An eight-game MLB DFS main slate gets underway at 7:05 ET this evening with a loaded board for pitching and only a few standout spots for finding power and run creation for MLB DFS points. Tonight’s outcome may very much depend on getting to the right pitcher or pitchers with a somewhat evened-out range of outcomes at the plate. Finding value pitching that can compete with the premium options at lower ownership while unlocking hitting combinations that are otherwise unavailable is an important consideration on a slate of this nature, a “good but not great” looking option at a lower price can have tournament-winning upside just through staying within a few points of a more expensive more popular pitcher, and there are several candidates for this type of performance this evening.
Note: All analysis is written utilizing available projected lineups as of the early morning, pay close attention to confirmed lineups and adjust accordingly. This article is posted and updated as it is written, if a game has not been filled in simply check back in a few minutes. Update notes are provided as lineups are confirmed to the best of our ability, but lineup changes are not typically updated as lock approaches, so stay tuned to official news for any late changes.
MLB DFS: Game by Game Main Slate Summary – 5/8/23
Oakland Athletics (+167/3.65) @ New York Yankees (-183/4.95)
The slate gets underway with the Athletics visiting the Bronx to face Nestor Cortes and the last night (hopefully) of the pretend Yankees lineup. With slugger Aaron Judge due back tomorrow and the Athletics in town, the Yankees have a good opportunity to right the ship to some degree this week, beginning with their funky crafty lefty on the mound tonight. Cortes had made six starts and thrown 33 innings so far this year, but he is pitching to a 4.91 ERA and 5.17 xFIP after coughing up seven earned runs against Texas in a 4.2-inning road start in his last outing. Prior to that, Cortes had been rolling along like his normal self, he had not allowed more than three runs in a game while pitching reliably into the sixth inning and finding mid-range strikeouts, though his xFIP was a run or two higher than his ERA throughout those starts, which is not uncommon for this pitcher. Last season, Cortes had a shiny 2.44 ERA in 158.1 innings, but his xFIP was 3.64. The season before he had a 2.90 ERA and a 4.18 xFIP, the expected advanced stat simply falters a bit around the ridiculous “probably shouldn’t be this good, but somehow makes it work” talent of Cortes. The lefty has struck out 25.4% of hitters this year while walking 6.5%, on par with his 26.5% and 6.2% rates from last year, he has induced an 11% swinging-strike rate that matches last year’s 11.1% though his CSW% has dipped from 28.3% to 26.4% in early returns and he has allowed more premium contact to this point in the season. Cortes should be on form tonight, he is one of our top projected pitchers against a bad Athletics lineup. Still, there are hitters capable of taking him deep in Yankee Stadium if one of those contact mistake pitches creeps in tonight. Cortes is still a strong buy at $9,400/$9,300, with the hope that the field leaves him in the popular but still under-owned range. Athletics bats are never one of our preferred spots. There is, of course, a bit of power upside for a game in Yankee Stadium, but Cortes has kept hard hits to 34.5% and 36.1% with a 2.60% and 3.74% home run rate each of the last two seasons, and is typically good at keeping average exit velocity down, despite being a flyball pitcher. Esteury Ruiz costs $3,100 on both sites, he has 16 stolen bases but has hit for no power. The outfielder has a .076 ISO and a 101 WRC+ in the leadoff role, he has gotten on base at a .338 clip but has a 2.7% barrel rate and 27% hard-hit and he has walked in just 2.7% of his plate appearances. Ruiz is a correlated scoring and speed option in the leadoff role in a bad lineup. Ramon Laureano has a bit of power and a touch of speed, he has three home runs and has stolen three bases in 96 plate appearances this year and he had 13 home runs with 11 steals last season in 383 tries. Laureano is cheap at $3,400/$2,800, if one is stacking Athletics he should probably be included. Brent Rooker has been covered in this space to a significant degree over the past few days, in case you missed it our opinion remains that this is not real and there are indicators of unsustainable performance. Rooker had a mid-range fantasy score yesterday in a deceptive game that saw him go 0-3 but get hit by a pitch, steal a base, and score a run. The outfielder costs just $3,900 on DraftKings, at that price we have no strong objections to utilizing him in stacks or even as a one-off. At $4,200 on FanDuel, Rooker is far more difficult to justify. There is a significant past performance tax in that salary which is a major trap. Jesus Aguilar is our home run pick from the Athletics, the first baseman costs $2,800/$2,600 with a 7.96 in our home run model. He has five longballs on the season in just 91 plate appearances, posting a .207 ISO and a 111 WRC+ while not shaping a particularly compelling contact profile. Aguilar hit 16 home runs in 507 opportunities last year and 22 in 510 the season before and has always been a good fit against a lefty. Carlos Perez is a cheap catcher at the dead minimum on DraftKings, he has one home run in 50 plate appearances this season. Shea Langeliers is also a hard-hitting catcher, he checks in at $3,500/$2,900 with a longer track record. Jordan Diaz, Kevin Smith, and Nick Allen have three combined home runs and WRC+ marks of 52, 34, and -20 (that last one is in just 35 plate appearances).
The Yankees draw JP Sears a former organizational prospect who went West in the Frankie Montas trade. The now 27-year-old is not a ranked prospect at this point in his career, his ceiling seems to be around his current role as a late-rotation starter, but he is somewhat capable at the Major League level. Sears has made six starts in 2023, he has allowed seven home runs (5.30%) with a 12.6% barrel rate. He has a 5.06 ERA and 4.75 xFIP but has been OK for strikeouts at 25.8% (with an 11-strikeout outlier game against the Rangers giving him a bit of a boost) and he has only walked 6.1% while inducing an 11.9% swinging-strike rate. The southpaw allowed a 43.4% hard-hit rate last season with a 90.5 mph average exit velocity on a 17.3-degree average launch angle, this season the hard hits and exit velocity have actually been kept in check at just 35.6% and a very good 85.9 mph of average exit velocity, but when the flyball pitcher has made mistakes they have been loud home run mistakes. The Yankees are the type of team that can capitalize on that and the flyballs should play well for Yankee Stadium home run upside, but the lineup remains flawed with several missing pieces. Anthony Volpe is slashing just .212/.316/.331 with an 86 WRC+ and 11 stolen bases but manager Aaron Boone thinks fast equals leadoff hitter so here we are. The rookie has not been good in his big debut, but he costs just $4,200/$2,700. Gleyber Torres has been up and down this year, he is sitting at .242/.338/.408 with a .167 ISO but has created runs 10% better than average. Torres has four home runs and five stolen bases in 139 plate appearances this year. Anthony Rizzo is easily the best bat in this lineup, even against a lefty, he has a team-leading 8.20 in our home run model and has six on the board with a .181 ISO while creating runs 36% better than average in his 147 plate appearances. Rizzo is a key contributor if stacking Yankees bats and he is a good one-off at his position for just $4,700/$2,900, the FanDuel price is particularly appealing. DJ LeMahieu has hit everything hard this year, he has a 54.4% hard-hit rate with three home runs and a .162 ISO, leading to a 120 WRC+, LeMahieu costs just $3,900/$2,800, he offers three-position eligibility on FanDuel and slots into two on the DraftKings slate, he pairs well with outfielder Harrison Bader who has two home runs already in just 18 plate appearances since returning to the lineup last week. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Oswaldo Cabrera, Jose Trevino, and Aaron Hicks are not contributors at the plate this season. If Kyle Higashioka is catching he is greatly preferred at the plate and he can be included in stacks.
