Seven main slate games this evening including Trevor Bauer for the first time with the on field inspections and that should just be a wild treat to watch.
There are no weather issues for the evening games today, so lets dive right in.
James Kaprielian
I like both pitchers in this game and that’s saying something considering the other is Folty. But I have this being a low scoring game tonight after some fireworks a day ago and Kaprielian will make his first start vs Texas, which favors him greatly here. He’s been extremely good and grades out VERY well against Lowe, Gallo and Garcia, three of the top concerns in the Rangers lineup.
Robbie Ray
Well, here we go. We’re gonna jump into the Robbie Ray express train and see what happens tonight folks. He’s getting an NL team (pitcher as a batter), in a good pitchers park, and a lineup which isn’t hitting at all at home (humidor!) and has 4-5 easy strikeouts each time through the order. As they say, what can go wrong here with Ray who has been exception this year — up until his last start in Camden that is…
Trevor Bauer
Bauer will be more than fine even with heightened scrutiny on the pitchers right now, the Padres have seen him enough now though to know what is coming most of the time so we’re not going to see a 30 point game from Bauer, but he is one of the three I would trust tonight.
Astros
Correa, Brantley, Alvarez, Tucker
Do you remember … the 23rd night of … June? Anyways, do you remember last Friday when the Orioles swapped onto Thomas Eshelman against the Jays and he proceeded to shut them down for a few innings? Well tonight there’s no switcher-oo and the Astros are going to get theirs against Eshelman as they should. Kyle Tucker returns to the Astros and is a value hitter at a position which lacks value tonight (OF) and the great news here is we won’t have Chas McCormick in the two hole anymore but we do have Michael Brantley 2nd with Gurriel third and Alvarez 4th and bottom line is the 1-6 of Houston tonight has 3-4 HR potential and shouldn’t be ignored.
Yankees
Judge, Torres, DJ, Voit
Danny Duffy is back and pitched 0.0 innings of rehab work prior to his start tonight — which is probably nothing more than a 2 to 3 inning opener type role but those 2-3 innings cannot go well for him in my mind. We’ve seen DJ LeMahieu start to hit lately and an Aaron Judge homer tonight is probably the chalkiest and most optimized free square of the night.
After those two teams it gets into the go off the reservation territory tonight and teams that I gave consideration too included the Braves, Royals, Blue Jays, Dodgers and Rays. My fade team of the night is going to be Oakland and even though Matt Olsen is white hot this is a great low ownership spot for Freeman and Guerrero from the teams above. I really like both of them, but especially Vlad Jr against Trevor Rogers who I expect Toronto to hit fairly well today.
Of the teams I just mentioned the Blue Jays offer the most upside in my opinion with the Rays right behind them.
CATCHER
- Salvador Perez
- Mike Zunino
FIRST BASE
- Yuli Gurriel
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr
- Caros Santana
SECOND BASE
- DJ LeMahieu
- Brandon Lowe
- Max Muncy
THIRD BASE
- Justin Turner
- Jonathan Villar
- PUNT
SHORTSTOP
- Carlos Correa
- Wander Franco
- Gleyber Torres
OUTFIELD – Mt Rushmore
- Yordan Alvarez
- Michael Brantley
- Aaron Judge
- Michael Conforto
OUTFIELD – Value
- Michael A. Taylor
- Chas McCormick
- Austin Hays
The Dongers Club
- Carlos Correa – SS – Astros – Chairman of the Dongers Club
- Michael Brantley – OF – Astros
- Michael Conforto – OF – Mets
- Aaron Judge – OF – Yankees
- Vlad Guerrero – 1B – Jays
- DJ LeMahieu – 2B – Yankees
- Justin Turner – 3B – Dodgers
- Salvy – C – Royals
- BONUS ………………Gleyber Torress – SS – Yankees
LINEUP CONSTRUCTION THOUGHTS
THE HIGHEST CHALK STACK(S)
Astros, Athletics
LOW(er) OWNED GOOD TEAMS
Blue Jays
LEVERAGE STACKS/PLAYS
Blue Jays
DK PITCHERS
Ray and Kaprielian
FD PITCHERS
Kaprielian or Bauer
CORE HITTERS
Correa (Franco on DK)
Brantley
Judge