After a rip-roaring Tuesday night slate that had a bit of everything, including a dynamite debut from baseball’s next big thing in Cincinnati, the Wednesday slate gets rolling at 7:05 ET with another loaded 10-game affair lined up. The pitching tonight is lighter than what was available yesterday, the Dodgers are drawing another monster run total in Cincinnati, and there is a ridiculous-looking Coors Field game in play, as well as a few pitchers who are easily targeted with less popular bats. The pitching board features a pair of aces, but they’re looking a little worn with the corners bent and years of finger smudges around the edges at the moment. The rest of the slate is short on even B-level starters, with only two or three options potentially qualifying for that mantle. This has all the makings of a slate on which to spread out shares to some of the same-same mid-range pitchers to unlock value potential while accessing combinations of hitters that are not available to the most expensive pitching combinations.
Join us at 4:00 ET for a LIVE Game-by-Game breakdown:
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, so if a game has not been filled in, check back in a few minutes. Update notes are provided as lineups are confirmed to the best of our ability. Still, 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 Strategy Snapshot – 6/7/23
Chicago White Sox (+105/4.44) @ New York Yankees (-113/4.65)
Does outside taste like burnt maple syrup at your house too? The White Sox and Yankees will get the slate underway again tonight in the smoky Bronx. The odd haze lingering over the stadium, and a wide swath of the continent, is probably not the best environment for athletic exertion, but the league seems unconcerned. The Yankees are looking to rookie right-hander Randy Vasquez in this start. The 24-year-old righty has made one start at the MLB level in his career, a 4.2-inning outing in which he struck out six Padres while walking three and allowing two runs on four hits, including a home run. Vasquez was not exactly blowing hitters away over 10 starts in AAA, he has a 4.70 xFIP and 5.3 ERA with a 25.1% strikeout rate and an 11.9% walk rate in the sample and was at a 4.10 xFIP with a 3.90 ERA and a 24.2% strikeout rate over 115.1 innings in AA last year. Vasquez is filling in for injured big leaguers, he will have a short leash on the mound and will probably exit the game before any chance to book a quality start, with even win-depth in jeopardy. Vasquez costs $4,000/$5,500, the price on DraftKings puts him in undeniable value range, even in a short start he has upside for a handful of strikeouts and enough MLB DFS points to pay off the cheap hitter price. On FanDuel, the value is there, but the depth is not. On a fairly short slate, if the higher-end expensive pitchers do not fully reach their ceilings there is room for a play of this nature that can buy two additional bats. Vasquez is an unlikely but open path to success. The White Sox seem likey to get to the young pitcher, even with Vegas only landing at a 4.44-run implied team total. Chicago’s scuffling lineup has several hitters who we know are excellent over the long term, there is inexpensive potential in rostering shares of Chicago stacks. Tim Anderson leads off, he has an uncharacteristic 73 WRC+ and a .277 batting average over 186 plate appearances, but his hard-hit rate is up three points year-over-year, his barrel rate is slightly down but it was never very high, and his strikeout rate is up three points but remains strong at 18.3%. Anderson is getting somewhat unlucky at the plate, his still very strong batting average on balls in play is down significantly from the past few seasons, he should ultimately come around for quality and he is cheap at the top of this lineup. Andrew Benintendi hits from the left side and has done very little at the plate this year. His 90 WRC+ is ineffectual because he is a player who relies on correlated scoring, Benintendi is supposed to get on base and create runs when others knock him in, he has very little individual power, so if he is not hitting for average and drawing walks, he it not producing. Luis Robert Jr. has 13 home runs and a .247 ISO with a 12.2% barrel rate. The dangerous outfielder is an excellent option for a home run tonight at 14.64 in our model, he is the beating heart of the White Sox lineup and should be in most stacks of this team’s hitters. Eloy Jimenez has five home runs and a 101 WRC+ in 140 plate appearances and we just hope he plays every day healthy the rest of the season. Jimenez is cheap with power upside at $4,300/$3,400. Yoan Moncada and Andrew Vaughn are quality professional hitters deep in the lineup for Chicago at cheap prices. Moncada costs $3,700/$2,900, he has a pair of home runs but just an 88 WRC+ in his 123 plate appearances; Vaughn costs $3,600/$3,300 and has seven home runs with a 110 WRC+ in 255 plate appearances. Yasmani Grandal, Gavin Sheets, and Elvis Andrus close out the projected lineup, with two-homer hero Seby Zavala taking a seat after last night’s ridiculous outburst. Sheets is the most likely option from this group, the lefty has inconsistent power with seven home runs on the board and a 9.46 in our home run model.
The White Sox have veteran Lance Lynn on the hill tonight. The righty benefits greatly from the lack of superstar Aaron Judge, who hit the injured list with toe ouchies after smashing his foot into a wall while making a terrific catch over the weekend. Lynn will see a weakened version of an already mediocre lineup filled with flawed hitters and backups, but there are also a few stars and high-end options with whom he will have to tangle, including one of the best pure power hitters of his generation. Lynn has a 25.1% strikeout rate over 12 starts and 67.1 innings this year, and he has probably been better than the general public perception. With a 6.55 ERA on the surface, it is easy to write Lynn off as washed, but his 4.06 xFIP is a far more honest number for runs, and his 12% swinging-strike rate is right where we want it. Lynn has given up a bit of power so far this year on a few mistakes, he has a 9.1% barrel rate and 4.95% home run rate allowed, and his last start was ugly with three home runs coughed up to the Angels while striking out four and allowing eight runs in 4.0 innings. Prior to that, Lynn had made several strong starts in a row, he has had a few very ugly days this season, but at $8,700/$8,200 the veteran righty is very much in play across the MLB DFS industry in this matchup. The Yankees lineup will open with Gleyber Torres, who is entrenched in the leadoff role and has adapted by hitting for less power and fewer hard-hits but cutting his strikeout rate by 10 points year-over-year and focusing on putting the ball in play. This has had mixed results, Torres still has nine home runs on the season, but most of those came early in the year in a different role. He has a 108 WRC+ and a .328 on-base percentage, neither of which are truly elevated enough for what he should be producing in this spot, or for $5,300 on DraftKings. Torres has a bit more appeal at $3,200 on FanDuel, he should be played frequently when stacking Yankees in numerous lineups but he is only a mid-range option. Giancarlo Stanton has generational power at the plate, very few in the history of the sport have hit the ball as hard as Stanton when he is healthy, which has always been the handicap. Stanton has five home runs and a .302 ISO in 66 plate appearances this year, he is cheap at $4,700/$3,700 and has a 13.17 in our home run model, he makes a fine one-off and belongs in most stacks of Yankees. Anthony Rizzo should be the next click after Stanton in basically any stack of Yankees bats, Rizzo is the next-best hitter in the lineup for power and the best hitter overall. The first baseman is slashing .289/.363/.477 with a .188 ISO and 11 home runs in 245 plate appearances and is probably still playing through some pain after his injury last week. Josh Donaldson has four home runs in 29 plate appearances this year, three since coming back just last week after a long trip to the IL. The third baseman is inexpensive at $3,200/$2,900, he hit 15 home runs in 546 plate appearances last year and 26 in 543 the season before and is basically an all-or-nothing play for power these days. Anthony Volpe strikes out far too much at 31% for the season, he has nine home runs and 14 stolen bases but has been wholly unreliable at the plate in his rookie year. Volpe is slashing a miserable .191/.268/.358 with a .167 ISO and he has been 26% worse than average in creating runs. The shortstop is at least cheap and, assuming he hits in the heart of the lineup again, he should be a high-volume option in stacks. Willie Calhoun, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jose Trevino, and Jake Bauers round out the projected lineup. Bauers is the most interesting option with power on the left side of the plate, he and Volpe should switch places in this lineup.