Play: Nestor Cortes, mid-range shares of Yankees top-5 stacks/bats
Update Notes: the Athletics have Carlos Perez hitting second with Laureano sliding to fifth, the lineup is otherwise essentially as expected. The Yankees lineup is confirmed in its expected five-man state, Trevino catches over Higashioka so there is no upgrade late in the lineup as we had hoped for.
Chicago White Sox (-125/4.51) @ Kansas City Royals (+115/4.09)
Veteran righty Zack Greinke has a 16.4% strikeout rate in 36 innings over seven starts this season. The veteran has been getting by on experience and limiting walks over the past few seasons, he is not good at keeping the ball in the yard, inducing swinging strikes, throwing strikes, limiting barrels, limiting hard hits, or limiting average exit velocity. Greinke is a target for the lousy White Sox to get right against, they are a mid-range stacking play with a 4.51-run implied team total today, Grienke is only on the board as a cheap low-end tournament dart with the idea of chasing a deep low-end start that somehow keeps the White Sox from exploding and finds a win. This is a very thin hope. The White Sox, however, have been mostly awful through the early part of 2023 and they keep losing pieces of their lineup. The current form of this team should see Tim Anderson in the leadoff role. The star shortstop is slashing .268/.316/.338 with a .070 ISO and no home runs in 76 plate appearances after missing several weeks earlier in the season. Anderson is cheap at $3,200 on FanDuel, he costs a full $5,400 – the correct price – on the DraftKings slate. Anderson is a great power and speed option with an excellent hit tool, this is a good spot to deploy him against this pitcher. Andrew Benintendi is another hitter who should frustrate what Greinke is trying to do on the mound. When he is going right, Benintendi is difficult to strike out and he has a very strong hit tool. In 521 plate appearances last year, the outfielder slashed .304/.373/.399 with a 122 WRC+. This season he is slashing just .268/.323/.325 with a 77 WRC+, but he is still striking out a just a 15% pace. Andrew Vaughn slots in at just $3,100 on both sites, the first baseman has three home runs with a 114 WRC+ and is a good option for power against Greinke. Vaugh has a 10.2% barrel rate and a 48% hard-hit rate so far this season, more power should come eventually and he is cheap in this situation. Luis Robert Jr. is second behind Vaugh with an 8.14 in our home run model, he has seven on the season and is slashing .260/.329/.496 with a .236 ISO and 121 WRC+ as the team’s best player. Hanser Alberto slots into the fifth spot in the projected lineup, though that may go to either of Yasmani Grandal or Gavin Sheets, both of whom have more power and are better MLB DFS options at the plate. Grandal is an affordable catcher with a good bat at $3,000/$2,700, Sheets costs just $2,500 on both sites with first base and outfield eligibility on the FanDuel slate, he has three home runs but just a 3.8% barrel rate and a .136 ISO this year. Elvis Andrus and Seby Zavala round out a mediocre lineup in a good situation.
The Royals are facing Dylan Cease who projects as one of our top pitchers on the back of a significant strikeout upside. The Royals projected lineup has several hitters who are hyper-aggressive at the plate, though that is offset somewhat by the excellent Vinnie Pasquantino who is striking out at just an 11.4% clip. Cease is a premium right-handed strikeout artist who does not need aggressive free-swingers to find his MLB DFS points in most outings, he had a 30.4% strikeout rate with a 2.20 ERA and 3.50 xFIP last year in 184 innings and a 31.9% strikeout rate over 165.2 innings the year before. The righty has made seven starts this season and has dipped to a 26.2% strikeout rate with a 12.2% swinging-strike rate also representing a decline from the 15% and 14.8% rates of the past two seasons. He appears to have lost a bit of zip on the fastball, with his velocity dropping by about 1.5 mph year-over-year, which has an impact on the whiff rates through his entire arsenal and adds up to the numbers we have seen. Assuming nothing is wrong, this is probably a bit noisy, the righty should find his velocity as he works his way into the season over more starts, but early May is rapidly becoming mid-May. Cease has a 4.58 ERA and 4.45 xFIP and he has given up a fair amount of hard hits early in the season, with a 52% hard-hit rate and a 90.9 mph average exit velocity that are uncharacteristic of this pitcher. Cease has had two bad outings in a row, the public may be somewhat sour on him in what should be a reasonably good opportunity on the mound tonight in conditions that are not as favorable to bats as what Kansas City provided over the weekend. Cease is a good buy at $9,700/$9,100 tonight. Royals bats can be picked up on the other side when not rostering Cease. Bobby Witt Jr. has created runs 10% below average this season but has decent counting stats to support his still pricey $5,200/$3,600 salaries. Pasquantino hits second, he has a .276/.372/.504 triple slash with six home runs, a .228 ISO and a 136 WRC+ over his 149 opportunities this year and is not expensive enough at $3,700/$3,300 despite a tough matchup. Sal Perez has massive power, he now has seven home runs and is slashing .290/.341/.516 with a .226 ISO and a 130 WRC+, the catcher is a stud at the plate and he is cheap at $4,400/$3,400. MJ Melendez has struggled to just a .200/.279/.357 with a .157 ISO and he has created runs 28% worse than league-average so far this year, but he mashes when he connects. The lefty has a 15.1% barrel rate and a 57.5% hard-hit rate so far this year, though that has somehow translated into just three home runs. Melendez has a 6.46 in our home run model and makes for a cheap option either behind the plate or in the outfield on both sites. Edward Olivares has a 10.3% barrel rate and costs just $3,200/$2,800 in the outfield, if he is hitting fifth he has value between his bat and speed. Over 107 plate appearances this year, Olivares has created runs two percent below average but he has three steals and two home runs and is rarely popular. Nick Pratto has one home run in 43 plate appearances and a 43.5% hard-hit rate. The former first-round pick is another sturdy left-handed bat in this lineup. Maikel Garcia, Michael Massey, and Jackie Bradley Jr. round out the projected lineup, they are lower-end options but Massey is a playable second baseman at $2,100 on both sites and Garcia has two stolen bases and a 105 WRC+ in his limited 26 plate appearances.
