Starling Marte was traded to the Athletics in a really interesting deal which sent pitcher Jesus Luzardo back to Miami. Meanwhile, the Pirates as of now have not officially declared who is starting for them tonight but the source feed I have on it is Max Kranick will get the nod, not that it really matters. There’s also plenty of reason to avoid anyone you think could be involved in a trade right now and if someone gets pulled because he catches COVID rounding the bases then just go to sleep early.
Toronto at Boston is on DK only and a 7 inning game.
UPDATE – Nationals vs Phillies PPD due to COVID
WEATHER
All clear
It is a top heavy pitching night with multiple guys who have 20 point floors in my mind. For those wondering why all high priced guys and can you fit them, the answer is yes, you can fit them in tonight. Andrew Heaney is one chalky mid range option who can pitch well tonight but I do not see the three guys above falling on their faces enough to justify him easily over them. There’s value bats out there today.
Lucas Giolito
Of the three big names going tonight I would prioritize Giolito into your lineups. He has carved up KC’s good hitters and by good hitters I mean Soler, Salvy and Whit. Giolito’s really good at attacking the Royals right on the edge of the plate and they’re a team who will swing and miss quite a bit at border pitches. Consider this the highest upside must own of the night.
Walker Buehler
Almost nobody is pitching more consistent and better right now than Buehler, who will get a Giants team that used to hit him well but last start he got the better of them and he’s really in a good groove right now.
Zack Wheeler
Sure, Soto probably homers again in Philadelphia because that’s what he does, but at his price and with the lineup around him I don’t see touching him as a must own tonight, which leads us to using Wheeler who seemingly has made all of his starts either at home or against the NL East this season. So for now, his strong season should continue with another 100 pitch and 6 strikeout performance against the really bad Nationals lineup.
UPDATE
- With Wheeler out, if you want a third wild card option, consider Max Kranick for Pittsburgh.
I can make a case that the Yankees/Rays and Brewers/Pirates games have more runs than folks anticipate in them, but why on earth would I bother with making those my primary plays tonight? They’re nothing more than “longshot” type calls and we’re just not in that business around here because we don’t need to be cute with proper contest selection. There’s no ‘Atlanta’ type team tonight who is getting overlooked other than Baltimore in my mind and … well, they’re the Orioles!
White Sox
Anderson, Abreu, Vaughn, Eloy
Kris Bubic has pitched better this season but is still very HR prone and facing a team known for hammering LHP and hitting lots of homers when they are on. Anderson and Abreu cannot stay quiet for this long and with 90+ degree temps if they can make contact tonight the ball is going to carry a long, long ways…
Orioles
Mullins, Mancini, Stewart & Franco
Sometimes I just give you a gut feeling play and my gut feeling play is the Orioles and Marlins will have a little bit of a HR fest tonight with the Orioles being the winning side. You might roll your eyes considering its Camden Yards at the end of July, so of course it’s a home run spot. But Stewart/Mullins/Mancini are 3 Orioles I would not overlook, they hit well at home and along with 3B Maikel Franco all hit sliders very well.
Phillies
Segura, McCutchen, Hoskins, Bohm
Philadelphia is likely a very chalky spot today – everyone wants to pick on Patrick Corbin and for good reason. He has allowed a .214 ISO to RHB, is only striking them out 16% of the time and Cutch/Hoskins have a combined 1.161 xSLG against his pitchtypes. They’re the core of this stack.
UPDATE
- With Phillies scratched tonight, you might be looking for other options. The Yankees are the sneaky (but bad) team vs Wacha today. Focus on the RH bats.
- Meanwhile the game that nobody is touching due to it being a 7 inning game is Toronto vs Boston and I can see Boston exploding but only getting 18 outs to work with. They have been ice cold of late, lost the first game of the double header and would need to jump on Steven Matz early — but they are the good team getting overlooked now that I look further.
CATCHER
- JT Realmuto
- Jorge Alfarro
- Omar Narvaez
FIRST BASE
- Freddie Freeman – Under the radar one off on the Atlanta side tonight. ZZ Top narrative! He will homer and is a better FD play given the depth here.
- Jose Abreu
- Rhys Hoskins
- Trey Mancini
SECOND BASE
- Kolten Wong – Lefties in PNC
- David Fletcher
- Jean Segura
THIRD BASE
- Maikel Franco
- Brian Anderson
- Alec Bohm
SHORTSTOP
- Tim Anderson
- Kevin Newman
- Charlie Culberson … If you aren’t using Tim Anderson then this is the position to punt and go down to $2,000 to save $ for the pitching studs.
- Jose Iglesias
OUTFIELD – Mt Rushmore
- Jesse Winker
- Andrew McCutchen
- Andrew Vaughn
- Cedric Mullins
OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Adam Duvall
- Shohei Ohtani — Prioritize paying for pitching over hitting IMO, but yeah, he’s uh, good?
- Eloy Jimenez
- Cody Bellinger
OUTFIELD – Value
- D.J. Stewart
- Lucas Williams
The Dongers Club
There were not four homers here last night, just sayin ….
- Andrew Vaughn – OF – White Sox – Chairman of the Dongers Club
- Freddie Freeman – 1B – Braves
- Adam Duvall – OF – Marlins
- Cedric Mullins – OF – Orioles
- JT Realmuto – C – Phillies
- Maikel Franco – 3B – Orioles
- Tim Anderson – SS – White sox
- Kolten Wong – 2B – Brewers
- BONUS …………………. Cody Bellinger – OF – Dodgers
BETS
- Orioles ML
- White Sox -1.5
- DBacks/Rangers UNDER 9
HR Parlay
- Freddie Freeman
- Tim Anderson
- Cedric Mullins
The Chalkiest Stacks
Phillies, Reds, White Sox, Rangers
Good Teams Getting Overlooked
None
Boston
Best Leverage Play against Chalk
Colorado
Favorite DK Pitching Combinations
Giolito and Buehler
FAVORITE HITTERS
Maikel Franco
Tim Anderson
Andrew Vaughn