Play: Lance Lynn, White Sox bats/stacks, value shares of Randy Vasquez, minor shares of Yankees bats
Update Notes: This game has been postponed due to wildfires in Canada. Also, climate change is real and problematic.
Arizona Diamondbacks (-115/5.19) @ Washington Nationals (+106/4.92)
After a big day at the plate that was highly predictable yesterday, the Diamondbacks are back in action with a 5.01-run implied total against Nationals’ lefty Patrick Corbin. The southpaw has just a 14% strikeout rate with a 4.92 ERA and 4.48 xFIP over 67.2 innings in 12 starts this season. Corbin has not been as lousy for power the last season and change as he was in 2021 when he allowed a 4.93% home run rate. This year his barrel rate has dropped from 9.2% two years ago and 11% last year to just 8.8% this season, but he is still yielding a 45.8% hard-hit rate with a massive 91.1 mph of average exit velocity, both of which are up from last year. His home run rate is 3.67%, down slightly from the 3.79% he posted last year while pitching to a 6.31 ERA and 4.21 xFIP over 31 starts and 152.2 innings. Ultimately, with a hard-hitting Diamondbacks squad in town, all of the contact that Corbin allows should play well for sequencing and run creation, if not home run upside, which the Diamondbacks are flashing up and down the lineup. Corbin costs $7,200/$7,800 across sites, he is not unplayable at those prices, but he is not one of our preferred options and rates in the middle of the ugly pitching board. The Diamondbacks lineup is looking juicy for stacks today. The projected version has Ketel Marte up top, the switch-hitter has nine home runs and six stolen bases with a 115 WRC+ and .200 ISO over 250 mostly strong plate appearances this year and he puts the ball in play regularly with just a 16.4% strikeout rate. Marte is a perfect hitter to throw at Corbin off the top of the deck, he is followed in the projected lineup by Emmanel Rivera, who is slashing .348/.383/.461 with a 131 WRC+ and just a 10.6% strikeout rate in his 94 plate appearances. Rivera hit 12 home runs while striking out 23.1% of the time in 359 plate appearances last year, there is upside if he ascends to this spot in the confirmed lineup. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has nine home runs while slashing .310/.359/.550 with a .240 ISO and 144 WRC+ in a terrific return to form that the MLB DFS sites refuse to acknowledge. Gurriel still costs just $4,000/$3,400 in the outfield, he is a great buy today with an 8.47 in our home run model. Christian Walker leads the team at 12.22 in the home run model, he has a dozen on the season with a .226 ISO and a 112 WRC+, Walker can get involved even when he is not hitting the ball over the wall, the productive slugger has just a 19.2% strikeout rate this year and was at just 19.6% last year, he is not an all-or-nothing free swinger. Evan Longoria is our overall home run pick for the day, the veteran masher specializes in a platoon role against lefties today and this is a strong matchup for him. Longoria has eight home runs and a .289 ISO in just 104 plate appearances this season, he is carrying a 15.4% barrel rate and 56.9% hard-hit rate in the sample, but costs just $2,800/$2,700 in this spot because he does not play every day. Corbin Carroll is a star who drops in the lineup against lefties, he is worthwhile for $5,500/$3,700, particularly when the team chases Corbin early. Nick Ahmed is playable as a very cheap low-end mix-in to round out a stack, but Gabriel Moreno and Jake McCarthy are better options below him, and Geraldo Perdomo would probably be as well.
The Nationals draw Zach Davies, which has them sitting at a 4.60-run implied team total with the chance to get involved in MLB DFS scoring again. The low-end starter is facing a bad lineup that is significantly better against lefties, which was the situation in which the predictable right-handed hitters in their lineup delivered some value early last night. Davies is a right-handed veteran who is here primarily to eat innings as the Diamondbacks grow their talent pool. He has a 17.1% strikeout rate, an 11% walk rate, and a 5.40 ERA with a 4.87 xFIP in his limited four starts and 18.1 innings this year. One could chalk those results up to small samples or early output, but they are truly very much in line with what Davies always does. Over 27 starts last year, the righty had a 4.09 ERA and 4.58 xFIP with a 17.9% strikeout rate in 134.1 innings. Nationals hitters are affordable and there is enough production to justify at least a few shares against a contact-oriented pitcher like Davies, but it is not a great spot on a deep slate. Lane Thomas is the most playable Washington bat, he hit his ninth home run last night and has a 115 WRC+ over 252 plate appearances. Luis Garcia has an 89 WRC+ with five homers and three steals, he costs $4,000/$3,000 as a semi-effective infielder. Jeimer Candelario is better for power upside on this side of splits, all seven of his home runs in 2023 have come as a lefty hitter against a right-handed pitcher, and he has actually been quite good with a .273/.339/.520 triple-slash, a .247 ISO, and a 129 WRC+ in 168 plate appearances in the split. At $4,000/$3,100, Candelario is a sneaky power option tonight. Joey Meneses has two home runs but is slashing a healthy .301/.345/.394 with a 103 WRC+ in 252 plate appearances. Corey Dickerson is very cheap on the left side of the plate at $2,500/$2,700 in the outfield. Dickerson has two home runs and a .205 ISO over his 49 plate appearances. Dominic Smith is occupying the seventh spot at the minimum price, he has done little to justify even that investment this season. Keibert Ruiz is a catcher in whom we would like to invest futures shares. Ruiz, as mentioned in this space in several recent articles, has a much higher expected slugging percentage than his actual number, and he is striking out at a beautifully low 7.7% clip for the season. The backstop costs just $3,400/$2,900 tonight. CJ Abrams and Alex Call round out the projected lineup.