Play: Dylan Cease, White Sox stacks/bats, minor shares of Royals bats
Update Notes: the White Sox moved both of Sheets and Grandal ahead of Hanser Alberto, which makes complete sense, Sheets-Grandal-Alberto-Andrus-Adam Haseley closes out the bottom half for Chicago, Haseley is moderately interesting at $2,200/$2,300 as a wraparound play with a bit of sneaky upside. The outfielder is a former top prospect who never quite arrived, but he has a good hit tool with a minor degree of power and some speed in his age-27 season. The Royals’ lineup appears to be as expected.
Los Angeles Dodgers (+101/4.24) @ Milwaukee Brewers (-109/4.35)
The deep and talented Dodgers are in Milwaukee for what should be a fun series against the Brewers that opens with a game that Vegas sees as a close contest. The home team is carrying a 4.35-run implied team total, with the visiting Dodgers at 4.24 as just +101 underdogs. Los Angeles will be facing righty Freddy Peralta, who has been mostly good to start his season. Peralta is coming off of a limited 2022 that saw him put up a 27.1% strikeout rate with a 3.66 xFIP and 3.58 ERA with only a 1.89% home run rate and 31.3% hard-hit rate allowed, while missing most of the mid-Summer action. He was equally good at limiting premium contact in 2021, putting up a 31.1% hard-hit rate with a 2.41% home run rate allowed on just 86.6 mph of average exit velocity and a six percent barrel rate. That season, the righty had a 33.6% strikeout rate with a 14.5% swinging-strike rate, Peralta was excellent in 2021. This year, he has a 27.9% strikeout rate with a 14.1% swinging-strike rate and a 29.9% CSW%, he has pitched to a 3.63 ERA and 3.86 xFIP over 34.2 innings in six starts and has allowed just a 2.72% home run rate on 88 mph of average exit velocity with a 36.6% hard-hit rate, which includes a two-run 10-strikeout outing at Coors Field in his last start. This is a very good pitcher in a bad spot against a very good lineup, but Peralta is cheap for his talent on DraftKings, where he costs just $8,600. For $10,000 on FanDuel, he may make a good buy that the public does not get to for price and matchup considerations, putting him in play for tournament action. The DraftKings price should have Peralta as a popular play regardless, he has too much upside even against this squad to be that low-cost. The Dodgers lineup is always in play, but Peralta is very very good at checking power and home run upside. Even the sluggers in the Dodgers lineup are not cracking the 7.0 mark in our home run model, with Will Smith leading the team at 6.88 and Max Muncy landing at 5.87. Leadoff superstar Mookie Betts has a 6.73 in the home run model, he has six this season with a .214 ISO and 129 WRC+ and he can create runs with or without hitting for power. Freddie Freeman has probably the best hit tool at his position in the league, he is slashing .295/.367/.475 with a .180 ISO and has created runs 28% better than average while hitting five home runs and swiping four bases. Smith has four home runs in just 90 plate appearances, he may be the best hitter at his position at this point as well, despite several excellent catchers around the league including Sean Murphy and JT Realmuto. Smith pounds the ball when he is healthy, he has a 47.8% hard-hit rate this year to go with his .250 ISO and 160 WRC+ while slashing .306/.411/.556 in the small sample. Muncy has 12 home runs with a .366 ISO and he has created runs 57% better than average while barreling 23.4% of his batted-ball events. This is a deadly-good power hitter in the heart of the order on the left side of the plate, if anyone can get to Peralta for power it might be Muncy. Jason Heyward is less likely, but he has four home runs with a stout .270 ISO and has created runs 28% better than average in his 76 plate appearances. James Outman is the third in the run of lefties currently hitting for power in this lineup. Outman has a 15.1% barrel rate and 45.2% hard-hit rate with a .308 ISO and a 1757 WRC+ over 135 plate appearances with eight home runs. Miguel Vargas, David Peralta, and Miguel Rojas round out the lineup with playable cheap options who can produce in spurts, but the focus should be on the top-6 in this lineup if choosing to attack Peralta on the mound, which does not seem overly wise.
The Brewers will be facing righty Tony Gonsolin, who had made two starts and thrown eight innings since his return. Gonsonlin made 24 starts last year and put up a 23.9% strikeout rate while pitching to a sterling 2.14 ERA and a more telling 3.70 xFIP. The righty gave up just a 34.4% hard-hit rate with a 2.21% home run rate and was good at limiting baserunners and opportunities via some batted-ball luck, but he is not nearly as bad as his current-year numbers in the microscopic sample. In his two starts, Gonsolin has just an 11.4% strikeout rate and a 14.3% walk rate, his 3.38 ERA and 6.02 xFIP do not match but should normalize in more of a sample. Gonsolin was limited to 3.1 innings in his first start and pitched into the fifth, covering 21 hitters in 4.2 innings in his second outing, so he should be relatively stretched out for this one, and he checks in at a $7,300/$8,800 salary. The price on DraftKings could potentially be playable, the FanDuel mark seems high for a pitcher who is still unlikely to post a quality start. Milwaukee bats are in play against Gonsolin if he is allowing contact and free passes, however, they have enough talent to capitalize on those opportunities. Christian Yelich has four home runs and six stolen bases but a 90 WRC+ in the leadoff role over 144 plate appearances. He costs $5,000/$3,200 and is a better buy on FanDuel, but he is playable on both sites on the back of a 54.8% hard-hit rate this year. Jesse Winker has struggled badly so far and he has been relegated to a platoon role. He has zero home runs in 83 plate appearances and just a .043 ISO in one of our bigger whiffs of the season (so far). The lefty has just a 3.7% barrel rate and a 37% hard-hit percentage, it may be wise to drop him in the lineup if he plays at all, but Winker does come cheap for our purposes at $2,900/$2,400. Willy Adames has a 105 WRC+ with six home runs and a .179 ISO this year, which is down from his .220 and .219 of the past two seasons in early returns despite a 13% barrel rate that is identical to last season’s. Adames has dipped from 43.4% hard hits to just 32.6% in what is probably a statistical blip in early samples. The shortstop is a good play at $5,100 on DraftKings and a very good one for just $3,000 on FanDuel when going to Brewers stacks or even as a one-off. Rowdy Tellez has nine home runs with a .295 ISO and 129 WRC+ at first base. He costs just $4,500/$3,200, which is probably too cheap for a sturdy cleanup hitter on the right side of splits. Tellez has a team-leading 7.41 in our home run model, he has a 13% barrel rate and 44.2% hard-hit that nearly match last season’s 12.9% and 45.7%, he is exactly on form so far in 2023. William Contreras has two home runs and a .134 ISO but has created runs 21% better than average with a good contact profile and triple-slash over 110 plate appearances. Brian Anderson has made a good 110 plate appearances so far in 2023 as well, he is slashing .252/.338/.443 with five home runs and a 112 WRC+ though those numbers looked better about 10 days ago. Both hitters can be mixed and matched with the top end, they are good bats who come cheap at $4,300/$2,700 and $3,900/$3,000 at key positions. Brice Turang has five stolen bases but has been 14% below average in creating runs so far this year. Tyrone Taylor has one home run in 19 plate appearances, he hit 17 in 405 opportunities last year and is a cheap sneaky power option when he is lurking late in lineups. Joey Weimer closes out the lineup, he has a 70 WRC+ and two home runs in 112 plate appearances.
