It’s a Friday with 13 games on the MAIN slate and NO, the Cubs are NOT playing this afternoon at home. It’s the DE-TROIT TIGERS hosting the Kansas City Royals in a day game before the NFL Draft resumes in the Motor City. Somewhere, Mike Sweeney is getting amped up to start an epic brawl my friends.
For those of you good at math, you have quickly deducted that there are another 2 teams missing from the main slate. Fear not, it’s just two of the worst teams in the league in Houston and Colorado who are playing just twice in Denver this weekend.
WEATHER
Everything should wind up playing tonight with one exception to monitor.
- TB at CWS: Slight rain throughout the day, likely won’t stop so either they try to start and play through it or skip it all together and just assign the White Sox a loss. Wind also blowing in. So maybe just cross this game off, as there will be no Eflin and Flexen on this Friday night, sadly.
As you would hope with 26 teams in action, there’s a good number of quality pitching options out there today. And with so many bats to find out there, I often lean towards just taking the sure thing top end guys on this kinda night.
CORBIN BURNES (DK: $9800, FD: $11.5k) … Very odd pricing for Burnes on DraftKings as there is no reason to think that he’s now a consistent 5-6 strikeout player. Not to mention that Oakland is one of the higher K% teams on the slate. So a SP with strikeout stuff, against a team who strikes out a good amount and … yeah, just take this easy chalk.
ZAC GALLEN (DK: $10k, FD: $11k) … I loved the Mariners coming into this season, but they don’t hit as well at home and they should have hit much better in Texas. Two of Gallen’s recent starts have been 30%+ CSW games and he gave up 8 runs in those two combined. Odds are in his favor to straighten that out and deliver a 25+ spot at low ownership.
BAILEY OBER (DK: $6800, FD: $8500) … This is a good value on DK and a nice spot on FanDuel as well if you want some late night hammer from your pitching. Sure, Mike Trout. Sure… Wait, no, that’s it. That’s literally the only concern and even that I am not too worried about. No, there is no Miguel Sano revenge homer tonight. No, there is no Mickey Moniak or Nolan Schanuel 2-2 game. Ober’s pitching well and hopefully the Twins let him go beyond 80 pitches tonight, because that’s the only limiting factor.
Other Pitching Notes
- Sale and Eovaldi are worth considering for K prop overs, but a little risky in DFS
- Miles Mikolas is gonna pitch clean, but lordie he sucks for DFS as well.
DODGERS
Ohtani, Betts, Freeman
What if I told you that combined from these three guys you are getting four homers? You would stack them all, wouldn’t you? Ohtani feels like free money today. Freeman feels like free money today and it’s Mookie on a Friday night. Plus, Will Smith after a day off and missing his Chairman assignment? Teoscar Hernandez back in Toronto. Jesus, take the wheel, it’s gonna get ugly Toronto and I don’t mean the Maple Leafs.
Alright, so your trusted MLB DFS resource here has started off this article saying A: Find a way to take those sure thing pitchers and B: Play the most expensive stack in the universe. Brilliant analysis here, kinda like suggesting you take your #2 QB, who is old, injured, left handed, with the #8 pick, wasting that pick for the 3rd year in a row. Alright, Alright. Sooooo, we wanna find a couple cheap bats who will hit homers. I got you here… May I introduce you to …
THE MARLINS!
Bryan De La Cruz, Jesus Sanchez, Nick Gordon
Seriously though. I can’t build tonight without 2 Dodgers. But here are other “STACK” teams for those who like to do such a thing…
- TWINS (Buxton, Margot, Santana) – Not a great lineup by any stretch, but definitely cheap and potentially HR upside against a bad Angels bullpen.
- DIAMONDBACKS (Marte, Moreno, Walker) – The team nobody touches tonight but probably should.
- BREWERS (Frelick, Adames, Hoskins) – There is something about Luis Gil which rubs me the wrong way. Could be that he has two first names. Could be that he wears #81. Could be that he is a Yankee but more than likely it’s because he really only trusts two pitches. If the walks get out of control then we could see the Brewers coming through in a series that smells like it has a ton of runs in it.
CATCHER
On a big slate by default folks will find a way to pay down for some jerk off $2400 catcher and he hits a home run. Let’s scan real quick and … oh, hey, congrats Omar Narvaez for providing the Mets only offense with a 2-run HR tonight. Awesome.
- Omar Narvaez
- Gabe Moreno
- Will Smith
FIRST BASE
- Prince Frederick Freeman
- Christian Walker
- Josh Bell
- Carlos Santana … Look. You’re the one who not only kept reading here beyond Freeman, but then said no to Christian Walker AND no to Josh Bell. So yeah, you want to keep rejecting the options you’re going to get last night’s leftovers.
SECOND BASE
- Mookie
- Ketel Marte
- Kyle Farmer
THIRD BASE
Once again, this position is a heaping pile of ….
- Nolan Arenado
- Josh H Smith
- Emmanuel Rivera
SHORTSTOP
- Mookie
- Willy Adames
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
Ladies and Gentlemen, it appears J.D. Martinez is ready to play Baseball. Please, do not use him unless it’s a Sunday afternoon.
- Shohei Ohtani
- Bryan De La Cruz
- Evan Carter
- Sal Frelick
OUTFIELD – Tier II
- Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
- Teoscar Hernandez
- Byron Buxton / Manny Margot
- Jesus Sanchez
It would be cheating tonight for me to put Ohtani, Freeman or Mookie as the Chairman. Right? Fine… Here’s your Chairman call. They go back to back to back to start the game tonight…
- Shohei Ohtani – DH – LA Dodgers – Chairman of the Dongers Club
- Freddie Freeman – 1B – Dodgers
- Mookie Betts – SS – Dodgers
- Evan Carter – OF – Rangers
- Omar Narvaez – C – Mets
- Josh Smith – 3B – Rangers
- Kyle Farmer – 2B – Twins
- Bryan De La Cruz – OF – Marlins
- BONUS …………… Teoscar Hernandez – OF – Dodgers
TOP BETS
Dodgers ML (-122)
Dodgers/Jays OVER 9
Dodgers/Jays Yes Runs First Inning
Dbacks ML (-130)
Yankees/Brewers OVER 8.5