Play: Diamondbacks bats enthusiastically, Nationals bats more reluctantly.
Update Notes: the confirmed Diamondbacks lineup includes Marte in the leadoff spot with Carroll getting the trust to hit second against a same-handed starter, which gives him a bump in an already good spot. Rivera-Walker-Longoria-Smith-Ahmed-Moreno-McCarthy follows with Gurriel getting the night off. the Nationals lineup looks as expected but Riley Adams replaces Ruiz and downgrades their catcher spot.
Houston Astros (+131/4.40) @ Toronto Blue Jays (-142/5.21)
The excellent series between the Astros and Blue Jays sees the two teams with a bit of separation today. The visiting Astros land at just a 4.16-run implied team total against righty Chris Bassitt who has a 3.41 ERA with a 4.60 xFIP over 12 starts and 74 innings in 2023. Bassitt has been a bit up and down this season, he had a famously bad first game of the year, allowing four home runs and nine earned runs in 3.1 innings that still linger in his numbers, and he made two straight clunky starts prior to the gem he twirled in his last outing. Before those two bumps, Bassitt had been on a run of seven quality starts in eight outings. With an eight-strikeout three-hit shutout over 7.2 innings in his last performance against the Mets, the bad starts look more like happenstance and Bassitt has quelled most of our concerns. The veteran righty has an effective 21.5% strikeout rate with an 8.6% walk rate and has limited hard hits to just 33.7% so far this season, despite the ugly home run nights, and his true attribute is a reliable ability to pitch very deep into ballgames. Bassitt is one of the league’s best bets for a quality start, his team should help him chase the win bonus as well, and the Astros have not been in peak form with some strikeouts available through the lineup. The righty will have to navigate stars Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, and he is likely going to be dealing with the return of Jose Altuve to the top of the lineup after the star second baseman missed a few games over the weekend. Outside of those three, there are recognizable names but they are under-performing so far on the season. Altuve is a great leadoff option, he has power and does everything one wants at the plate for MLB DFS at second base. For just $4,600/$3,600, Altuve is a major bargain who should be in most Astros stacks if he is in the lineup. Jeremy Pena has a 102 WRC+ in 253 plate appearances and has been limited in his counting stats this season. The shortstop is affordable and in a great spot in this lineup, which keep him in play, but we need more. Alvarez is a star with 16 home runs and a .299 ISO while creating runs 64% better than average to carry this entire team on his back. The outfielder can be in any lineup any day, he costs $5,900/$4,400 in this matchup. Alex Bregman has eight home runs and a 111 WRC+ in 269 plate appearances, he has been fine but we expect a bit more from the aging former star. Bregman is a buy at $4,900/$3,200 when rostering Astros, he should not be skipped at those prices that already account for the dip in overall production. Tucker clicks in behind Bregman, he has also seen his prices come down as he performs a bit below expectation. Tucker has a still-good eight home runs and eight stolen bases, and he has created runs 22% better than average but he gave us more in each of the past two seasons and we’re greedy gamers. Jose Abreu has been bad but comes very cheap every day and can’t put up a zero on every slate. Corey Julks produces odd big games from late in the lineup at low ownership, as do Chas McCormick and Martin Maldonado. McCormick would be our choice from the trio, but all three options are playable as mix-and-match fills.
The Blue Jays are being pushed to a higher run total at 4.95 with Ronel Blanco on the mound for Houston. Blanco is a 29-year-old non-prospect who was originally pitching out of the Astros bullpen earlier in the year and was mostly ineffective over 12 innings. After a trip to get stretched out as a starter in the minors in which he dominated AAA hitting, Blanco returned last week to strike out five Angels while walking three and allowing two runs on seven hits, including a home run, in 5.1 innings. Blanco is stretched out to make a full start and he costs $5,200/$5,600 with a bit of strikeout upside in a vacuum, but in a matchup against the disciplined Blue Jays, the path to success is quite thin. Toronto’s trio of stars at the top of the lineup have current-year strikeout rates of 16.1%, 15.8%, and 15.7% with a strong blend of power and speed. George Springer has created runs exactly at league average by WRC+ this season in an underwhelming first 261 plate appearances, odds are strong that his next 350 opportunities will go better. Springer is cheap for his talent, he has nine home runs and 10 steals on the season and is coming on strong. Bo Bichette rarely takes a night off, he is slashing .332/.366/.528 with a .196 ISO and 149 WRC+ and leads the team with 13 home runs. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has nine home runs on the season and has created runs 27% better than average with a 14.4% barrel rate and 56.7% hard-hit rate for the season. The superstar first baseman is underpriced at $5,300/$3,600. Brandon Belt is a cheap alternative at first base. Belt has left-handed power and has been productive in creating runs 29% better than average over 165 plate appearances. He has three home runs with a .159 ISO and has been slashing a robust .261/.382/.420 with a 10.5% barrel rate and 43.4% hard-hit rate. Belt is a very good option at $2,500/$2,600, while it is not great to have to play him instead of Guerrero on DraftKings, he is a distinct value option when he can be played alongside his fellow first baseman on the blue site. Matt Chapman costs $4,700/$3,200 on the other side of the diamond. The third baseman has eight home runs and a .205 ISO and has still been mashing when he makes contact, maintaining a 20% barrel rate and 60.6% hard-hit rate over 254 plate appearances. Whit Merrifield has 16 stolen bases and a 112 WRC+ as an interesting option for hits, speed, and runs, as well as a bit of infrequent power at second base or in the outfield from late in the lineup. Don’t look now, but Daulton Varsho has been coming on strong since we started looking at the specifics of the then-disappointing trade the Blue Jays made to acquire him. While we would still prefer the Diamondbacks’ side of the deal (Gurriel and Moreno), Varsho has clawed his way to 11 home runs and a .183 ISO with a 91 WRC+ after a cold start to the year. He is slashing .223/.286/.406 and is not all the way there with just a 7.7% barrel rate and 37% hard-hit rate, but he is paid to hit home runs and he has returned to doing so. Alejandro Kirk and Kevin Kiermaier close out the projected lineup.