Play: Brewers stacks/bats, Freddy Peralta
Update Notes: the Dodgers have Jason Heyward hitting third in 2023, what a world. Will Smith is out of the lineup in a downgrade to Los Angeles, Muncy-Outman-Peralta-Michael Busch-Rojas-Austin Barnes follows, downgrade to the Dodgers as a whole, the top-5 remains playable but does not look as good against Peralta with these changes, minor bump to Peralta. The Brewers lineup is as expected, Winker remains in the second spot.
St. Louis Cardinals (+114/3.37) @ Chicago Cubs (-123/3.70)
The Cardinals and Cubs square off in a Midwestern rivalry game from Wrigley Field tonight, with a pair of veteran right-handed starters who are capable of frustrating MLB DFS scoring on the mound. Home starter Marcus Stroman is the better of the two options in a matchup against struggling St. Louis, but their lineup is still filled with excellent overall hitters and the righty is more of a real-life option than a DFS stud. Storman has been good over his seven starts this year, he has pitched fairly deep into ballgames with a 41.1-inning total so far and he has a 2.18 ERA with a 3.44 xFIP as the more telling mark. The righty has struck out 23.3% of opposing hitters, up several points from the 20.9% and 21.6% from the last two seasons, though there has been little change in his swinging-strike rate with a dip in his CSW%. Stroman has been typically reliable at keeping the ball down this year, his average launch angle allowed is a fantastic 2.1 degrees with a 1.9% barrel rate and just 87.9 mph of average exit velocity, it is difficult to hit home runs against Marcus Stroman. The righty costs $8,800/$9,800, he is not out of play on either site but is probably a better option at the lower DraftKings price. The Cardinals confirmed lineup opens with Lars Nootbaar, who has two home runs and a 137 WRC+ over his 91 opportunities so far this year but has lacked his expected power with just a 5.7% barrel rate and 37.7% hard hit amounting to a .108 ISO in early results. Nootbaar is cheap at $4,300/$3,200, but this is not a strong spot for power. Paul Goldschmidt does not care what anyone says about power upside, he has seven home runs on the season after a massive three-homer day on Sunday and is now creating runs 72% better than average with a .261 ISO and a 59.3% hard-hit rate. Goldschmidt is an elite first baseman in any situation. Nolan Gorman slots in with a .255/.347/.510 triple-slash and a .255 ISO with a 133 WRC+, he has a 15.5% barrel rate and 50.7% hard-hit for the season but he remains too cheap at $4,200/$3,100. Nolan Arenado has scuffled to just .232/.282/.326 over the first month and change of 2023, he has three home runs, a .094 ISO, and just a 68 WRC+ but we simply cannot quit the star third baseman just yet, he has been too good for too long, this is still likely to be just a sustained slump and the hitter is cheap for his upside in a turnaround. Willson Contreras is now a mid-range designated hitter in real life, but he still slots in at catcher and may gain outfield eligibility in the future. His bat is a good one positionally, he is slashing .265/.341/.393 with two home runs and a 107 WRC+ so far this year. Brendan Donovan has three home runs and plays all over the field for this team, giving him a cheap upside at multiple positions on both sites. Dylan Carlson has a 40.9% hard-hit rate with a 9.1% barrel rate for just $2,500/$2,700 over 88 plate appearances, though that amounts to just two home runs and a .123 ISO so far, he hit 18 home runs in 619 plate appearances in 2021 and could be a sneaky option for power late in the lineup, but Stroman does not give up much in that arena. Andrew Knizner had a nice day at the plate on Sunday, but it remains a flawed approach to have two catchers in the lineup for St. Louis in the long term.
