauers
CARDINALS
Another series that has been far more quiet than it should have been gets a lefty making his debut in Mitch Bratt for the Diamondbacks tonight. History tells us that almost no matter what the pitcher has done in the minors, when you’re a rookie and a tall lefty at that you’re going to have control issues at the major league level early in your career. He isn’t extremely tall – but I think you’re going to be disappointed if you think his sub 1 WHIP from the minors carries over when he has almost no put away stuff.
- Walker
- Wetherholt
- Wynn
BLUE JAYS
Vlad Jr has 5 hits over his last 3. It’s something and it might be enough to jumpstart him into a big second half.
- Vladdy
- Springer
- Kirk
CATCHER
Probably a top spot to just punt on salary tonight
- William Contreras
- Rodolfo Duran
- Alejandro Kirk
FIRST BASE
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- Matt Olson
- Jake Bauers
SECOND BASE
- Fernando Tatis Jr.
- JJ Wetherholt
THIRD BASE
- Blaze Jordan
- Max Muncy
- Alex Bregman
SHORTSTOP
- Elly De La Cruz
- Masyn Winn
- Jacob Wilson
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- Jordan Walker
- Christian Yelich
- George Springer
- Andy Pages
- Jordan Walker – OF – St Louis Cardinals – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Andy Pages – OF – Dodgers
- George Springer – OF – Blue Jays
- Vlad Guerrero – 1B – Blue Jays
- Elly De La Cruz – SS – Reds
- Alejandro Kirk – C – Blue Jays
- Max Muncy – 3B – Dodgers
- Brice Turang – 2B – Brewers
- BONUS …………….. Matt Olson – 1B – Braves
BETS
- Cardinals ML
- Dodgers + Blue Jays ML Parlay
- Athletics ML