Play: Chris Bassitt, Blue Jays bats/stacks as an expensive upper-mid stack, minor contrarian shares of Astros bats if Bassitt is popular, Ronel Blanco value in very small doses is low-end but playable
Update Notes: Mauricio Dubon is leading off for Houston, but Altuve is also in the lineup, Bregman will take a night off, with Alvarez-Tucker-Abreu-Yainer Diaz-Julks-McCormick-Grae Kessinger following. Not to be confused with the newly centenarian former Secretary of State, Kessinger slots in at the minimum as a shortstop on both sites, he had six home runs and two stolen bases in 221 plate appearances in AAA before his call-up and was a 16/23 player across 500 AA opportunities last year. The confirmed Blue Jays lineup has Tyler Heineman stepping in to catch and hit ninth.
Boston Red Sox (+120/3.80) @ Cleveland Guardians (-130/4.29)
The Guardians have a wealth of talented young pitchers in the pipeline, some of whom have put up strong performances in the Show already. Tanner Bibee is one of the top prospect starters in the organization and he has been very good over the first seven starts of his MLB career. Bibee has struck out 25.2% of Major League hitters while walking just 6.3% over 39.1 innings and has pitched to a 3.20 ERA and 4.21 xFIP this season. The righty has allowed just a 1.89% home run rate on 6.6% barrels and a 36.8% hard-hit rate so far, and his 10.6% swinging-strike rate and 28.4% CSW% are both solid marks. With the Red Sox in town, Bibee will have a challenging matchup at the top of the lineup before facing a weaker back-end that may help accelerate his turns through the batting order. For $8,500/$9,000, Bibee is pulling a strong projection in our pitching model and looks like a good play across MLB DFS sites with the Red Sox carrying merely a 3.53-run implied team total. The rookie has been allowed to work deep into games when things are going well, he should have the opportunity to chase a quality start, if not a win. The Red Sox are playable against the young pitcher, but Vegas seems clearly on the other side of the equation and the Red Sox lineup runs only four or five deep on many nights. Lefty Alex Verdugo is slashing .288/.362/.454 with a 122 WRC+ over 257 plate appearances. Verdugo is a strong option for correlated scoring, he strikes out at just a 13.6% clip and has an excellent on-base mark, and he offers at least moderate power. Verdugo has five home runs on a 6.2% barrel rate and 40% hard-hit rate this season. Masataka Yoshida has struck out just 10.3% of the time over his first 234 plate appearances in the Major Leagues, which is an accomplishment on its own. Yoshida has added a team-leading 146 WRC+ and is slashing .319/.393/.502 with seven home runs to boot and he remains affordable at $5,000/$3,700. Justin Turner is a cheap veteran at first or third base on both sites, he costs $3,500/$2,900 and has created runs nine percent better than average from the top half of the lineup over 250 plate appearances. The infielder is slashing .265/.348/.416 with seven home runs and he has struck out merely 15.6% of the time. Rafael Devers has 13 home runs and a .237 ISO but has not been entirely himself at the plate. The star third baseman has a 12.9% barrel rate and 52.8% hard-hit rate which are both slightly up from last year but the results have not been great in terms of his triple-slash. Devers is sitting at just .241/.296/.478 over 250 plate appearances, down from the .295/.358/.521 that he put up last year in 614 opportunities. His strikeouts have climbed from 18.6% to 21.2% and his walks have dropped slightly from eight percent to 6.4%, but the struggles are accounted for somewhat in a slightly discounted price and Devers is a must-play when looking at Red Sox stacks. Triston Casas has six home runs and a 92 WRC+ but sits below the Mendoza line at .199/.325/.373 while striking out 26.8% of the time. Enrique Hernandez, Jarren Duran, Emmanuel Valdez, and Reese McGuire are mix-in options to fill out the lineup. Hernandez has been better in years past, the utility man is sitting 22% below average creating runs while playing basically every day. Duran has cooled after a hot start but is carrying a generally strong line for a fair price in the outfield and is a well-regarded young lefty hitter. Valdez is slashing just .239/.286/.413 with an 86 WRC+ in 99 plate appearances and we prefer Connor Wong‘s premium contact when it comes to Red Sox catchers.
The Guardians lousy lineup is facing Kutter Crawford, which has them at a 4.06-run implied total. Crawford has been pitching in a hybrid role for Boston this season, with the bulk of his 33.2 innings coming in long relief work out of the bullpen. The righty has pitched to a 24.6% strikeout rate and an excellent 4.5% walk rate overall, and he has been better in both in his three starts. Working at the top of the game, Crawford has a 28.3% strikeout rate and 3.8% walk rate in 12 innings. He made two early starts before retreating to the bullpen, but several of his relief appearances were multi-inning affairs. In his most recent outing, Crawford was in a starting role again, but he was hooked after just three innings with the organization saying they wanted to protect his arm. Where all of this lands Crawford’s pitch count in this start is anyone’s guess. One could reasonably expect five innings and around 85 pitches, but that is sheer speculation for a pitcher with limited upside and a $6,800 price tag on both sites. Crawford is not unplayable, but there is a fair amount of risk of another three-inning night, and the Guardians do have that knack for not striking out to worry about as well. Cleveland’s lineup does not look particularly appealing. Jose Ramirez remains the team’s lone star player, he has been stuck at six home runs and has slipped to exactly league average for run creation, while Josh Naylor has crept past him with eight home runs and now a 104 WRC+. Naylor was expected to produce and took his time getting in gear this season, but he should be in most stacks of Guardians when looking at the low-end Cleveland lineup. Steven Kwan has been a letdown up top, he is a correlated scoring play who has not scored or correlated. Tyler Freeman has a 69 WRC+ in 34 plate appearances, last year he was at 76 in 86 tries. Freeman has zero home runs and a .063 ISO in the tiny sample this year, which is better than the .039 ISO he posted with the same home run total last year. Josh Bell is slated to hit after Naylor, he has four more home runs than Freeman does, which is not saying much. Andres Gimenez is slashign .245/.309/.358 with an 86 WRC+ in 224 plate appearances; Will Brennan is affordable and has a 93 WRC+ in 147 plate appearances, but has not been overly productive with three home runs and five stolen bases, he has not been good, just one of the better options in a lousy lineup; Mike Zunino has three home runs but his premium contact has vaporized over time; and Myles Straw is a defense-and-speed player who is not great for MLB DFS.