Miles Mikolas takes the mound for the Cardinals and he looks like more of a target for bats. Mikolas has a 19.4% strikeout rate with a 4.37 xFIP and a 1.66 WHIP so far this season, his 5.79 ERA is inflated however, the pitcher is more of a league-average arm in the long term. Mikolas had a 3.29 ERA and 3.80 xFIP with a 19% strikeout rate over 202.1 innings in 32 starts in 2022, for example. The starter costs just $6,000/$7,300, he has the ability to pitch deep into a game and find a touch of upside, but he also has been allowing premium contact and could feed right into Cubs’ power bats in this matchup. Mikolas has coughed up a 10.9% barrel rate with a 41.1% hard-hit rate, 90.7 mph of average exit velocity, and a 4.0% home run rate in 2023, all of which are higher than normal for the righty. The Cubs have been a regular fixture in this space early this year. Chicago’s strong lineup has a very interesting mix of hitters who do a bit of everything at the plate. The projected lineup includes Nico Hoerner who has created runs nine percent better than average in 161 plate appearances this year. The second baseman has struck out just 10.6% of the time and he was at an 11% rate last year, he has 12 stolen bases this season after swiping 20 in 517 plate appearances last year. Hoerner does not hit for much power but he did knock 10 over the wall last year and two so far this year, he is a good leadoff man and correlated scoring play, but $5,900 is a major premium for this player on DraftKings. He costs $3,700 on FanDuel, which is also pricey but seems more playable. Dansby Swanson costs just $5,000/$3,100, he has two home runs and three stolen bases with a 112 WRC+ and is the better of these two options at a lower price. Swanson has a long track record of production, he hits home runs, steals bases, and creates runs at a great pace and is rarely as popular as he should be in MLB DFS tournaments. Ian Happ has created runs 47% better than average over 146 plate appearances this year after posting a 120 WRC+ in 641 plate appearances last year. Happ is not a star, but he is a very good everyday player with a sharp bat and strong contact profile. This season he has an 11.1% barrel rate and 40% hard-hit rate, last year he hit 17 home runs with his 6.5% barrel rate and 40.2% hard-hit, there is upside beyond the four homers he has hit already this season if that level of premium contact keeps up, and Happ is always involved and on base for this team. Seiya Suzuki costs just $4,700/$2,800, too cheap for his talent level. Over 90 plate appearances he has hit one home run with a .099 ISO this year and was at 14 homers in 446 plate appearances with a .171 ISO last year but his 11% barrel rate tells a story of a better power hitter than what we have seen to this point. Suzuki should be involved at a fair price for Chicago if he is in the lineup tonight. Cody Bellinger is slashing .300/.368/.567 with seven home runs, a 149 WRC+, and a .267 ISO while striking out at a 19.1% clip. The strikeout rate has climbed by a few percentage points since we last looked in, Bellinger needs to keep that below, let’s say 22% for the season to keep his strong comeback in gear. For tonight he is a good option at $4,800/$4,200, the FanDuel price is probably high enough to keep the public away from the former MVP tonight as well. Trey Mancini has three home runs and a sturdy triple-slash but has created runs 12% below average over his 121 plate appearances. Rookie Matt Mervis has made just 14 plate appearances so far, he is our home run pick from the Cubs tonight for what will be the first of probably many in his career. Mervis destroyed minor league pitching over the last year and change, he costs just $2,200/$2,300 and is a great option at first base in this lineup. Patrick Wisdom slots in at third base for $4,900 on DraftKings and he adds outfield eligibility for $3,700 on FanDuel. Wisdom has hit 11 home runs with a .358 ISO and a 139 WRC+, typically from late in the lineup at low popularity this season. Tucker Barnhart is a low-end inexpensive catcher at the end of the projected batting order.
Play: Cubs bats/stacks, some Marcus Stroman, Mikolas only for SP2 tournament value with low expectations
Update Notes: the Cardinals lineup was confirmed on the first pass, and the Cubs lineup is confirmed as anticipated.
Houston Astros (-119/4.72) @ Los Angeles Angels (4.38)
Southpaw Patrick Sandoval is on the bump for the hometown Angels tonight, he has had a bumpy start to his 2023 with a 2.93 ERA but a 4.70 xFIP and just a 17.9% strikeout rate with an 11.2% walk rate over six starts and 30.2 innings. Sandoval was better last season and in 2021, he had 23.7% strikeout rate in 27 starts and 148.2 innings last year and a 25.9% rate in 87 innings the year before. The lefty has been keeping power in check this season, with just a 1.49% home run rate and 85.5 mph of average exit velocity allowed, which aligns with his past performance as well, this is a pitcher who is fairly adept at limiting premium contact, while he is not a major strikeout option in his current form he is still inducing an 11.9% swinging-strike rate with a 28% CSW%, both numbers are down year-over-year but still healthy enough to increase expectations beyond his to-date production. Sandoval is a lower-end option, he is not a recommendation, but he is not unplayable even against this very good Astros lineup. Houston’s projected lineup includes the typical configuration with Mauricio Dubon leading off with just an 85 WRC+ in his 127 plate appearances. Dubon started out fairly strong filling in for Jose Altuve, but he has worn out his welcome atop this lineup at this point. He costs $3,600/$2,700 as a correlated scoring play. Alex Bregman is cheap at $4,400/$2,900, he has four home runs but an anemic .195/.322/.320 triple-slash and has been 13% below average in creating runs. Yordan Alvarez is a superstar, even against a fellow lefty who limits power he is very much in play on both sites. Alvarez has seven home runs with a .265 ISO and a 154 WRC+, he should be in most Astros stacks. This is also true of Kyle Tucker, both left-handed outfielders do not lose very much against same-handed pitching, they should not be skipped simply by virtue of the starter’s pitching hand, but they tend to dip in popularity in the split. Tucker costs $5,100/$3,200 tonight, he is a good buy when rostering Astros in bunches. Jose Abreu slots in between the two, he is still searching for his first home run of the year, or any quality at all for that matter. The former star has created runs 52% worse than average in 143 plate appearances with Houston so far this season. Jeremy Pena slots in behind Tucker, he has six home runs and six stolen bases while creating runs four percent better than average with a .201 ISO. Pena is in play as an upside shortstop for just $4,500/$3,200. Corey Julks and Martin Maldonado are moderate options from late in the lineup but both have been below average for run creation so far this year. If Chas McCormick is in the lineup he is our top bat from the bottom third. McCormick is never popular enough, typically comes cheap, and has a very good bat at the plate. He has two home runs and four stolen bases with a .225 ISO and 147 WRC+ over 48 plate appearances in 2023.
The Angels are at home to face a rookie hurler tonight, but Hunter Brown is no ordinary rookie, in fact few rookie starters seem to be like rookies these days. Brown arrived fully formed, he has made six starts and thrown 34.2 innings this season and is yet to cough up a home run. He has a sparkling 2.60 ERA with a “good but not as good” 3.80 xFIP hiding under the surface, and he is sporting a 25.7% strikeout rate with an 11.3% swinging-strike rate and a 28.3% CSW%. Brown’s faults have come in allowing too many free passes, his walk rate sits at 10.7% in the small sample, and giving up a bit of premium contact, but it has hardly hurt him to this point. The righty has yielded a 41.9% hard-hit rate with 89.6 mph of average exit velocity in his six starts, but he has kept barrels to just 3.5% and the ever-important launch angle to just 5.7 degrees. While average launch angle is a wonky stat for hitters, lazy “can of corn” flyballs to the outfield can skew hitters’ averages badly, for example, they are more telling for pitchers and their consistency in keeping the ball in the yard. This is a sustained trait for Brown as well, he was always good at limiting home runs in his brief minor league tenure. Of course, the Angels have some extraordinary power on their side, and three of their hitters are over the 10.0 mark in our model. It should be no mystery which three hitters those are at this point in the season, Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and Hunter Renfroe have massive power between them, they are at 16.99, 15.02, and 13.54 in our home run model. So far this season, Trout has hit eight home runs and has a .260 ISO, Ohtani has hit seven and has a .217, and Renfroe has eight from a bit later in the lineup, where he has been mashing to the tune of a .254 ISO this season. The trio hits everything hard, they are all between a 48 and 49% hard-hit rate and both Trout and Ohtani barrel the ball with regularity at a 15.6% and 13.2% rate. Renfroe has been slightly below that with a 7.7% but it has not hurt him, he was at 10.9% with a 43.3% hard-hit last year, so he is hitting the ball hard with more consistency despite fewer barrels. Zach Neto lacks for significant power in the leadoff role, he has zero home runs and a .056 ISO in his 82 plate appearances, he is a good hitter in theory but has not found his form yet, Neto is a correlated scoring play at best right now. Anthony Rendon got on the home run train over the weekend! The third baseman now has one for the season and is sporting just a .070 ISO, but he has created runs 26% better than average while slashing .291/.418/.360 with a 40.3% hard-hit rate and a 10.9% strikeout rate. Rendon is not nearly done at the plate, if the power decides to stick around this is another dangerous upside bat for MLB DFS, he is already a good correlated scoring play. Rendon hits between Trout-Ohtani and Renfroe in the cleanup role most days and he is still cheap at $4,100/$3,000. Taylor Ward has four home runs in 151 plate appearances but has been below average for run creation and has just a .116 ISO this year, taking away two of his primary attributes from last season’s breakout. Ward’s barrel rate has slipped from 12.1% to 6.9% but he is at 8.83 in our home run model today, joining Brandon Drury who is at 8.89 in the seventh spot in the projected lineup as an interesting option for a home run late in the batting order. Matt Thaiss has a 5.29, he has one home run in 46 plate appearances at the bottom of the lineup but has been productive for runs since filling in for injured Logan O’Hoppe. Luis Rengifo has sneaky power late in the lineup, he is a better option than Gio Urshela at the pate. Rengifo has two home runs and a .089 ISO so far this year, but he hit 17 homers with a .166 last season. This is a very interesting matchup, Brown has been very good on the mound but the Angels lineup is loaded with premium bats and is difficult to navigate, they may not be the top overall stack when it comes to run total and sequencing tonight, but they could be a good source of low-owned one-offs with upside for big individual MLB DFS scores.
Play: Angels bats/stacks, Hunter Brown, Astros bats/stacks in smaller doses, Sandoval as a low-end SP2
Update Notes: Taylor Ward returns to the top of the Angels lineup, Neto drops to ninth, upgrade to Ward and minor bump to the top end overall, downgrade to Neto, Urshela is hitting eighth instead of Rengifo who will take a seat.
Texas Rangers (+152/3.32) @ Seattle Mariners (-166/4.27)
Texas is creating more runs per game than any team in baseball after a big weekend. The team has been excellent for power and all but one of the hitters in tonight’s protected lineup are above average by WRC+ this season, this has been a very good baseball team even in the absence of Corey Seager. The Rangers will be facing stiff competition on the mound tonight, with Logan Gilbert taking the start for the hometown Mariners in what should be a very good series to open the week. Gilbert has a 29.6% strikeout rate with a 3.02 xFIP and 4.01 ERA over six starts and 33.2 innings this season. The righty struck out 22.7% last year and 25.4% the season before in 185.2 and 119.1 innings respectively, he has been very good since entering the league and has shown improvement each step of the way. Gilbert is inducing a 10.7% swinging strike rate and he has a 28% CSW% while walking just 5.2%, posting a 1.07 WHIP, and limiting barrels to 4.5% and home runs to 2.96% in early returns this year. The righty projects in the upper middle of our pitching board this evening, Gilbert is the more expensive of the two pitching options in this game, he costs $9,000/$9,500 while Rangers’ starter Jon Gray checks in at just $7,700/$7,800 on the back of a slow start to his season. Gray has made six starts and he has just a 14.5% strikeout rate and a 10.7% walk rate. This is a pitcher who had a 25.7% strikeout rate with a 7.5% walk rate in 127.1 innings last year and a 24.4% strikeout rate the season before, though walks were similarly up that year in Colorado. The righty struck out seven in his first start this season but has not been above four since then and has struck out only two in each of his last four starts. Gray has been pitching into the fifth and sixth inning, and he has not been destroyed for runs so far this season, but the absence of strikeouts has been a concern for a starter who needs them to find his MLB DFS quality. Gray could post an interesting-enough score at his low price in a matchup against the free-swinging Mariners lineup, but with questions about his current form, it seems less than likely tonight. Gilbert is justifiably priced and he is the better of these two pitching options, tough matchup or not.