Play: Tanner Bibee, Red Sox bats in moderate doses, maybe some Crawford value shares if we get a five-inning pitch count
Update Notes: the Red Sox lineup runs as expected with Connor Wong stepping in as a better catcher option for DFS purposes. The lousy Guardians lineup is in it’s typical form.
Los Angeles Dodgers (-159/6.20) @ Cincinnati Reds (+146/4.93)
The spot of the day is once again in Cincinnati with the Dodgers carrying a total higher than one of the two teams playing at Coors Field. The Giants matchup against a very low-end starter in Colorado has their total pushed above the 6.5-run mark, but Los Angeles’ 6.11-run total demands attention on this slate once again. The Dodgers killer lineup is facing lefty Brandon Williamson who has a 19.8% strikeout rate with a 12.1% walk rate in four starts and 21 innings this season and is not someone we remember pitching on a main slate yet this year. Williamson has a 4.29 ERA and 5.17 xFIP in the small sample and he has induced an effective 11.3% swinging-strike rate with a good 27.4% CSW% in his first four Major League starts, but we are more focused on the 13.1% barrel rate and 45.9% hard-hit rate he has allowed. That premium contact has led to 90.6 mph of average exit velocity but just a high-not-awful 3.30% home run rate which seems a bit lucky. Williamson has made two effective starts, he struck out six Brewers while allowing two runs on five hits including a home run in 6.2 innings his last time out, and also struck out six, in a start at Coors Field of all places, in his 5.2-inning MLB debut on May 16th. He struck out three while allowing a few runs in 4.1-inning starts in each of his other two outings. Very little of this matters in this ballpark with the elite Dodgers in town, which was already summarized in the lofty run total. Mookie Betts remains a significant bargain at $4,000 on the FanDuel slate tonight. If Betts were only available in the outfield the price would be correct, but adding second base and shortstop eligibility to the star player should boost his price by a few hundred more, he is too valuable in those roles to be this affordable. Betts costs $5,800 with second base and outfield eligibility on DraftKings, which is also arguably too cheap. He has 15 home runs and a 144 WRC+ over 265 plate appearances this season and is carrying a 15.04 in our home run model tonight. All of the top five hitters in the Dodgers lineup land above the magic number for home run upside in our model tonight. Freddie Freeman has an 11.69, he has 11 home runs and a .236 ISO with a 160 WRC+ in 281 plate appearances while slashing an outrageous .329/.402/.565. Will Smith is every bit as good as Freeman from the right side, he is slashing .300/.405/.507 with a .207 ISO and eight home runs in 185 plate appearances and strikes out at a 10.3% clip. JD Martinez still has stunning power at the plate, the slugger has 15 long balls with a massive .356 ISO in his 194 plate appearances this year. Martinez has a 10.91 in our home run model that is honestly too low, he is an excellent play for power from the heart of the lineup and has created runs 48% better than average this season but still costs just $4,800/$4,000. Max Muncy has 18 home runs from the left side of the plate and a .309 ISO. He is slashing .204/.332/.513 and has created runs 27% better than average with a 17.6% barrel rate but costs just $4,600/$3,800 at third base in this matchup. Muncy leads the Dodgers with a 16.16 in our home run model, he edges out Joc Pederson at the top of the overall board to take the top home run spot on the entire slate as well. Chris Taylor is in th projected lineup against the lefty, he has hit cleanup in this situation in spots this season but that was with the team missing parts, Taylor is more suited to this role and is a good value play at just $2,800/$2,700. Assuming he is in the lineup, Taylor adds another two-position play to the DraftKings slate with third base and outfield eligibility, and he joins Betts as a three-position play, adding shortstop, on the blue site. The Dodgers’ fantastic lineup is in one of the best spots of the day and they have ridiculous positional flexibility in the expected lineup. Miguel Vargas, Miguel Rojas, and Jonny DeLuca round out the projected lineup. DeLuca has 14 minor league home runs across 222 plate appearances in AA and AAA this season, he will be making his MLB debut if he plays.
The Reds are facing Noah Syndergaard who has been a big weak point for the Dodgers this season. The righty has a 6.54 ERA and 4.56 xFIP and has allowed an uncharacteristic 4.37% home run rate on 8.3% barrels and 40% hard hits. Syndergaard allowed just a 34% hard-hit rate last year with a 2.48% home run rate and was generally good at limiting power earlier in his career. Outside of his still strong control and command, the righty is simply not the pitcher he once was and, in truth, he was never the pitcher that people seem to misremember. Syndergaard was good, not great, and peaked at a 29.3% strikeout rate, which he reached only once, in 2016 in his second year in the league. He worked at a 27% rate the year before and after and has a 24.2% rate for his career. Those are good numbers, but they are not elite, Syndergaard was always a more effective pitcher than he was a dominant one, but he is not working at nearly that level this season. In a bad ballpark, even with a bad club on the other side, it seems like a weak spot in which to look in this pitcher’s direction, he is probably better left on the shelf and the Reds’ bats have significant appeal with their 5.01-run implied total. The projected lineup looks much like what the team rolled out yesterday, with everyone’s new favorite player Elly De La Cruz slated to hit cleanup once again. De La Cruz did not disappoint in his debut, ripping a 112 mph double and posting a run in his five plate appearances. The rookie will hit behind a group projected to include Jake Fraley, who has moderate lefty pop with seven home runs and a .169 ISO in 197 plate appearances; fellow rookie Matt McLain, who is slashing .341/.396/.500 with two home runs and a 140 WRC+ in his first 96 plate appearances; and Jonathan India, who has been the team’s best player in recent seasons and is sitting 10% better than average for run creation with six home runs and 12 stolen bases in his ledger this year. After De La Cruz, the projected lineup picks up with highly productive Spencer Steer, who is slashing .290/.368/.493 with a .203 ISO and eight home runs. Steer should be a popular selection with his strong production this year and a $4,200/$3,400 price tag. Tyler Stephenson has an 8.3% barrel rate and 40% hard-hit rate as a cheap catcher who will draw some ownership in a popular stack. Kevin Newman, Will Benson, and Stuart Fairchild round out the projected lineup. The matchup against Syndergaard has us thinking that today might be a good day to bet the Elly De La Cruz stolen base, and the team is looking like a good stack against the struggling righty for MLB DFS purposes.
Play: Dodgers bats/stacks, Reds bats/stacks, both will be popular
Update Notes: Los Angeles will have DeLuca hitting eighth as an interesting cheap bat who may be overlooked late in the lineup on both sites. Taylor will hit sixth between Muncy and Vargas with Rojas ninth. The Reds lineup runs as expected, they should be running if they get on base against Syndergaard.
New York Mets (+116/4.56) @ Atlanta Braves (-125/5.04)
A duel of veteran pitchers is going down in Atlanta, with Charlie Morton taking the hill for the home team and Max Scherzer on the mound for the Mets, and oddly high run totals for both teams. Morton has made 11 starts and thrown 64.2 innings this season, he has a 3.62 ERA and 3.83 xFIP with a 25.3% strikeout rate, a 12.5% swinging-strike rate, and a strong 31.1% CSW%. For just $9,200 on DraftKings, Morton seems like a clear value SP1 option and he can even be used as a pricey SP2 in the right combinations. The righty is underappreciated and has been mostly on form this season. Scherzer, on the other hand, has taken a bigger overall dip from expectations, while still pitching to relatively good numbers for an average starter. The veteran star has a 3.21 ERA but an uglier 4.41 xFIP over 47.2 innings and nine starts. His 25.3% strikeout rate is still good, it is an exact match for the number we liked for Morton, but that represents only a three-point dip year-over-year for Morton and a 5.3 point dip for Scherzer, who has spent years working in the 30% and above range for strikeouts. The righty has a 7.4% walk rate and has lost some of his swinging strikes and CSW% while allowing more premium contact so far this year. Scherezr is a good candidate to get this figured out in the long term, there are plenty of strikeouts for him in the Braves lineup, but Atlanta is a dangerous team for a pitcher who is trying to find himself on the mound. Morton looks like the better option between the two starters, but Scherzer has a higher ceiling. Both are in play at their prices.
The Braves lineup is the better play at the plate, the team is carrying the higher run total and has by far the more significant lineup for MLB DFS purposes. A ridiculous six hitters in the Atlanta lineup already have double-digit home run totals, there is a ton of power from top to bottom for the Braves, and they are excellent for run creation overall. Ronald Acuna Jr. is a star at any price, he can always be deployed, even with Scherzer on the mound. Acuna has 12 home runs and 26 stolen bases with a team-leading 159 WRC+. Matt Olson has a 10.31 in our home run model, slightly ahead of Acuna’s 10.08, they are the only two Braves hitters above the magic number with a healthy dose of respect for the pitcher still present in our numbers. Austin Riley and Sean Murphy have 21 combined home runs for cheap prices at $4,800/$3,100 for Riley at third base and $4,200/$3,700 for Murphy behind the plate. The DraftKings price for Murphy is simply too low with positional requirement. Eddie Rosario, Ozzie Albies, and Marcell Ozuna have 32 combined home runs, with Rosario bringing up the bottom at eight. The trio is easily affordable from the later part of the lineup, they are as playable a stack as any combination in the batting order and they make for terrific mix-in differentiation pieces with the top of the lineup. Orlando Arcia is a cheap productive hitter who is never popular, he plays three positions on FanDuel for just $2,700 while slashing .311/.372/.452 with a 125 WRC+ and four home runs in 148 plate appearances. Michael Harris II should be played as a cheap low-owned option with a significant ceiling. On the Mets side of the action, the lineup opens as usual with Brandon Nimmo who correlates very well with slugger Pete Alonso, whose 22 home runs leads baseball. Between them we should find scuffling shortstop star Francisco Lindor and hit-tool specialist Jeff McNeil who are sitting at 96 and 104 WRC+ over their 265 and 246 opportunities. For their prices, both players are in play when stacking Mets against Morton, Lindor is at a strong discount at $4,600/$3,300, he is a far better player than that overall. Daniel Vogelbach climbed to the fifth spot last night, he may land there again or we may see Brett Baty rise to the occasion, either hitter is in play in stacks with the rookie Baty somewhat preferred. Starling Marte, Mark Canha, Tommy Pham, or anyone else who may land in the outfield group of veterans is playable with only moderate expectations, Francisco Alvarez is a burgeoning star behind the plate but Omar Narvaez is back and the Mets will have daily decisions behind the plate for the time being.
Play: four corners game… pitchers then bats, Morton above Max, Braves above Mets
Update Notes: the confirmed Mets lineup has Baty hitting fifth behind the typical top end, though McNeil will hit second and Lindor third tonight in a more appropriate construction. Marte-Vogelbach-Canha-Alvarez follows Baty. The Braves lineup is exactly as expected.
Baltimore Orioles (+126/3.75) @ Milwaukee Brewers (-137/4.35)
Corbin Burnes is another scuffling veteran starter who has not really figured it out for 2023. Burnes has made 12 starts and thrown 69.2 innings, pitching to a 3.75 ERA but a 4.41 xFIP with a 22.8% strikeout rate that is a major nosedive from last year’s 30.5% rate and the 35.6% mark he posted the year before. Burnes is on a long list of premium pitchers from years past who have fallen apart for strikeouts on the mound this year in a fascinating trend. The righty has somewhat pulled things together as the season has gone on, he strung together a run of good starts before a clunker three games ago, then came back with eight strikeouts and seven one-run innings against the Giants and another seven strikeouts with three runs allowed in six innings to the Reds in Cincinnati. Burnes costs $10,200/$10,000 against a good Orioles lineup, which is not much of a discount in this form. The righty is an interesting inflection point on tonight’s slate, the thin options demand his inclusion in probably a fair number of lineups, but if he gets popular he may warrant an undercut; at the same time if he is unpopular pushing additional chips in his direction is probably warranted. The Orioles can be played in hedge shares, but Burnes is not a pitcher to attack aggressively, even in this form. Baltimore is still missing Cedric Mullins, Adam Frazier is projected to lead off, he is “fine” in that role but overall has just a 94 WRC+ in 213 opportunities this year and posted an 81 in 602 chances last year. Adley Rutschman for $5,400 is a fair catcher play on DraftKings, he is viable at $3,200 on FanDuel as well, the backstop has a 134 WRC+ to lead his team into the future. Anthony Santander has a .208 ISO and nine home runs in 240 plate appearances, Austin Hays has six homers and a 131 WRC+ in 212, and Gunnar Henderson is above the Mendoza line and has created runs one percent better than average in his 189 plate appearances. Ryan Mountcastle is a spectacular power hitter with some work to do in other areas, assuming he improves his on-base skills and walk rate, Mountcastle will be a star in short order. He has 11 home runs and a .197 ISO and costs just $4,500/$3,300 at first base. Aaron Hicks still sucks, home run or not, though we had to laugh when he hit one out after a rant on yesterday’s show about what the Orioles were doing with him in the lineup in the first place. Josh Lester and Jorge Mateo are projected to round out the lineup.