The Rangers lineup can be deployed and could be a bit low-owned if the public is seeing Gilbert like the good option that he is. Texas has been excellent so far this season, the lineup has a 127 WRC+ on average, with Robbie Grossman as the one below-average player so far this season at a 91 WRC+. Everyone else has been better than average creating runs this year, and the team offers a good mix of power and speed. Marcus Semien is a pricey but good option at $6,100/$4,000, he has five home runs with a .180 ISO and a 136 WRC+ with four stolen bases and a reliably ability to put the ball in play and hit for power. The second baseman has not been barreling the ball in quite as many of his batted-ball events so far this year, but the power upside should roar back to life soon enough and he has been otherwise very good. Travis Jankowski provides some speed and correlated scoring in the second spot in the lineup, he has five steals and a 125 WRC+ over his 77 plate appearances and he is still a very cheap player who helps offset the cost of Semien. Nathaniel Lowe has four home runs and a .169 ISO but has created runs 16% better than average despite a dip in his triple slash from last year’s excellent numbers. Lowe was rolling early in the season, so this is probably the result of a leveling effect from a lower-end week or two, he slashed .302/.358/.492 with a .191 ISO and 27 homers last year, he is at .262/.345/.431 so far this year but he is walking more and striking out less. Adolis Garcia is a premium power and speed option, he stole his second base of the season recently and had 25 last year with 27 home runs, his power has been on display early this year with nine home runs and a .260 ISO. Josh Jung has a 12.2% barrel rate and a 41.5% hard-hit for the season, with eight home runs and a .242 ISO, he is inexpensive at $4,000 on DraftKings, and $3,800 on FanDuel feels more appropriate right now. Jonah Heim has six home runs in 112 plate appearances while slashing .313/.384/.566 and creating runs 61% better than average. He is an excellent catcher play for $4,000/$3,600 on both sites. Ezequiel Duran has outprocued Grossman and Leody Taveras late in the lineup. Duran is slashing .318/.348/.506 with four home runs and two stolen bases in his 89 plate appearances. Taveras has been good for run creation in his limited opportunities, he has a 132 WRC+ with two steals in 78 plate appearances. On the other side of the contest, the Mariners have a very good lineup that should take advantage of Gray’s lack of strikeouts if he comes out in that form again tonight. Based on the starter’s struggles the Mariners’ lineup looks like the better option. Julio Rodriguez leads off, he is slashing a disappointing .216/.286/.410 with a 96 WRC+ but he has six home runs and six stolen bases, which is becoming a familiar refrain when it comes to last year’s Rookie of the Year. Ty France has dipped in quality as well, but he still has a 110 WRC+ despite slashing .262/.352/.365 with a .103 ISO. France is cheap and his hit tool is better than this with underrated power as well, he costs just $3,800/$2,700 at first base. Jarred Kelenic has seven home runs and a .272 ISO with a 158 WRC+ in 126 plate appearances, he costs $4,500/$3,400 as a good power option in the outfield tonight. Eugenio Suarez is at an 8.58 in our home run model, he has just three and a .109 ISO on the season in a very strange start, but his barrel rate has climbed back to 9.1%, hopefully on its way to last season’s 14.8%, and he has a 44.3% hard-hit rate. Suarez should start hitting for power soon enough. Cal Raleigh seems to hit exclusively for power. The catcher has five home runs and a .210 ISO while creating runs seven percent ahead of the league average so far this year. Teoscar Hernandez has seven home runs but he is slashing just .226/.268/.421 and needs to start getting on base more regularly. Hernandez slashed .267/.316/.491 with a 129 WRC+ and .224 ISO in a better year last season, he should turn things around in the triple-slash to a degree and the power is still here. Hernandez has a 13.8% barrel rate with a 46% hard-hit mark on the season. JP Crawford and Jose Caballero are minor plays in the infield at cheap prices, Taylor Trammell is an interesting cheap outfielder who has two home runs on the board in just 19 plate appearances this year.
Play: Logan Gilbert, Mariners bats/stacks, Rangers bats/stacks, value-based Jon Gray if you believe in the turnaround
Update Notes: the Mariners lineup is confirmed in the expected configuration.
Miami Marlins (+179/3.57) @ Arizona Diamondbacks (-196/5.03)
We are probably not making a big splash in the day’s MLB DFS pool of analysis by saying that the Marlins are not a strong stack against Zac Gallen tonight and that the pitcher should be rostered against the low-end team from Miami in a home start. The Marlins check in with a 3.57-run implied total against a Diamondbacks lineup that is implied for about 1.5 runs more. Gallen has been filthy to start the season, he has a 35.2% strikeout rate in seven starts and 42.2 innings, posting a 2.53 ERA and a dazzling 2.22 xFIP with a 0.84 WHIP, a tidy 3.1% walk rate, and just a 1.23% home run rate on a 5.1% barrel rate. The righty has been very very good in 2023 and it seems somewhat safe to say that he has probably made another leap in a career full of them. Gallen costs $10,200 on DraftKings which is probably not expensive enough, he is a great option even at $11,300 on FanDuel tonight. The Marlins’ active roster is 24th in baseball with an 83 WRC+ and 26th with a .118 ISO against righties this year, Gallen is primed for a monster tonight. If choosing to roster low-end Marlins, focus on the top of the lineup including struggling Jazz Chisholm Jr. who has a 79 WRC+ in 138 plate appearances but does come with five homers and 11 steals in his ledger so far; Jorge Soler who can take anyone deep and has seven home runs in 134 tries in 2023; Luis Arraez who will win the National League batting crown this year; and Jesus Sanchez, who hits from the left side and has two home runs with a .175 ISO in 65 plate appearances and has the idea of power upside as a young outfield bat. Yuli Gurriel is not a young anything but the former AL batting champ can be mixed and matched for just $2,600/$2,400 if going to Marlins. Bryan De La Cruz, Jean Segura, Nick Fortes, and Jon Berti round out what is probably the bottom-ranked stack of the night.
The Diamondbacks are pulling in one of the night’s highest implied team totals against lefty Braxton Garrett, who has a 5.81 ERA with a much better 4.00 xFIP under the surface in his five starts and 26.1 innings this year. Garrett has struck out just 18.2% of opposing hitters, but he was at 24.1% over 88 innings and 17 outings last year. He has allowed a massive amount of premium contact, however, which seems like a good tiebreaker for the current form. The southpaw has yielded a 9.7% barrel rate with 48.4% hard hits and a 91.4 mph average exit velocity leading to a 4.13% home run rate this year. The Arizona lineup has several premium right-handed power hitters who can capitalize on that sort of contact. Ketel Marte is leading off, he has five home runs and a .241 ISO with a 120 WRC+ hitting from either side of the plate. Marte costs $5,400/$3,200, his price on DraftKings is easily averaged down by other bats in this lineup. Emmanuel Rivera has made 28 productive appearances this year, posting a home run with a 178 WRC+ in the tiny sample, he had a 95 WRC+ and hit 12 home runs in a more representative sample of 359 plate appearances last year and he comes cheap at first base or third base on DraftKings for $3,100 while slotting in as a $2,800 third baseman on FanDuel. Lourdes Gurriel has created runs 37% better than average and now has five home runs with a .212 ISO for the season in a nice return to form that also has him slashing .310/.363/.522 for just $4,100/$2,800. Christian Walker has eight home runs and a .250 ISO after rocketing back to form over the last couple of weeks. Walker is still cheap at $4,300 on DraftKings, the blue site has caught up at $3,500, but he is still easily playable, particularly so with the cheap price on Gurriel in a stack. Evan Longoria slots in fifth in the projected lineup, the veteran has three home runs but not much else this season, but he is highly capable of crushing a mistake from a left-handed pitcher. Corbin Carroll hits on the left side of the plate but he has been excellent to start the year, posting five home runs while creating runs 53% better than average, the Diamondbacks need him to play every day, so there should be no platoon concerns for the premium rookie. Nick Ahmed, Gabriel Moreno, and Alek Thomas round out the projected lineup.