The Brewers are facing Dean Kremer, who has been moderately effective in spots this season but who has pitched to a 19.6% strikeout rate and just a 4.43 ERA with a 4.59 xFIP in 12 starts and 65 innings this season. Kremer’s 10.3% swinging-strike rate is pretty good, but his 25.3% CSW% needs to climb for him to find more success at this level. Over 125.1 innings and 21 starts last year, the righty had a 25.2% CSW% and 10.1% swinging-strike rate with a 17% strikeout rate, and he was better at checking power with just a 2.15% home run rate compared to this year’s 3.62% mark. Kremer has given up 90.9 mph of average exit velocity and 48.8% hard hits with a 10.4% barrel rate and 13-degree average launch angle this season. At the very least that seems targetable with a power hitter like Rowdy Tellez for a few shares. Kremer costs $7,800/$8,600, he would be a value option if he were a bit less expensive, as it is he can be mixed in for small dart throw shares on an ugly day for pitching in large field GPPs. The Brewers’ lineup includes Christian Yelich up top for just $4,600/$3,400, which remains a good buy for a player who hits everything hard and has a 108 WRC+ on the season. Owen Miller and William Contreras are productive right-handed hitters, Miller has surprised with a 122 WRC+ and a .313/.350/.463 triple-slash over 157 plate appearances so far this year. Tellez is slated to hit cleanup, he has 12 home runs and a .228 ISO with 10.6% barrels so far this season, but his strikeouts have climbed from 20.2% last year to 25.8% this season. Brian Anderson and Abraham Toro are projected in the next two spots, but the Brewers have been rolling with some funky lineups in recent days, any of Luis Urias, Jon Singleton or Blake Perkins or the team’s typical bottom third could hit higher in the lineup today. Urias is the best player in the group overall, he has sturdy power for cheap prices and he provides three-position eligibility on the blue site. FanDuel has yet to boost Urias’ price appropriately, he is a good buy at $2,300. There are five players in the lineup that have multi-position eligibility on both sites and no one in this lineup is cheap. Depending on the status of the Perkins, Singleton, etc types, there could be significant values up and down this lineup. Even Toro is cheap at $2,600/$2,400 for a player with eligibility at second and third base on both sites. Milwaukee is a potentially underrated source of value upside in this spot, but their 4.07-run implied team total is a sobering cause for consideration and a reminder to not get carried away with a collection of mediocre hitters against an average pitcher.
Play: Corbin Burnes, some Brewers value bats, small doses of Orioles, Kremer could come through with an OK score on a bad pitching slate, but is too pricey to be a true value play
Update Notes: the Orioles lineup is confirmed as expected. the Brewers will get Willy Adames back in a good upgrade to the second spot in the lineup which now runs Yelich-Adames-Tellez-Miller-Jon Singleton ($2,000/$2,200 power at first base)-Anderson-Andruw Monasterio–Victor Caratini-Wiemer. Urias is out of the lineup, but there is a lot of value-based potential for Milwaukee again tonight.
St. Louis Cardinals (+122/4.25) @ Texas Rangers (-132/4.84)
Veteran Jon Gray is in a tough spot against the Cardinals today, but he is keeping them to just a 4.20-run implied team total and he has been pitching fairly effectively through most of the season. Gray has a 2.51 ERA that is in fairly stark contrast to a more honest 4.61 xFIP. He is a better pitcher than the expected FIP mark, but not as good as the ERA, in 127.1 innings and 24 starts last year, the veteran had a 3.46 xFIP and 3.96 ERA which feel about right. Gray has a 20.1% strikeout rate but posted a good 25.7% in last year’s sample with a matching swinging-strike rate. His CSW% has dipped from 29.3% last year to 27% this year on fewer called strikes overall. The Cardinals have been a productive run-creation team against righties this year but Gray costs just $8,900 on DraftKings, which puts him squarely on the board at a good price. His $9,500 price on FanDuel makes him more of an also-ran, but his talent warrants some exposure on the single-starter site. Brendan Donovan is a productive lefty leadoff man who has a 102 WRC+ in 206 plate appearances and connects easily to Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. The two right-handed stars occupy the corner infield spots in the Cardinals lineup and are typically strong MLB DFS buys regardless of what is going on around them. The duo comes at an affordable price as a unit and the hitters bookend young lefty slugger Nolan Gorman, who has a team-leading 10.74 in our home run model. Gorman has 14 long balls on the season, outpacing Goldschmidt’s 10 and Arenado’s 11 in the team’s power core. Willson Contreras has not been good this year, his WRC+ sits at just 89, but he has an any-given-slate upside and has been much better in years past. Alec Burleson, Paul DeJong, Jordan Walker, and Tommy Edman are all quality pieces later in the lineup, they have a good blend of power and speed, with Walker and Edman having a bit of both. DeJong is more of an all-or-nothing home run option these days, but all of the players can differentiate a stack and provide individual value at low prices and lower popularity.
The Rangers elite lineup will be looking to roll on against Jack Flaherty whose strange season continued with a six strikeout one-run outing in 5.1 innings against the Pirates his last time out. Flaherty costs $8,100/$8,400 and has enough upside to justify shares, even against the deadly Rangers. The team has a 20.8% collective strikeout rate this year, they have not been easy to sit down, but Flarhety has boosted his mark to 23.1% for strikeouts on the season and is pitching to a 4.55 ERA with a 4.56 xFIP while inducing a 10.8% swinging-strike rate. The righty is a strong candidate to go bust, which is why the Rangers are sitting at a 4.9-run implied team total, but in a spot where he is not likely to be popular at a fair price, there is justification for rostering the pitcher. At the same time, taking shares of the Rangers in other lineups is highly advisable. Marcus Semien has nine home runs and seven stolen bases, he strikes out just 14.5% of the time and has a .200 ISO on a 42.3% hard-hit rate this year, he is an outstanding option at second base every day. Corey Seager has a 17.5% barrel rate and 54.5% hard-hit rate with six home runs in 131 plate appearances after missing a large chunk of the year, he is an everyday option at shortstop. Nathaniel Lowe slashed .302/.358/.492 with 27 home runs last year, he has dipped to .282/.357/.448 with seven home runs so far this year, but his run creation mark is a still-good 124 and he is an offset for price in the heart of the lineup at just $4,700/$3,400 at first base. Adolis Garcia and Josh Jung have 15 and 12 home runs respectively, they have been mashing all season and are both above 50% hard-hits for the year. The duo is deadly for power and the team can be rostered – if one can figure out the pricing – in a straight line from 1-5 on most nights. The bottom end for Texas is highly playable as well, particularly when both Jonah Heim and Mitch Garver land in the lineup along with Ezequiel Duran, but any of Robbie Grossman, Travis Jankowski, or Leody Taveras are quality mix-and-match options from later in the lineup.