Play: Zac Gallen aggressively, Diamondbacks stacks
Update Notes:
Washington Nationals (+190/3.50) @ San Francisco Giants (-209/5.10)
Righty starter Anthony DeSclafani is a different animal from site to site tonight. The roughly league-average hurler checks in at $8,100 on the DraftKings slate, making him a superb value play in this matchup. On FanDuel, he is a $10,200 option that is the second-most expensive pitcher on the entire slate, though this cakewalk matchup may warrant it. DeSclafani is good for MLB DFS purposes on the back of innings pitched alone, the righty has pitched into the sixth and beyond in all but one of his six starts this season, with strikeout totals ranging from just three in an eight-inning three-hit shutout performance against the high-end Astros last time out, to seven in his second start of the year against Kansas City. Overall, the righty settles in at a 20.8% strikeout rate with a 3.44 xFIP and a 0.82 WHIP with a shiny 2.13 ERA in 38 innings over six starts. DeSclafani can bend a slate against this Nationals team even if he does not post a monster strikeout total, this is a good option for value on DraftKings and for a win and quality start bonus on FanDuel, he is a playable piece tonight across the industry. The Nationals’ non-threatening lineup has Stone Garrett in the projected ninth spot, where the team tends to put their lone productive player, typically Victor Robles who is out of the projected lineup tonight. Garrett sports a good 48.6% hard-hit rate and a 103 ISO in 55 plate appearances, he hit four home runs in 84 plate appearances in a cup of coffee in 2022. The rest of the lineup has been below average for run creation. Lane Thomas leads off with three home runs and a 96 WRC+ with a .125 ISO. Luis Garcia follows between Thomas and catcher Keibert Ruiz. Garcia is slashing .271/.316/.421 with a .150 ISO and 97 WRC+ in 117 opportunities. Ruiz is a viable catcher at a low price on most slates, he has three home runs this season but just an 85 WRC+ and a .123 ISO. Joey Meneses has struggled to find his overall form, he has three home runs with his triple-slash at .277/.301/.362 with a .085 ISO. Meneses does have a 50.9% hard-hit rate however, he could be a sneaky power option but DeSclafani has not made many mistakes this year and the young hitter is an aggressive swinger. Jeimer Candelario has four home runs and a 75 WRC+ in 138 plate appearances, Dominic Smith has been worse with just one longball and a 76 WRC+ in 131 tries. Alex Call and CJ Abrams slot in with 130 and 118 plate appearances respectively. They have combined for five home runs and have a 79 and 87 WRC+. this is a lousy team, the odds are firmly with DeSclafani.
The nightcap in San Francisco is another strong-looking spot to find a home run or two. The Nationals will have righty Jake Irvin on the mound for his second start ever. Irvin is not a premium rookie, he is ranked in the teens organizationally and has only average-looking stuff. Irvin’s first start was a 4.1-inning affair against the Cubs, he allowed just one earned run on two hits and did not yield a home run, but he struck out only three and walked four. The Giants, meanwhile, are a team with stout power bats from top to bottom, that will play platoon games against the young starter. San Francisco’s projected lineup opens with underrated LaMonte Wade Jr. who has six home runs while slashing .258/.436/.517 with a .258 ISO and creating runs 65% better than average in his 119 plate appearances. Wade slots in for just $3,200 at first base or in the outfield on DraftKings, he is a $3,000 first baseman on FanDuel and is carrying an 8.64 in our home run model. Thairo Estrada checks in with six home runs of his own this season, he hit 14 in 541 plate appearances during his breakout 2022 campaign, so this represents a pace uptick early in the season. Estrada has just a seven percent barrel rate and a 33% hard-hit however, so he is capitalizing on the few premium batted-ball events he has had. The infielder has been excellent across the board however, even if he does not hit one over the wall he has major value with a .346/.399/.543 triple-slash and a 160 WRC+. Estrada’s price is creeping up on DraftKings, where he is a $5,300 option at second base or shortstop, he is a $3,400 option at the same positions on the blue site. Estrada has an 8.36 in our home run model tonight, while slugger JD Davis slots into the third spot in the lineup with a similarly high power projection. Davis has seven home runs so far this season, posting a .235 ISO while creating runs 38% better than average. He has a 10.3% barrel rate and a 52.9% hard-hit percentage, both things he has always done very well. As we said at the season’s outset, all this hitter ever needed was a chance, he has the contact profile of a premium power hitter and he is finally able to deliver regularly. Davis costs just $3,700/$3,000 at third base. Joc Pederson is a left-handed masher who typically tattoos terrible righties, he has a team-leading 11.94 in the home run model tonight, though he has hit only three in his 83 plate appearances after missing time early this season. Pederson’s 15.4% barrel rate is in line with expectations however, the contact is there so the power will come, it is a simple enough equation. Pederson has a good chance for MLB DFS points output tonight for just $4,000/$3,000 in the outfield, joining teammate Mitch Haniger, who has a matching .194 ISO and two home runs in his 39 opportunities this year. Haniger’s main problem is always staying healthy, when he is on the field he is essentially a star. In his last full season, 2021, Haniger hit 39 home runs with a .232 ISO and a 120 WRC+ over 691 plate appearances, he has big-time power and is carrying a 10.63 in our home run model. Another good left-handed power hitter lurks late in the lineup wearing the skin and uniform of Michael Conforto. So far the outfielder has four home runs with a 10% barrel rate and 50% hard-hit, as well as a strong 13.2% walk rate, but he has struggled across the board with everything else after missing all of last season. Conforto is slashing just .175/.298/.309 with a .134 ISO and he is flailing somewhat with a 32.5% strikeout rate. The outfielder is cheap and he is still in possession of upside at the plate, he costs $3,400/$2,800 and is a good way to keep price and popularity down in Giants stacks. Joey Bart is slashing .280/.346/.360 in 55 plate appearances but he has shown no power this season. The backstop managed 11 home runs with a .149 ISO in 291 plate appearances last year, so he is not bereft of power at $2,400/$2,300. Bart is a better play where catchers are required. Brett Wisely lands in the eighth spot in the projected lineup, he has one home run in 36 plate appearances and is not thought of as much of a power bat in the long term, he is a mix-and-match piece at most. Lefty Cal Stevenson lands in the last spot in the lineup, he made 71 plate appearances and hit no home runs with a 47 WRC+ last year and has done nothing of note in 10 opportunities this year, but neither sample is remotely fair. The 26-year-old’s career high for home runs in the minors is nine in 365 plate appearances while in Tampa Bay’s system at AA in 2021. The focus is on spots 1-7 in the Giants lineup if it is confirmed in this form.
Play: Giants bats/stacks aggressively, Anthony DeSclafani
Update Notes:
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