Play: some Jon Gray, some Jack Flaherty, and some of the bats on both sides with the Rangers as the better of the hitting options.
Update Notes: The Cardinals lineup runs as anticipated. The Rangers have Garcia getting the night off, with Josh Jung hitting cleanup followed by Jonah Heim. Jankowski-Grossman-Josh H. Smith–Sandy Leon rounds out the confirmed lineup in a bit of an overall downgrade from the originally expected/best version of Texas’ batting order.
San Francisco Giants (-205/6.28) @ Colorado Rockies (+186/4.36)
There is no reason to roster Connor Seabold in this matchup, the Giants are carrying a 6.61-run implied total into the matchup, and he has a 16.6% strikeout rate and a 5.47 xFIP in 41.2 innings and six starts. San Francisco starter Logan Webb is another story. The righty is outstanding at limiting home run upside, he keeps the ball to a 2.5-degree average launch angle and has pitched to a 2.85 ERA and 2.88 xFIP with a 26.5% strikeout rate while walking just 4.9%. Webb’s combination of attributes should be effective enough for a Coors start for the gamblers in the crowd, he has Colorado pushed to the bottom of our home run model and they are carrying just a 4.54-run total. Webb costs $9,900/$11,000, there is no discount in those prices, but he is very likely to be unpopular, which could provide an advantage in itself.
Rockies bats can be used against Webb at low ownership, but his ability to curb power is a concern and they are not a team that warrants over-exposure. The lineup should include Charlie Blackmon and Ryan McMahon up top, the lefties are two of the more playable bats today. Blackmon has become more of a correlated scoring and on-base player in his later years, McMahon provides left-handed pop and has a 108 WRC+ with nine home runs to lead the team in the power department. Jurickson Profar is playable for DFS but not good, Elias Diaz is a good catcher in the cleanup role at a fair price, he has six home runs and a 113 WRC+ this season. Randal Grichuk and Harold Castro are capable cheap veterans later in the batting order, but Nolan Jones and Brenton Doyle are more interesting players for power potential and low ownership. Webb is likely to keep all of these options down, however, so shares should be limited. Ezequiel Tovar closes out the Colorado lineup. The Giants, on the other hand, are looking almost like a must-play with their lofty run total. The California connection with Dodgers and Giants stacks is going to be crushingly popular today, the key to including it in wide swaths of lineups will be in differentiating those shares by utilizing alternative pitching combinations that open access to hitting combinations that are otherwise unavailable. The projected Giants lineup opens with LaMonte Wade who is criminally underrated and costs just $3,900/$3,400. Wade has eight home runs and a .196 ISO with a 156 WRC+ and he is getting on base at an outrageous .429 clip. Thairo Estrada is affordable with power and speed from the second spot in the lineup, he has an 11.74 in our home run model and has hit six in 212 plate appearances while adding 13 stolen bases. Joc Pederson leads the team with a 15.48 in our home run model, but everyone from 1-7 in the projected lineup is above the 10.0-mark for power tonight. JD Davis and Michael Conforto could probably have helped the scuffling Mets, they are doing great work in San Francisco’s lineup with Davis at 134 WRC+ and Conforto carrying a 123 with a team-leading 11 home runs. Mitch Haniger has four home runs but just a 72 WRC+ in 137 plate appearances, he will come around. Lefty Mike Yastrzemski lands seventh in the projected lineup, which is a wild place to find such a good hitter. Someone in this lineup will have to go somewhat under-owned, if that is Yaz one can capitalize on the lefty slugger who has six home runs and a .204 ISO in 167 opportunities this year. Patrick Bailey and Brandon Crawford round out the projected lineup.
Play: bats bats bats, but also some Logan Webb
Update Notes: the Rockies lineup has Blackmon-Profar-McMahon-Grichuk followed by Mike Moustakas-Jones-Castro-Tovar-Austin Wynns, it remains mediocre. the confirmed lineup for the Giants runs Wade-Estrada-Pederson-Conforto-Haniger-Yastrzemski-Blake Sabol–Casey Schmitt-Crawford, with JD Davis getting a night off.
Chicago Cubs (+128/4.19) @ Los Angeles Angels (-138/4.90)
With a show starting in 13 minutes, we are going to run through this one very quickly and then come back to fill out any details. Jamie Barria is pitching for the Angels, he was good over five innings, allowing a lone run on four hits while striking out six White Sox in a start at the end of May but has made only two true starts and has numbers compiled partly out of the bullpen. Overall, Barria seems only moderately playable at $7,000/$6,200, there is not much upside in the option against a frisky Cubs team. Cubs hitting options are in play but their 4.25-run total and general inconsistency are concerning. Key Cubs bats include Nico Hoerner, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson, and Christopher Morel with Matt Mervis and Patrick Wisdom as good power considerations if they play. Chicago’s lineup has a number of quality run creators and good on-base potential, with mid-range power from top to bottom, though Mike Tauchman and Tucker Barnhart are only low-end options.
The Angels draw Jameson Taillon who is mostly targetable on the mound. Los Angeles’ star power should be pushing them to more than a 4.84-run total, Taillon has a 21% strikeout rate with a 4.68 xFIP and an ugly 7.05 ERA this season. The starter is better than those numbers and there are a few strikeouts in the Angels lineup, which puts him very low on the playability board given a $5,500/$6,300 salary, but that is primarily as a low-owned low-expectation SP2 option, and we have a few of those in play today. Angels bats are the obvious Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani combination up top, with either Taylor Ward or Mickey Moniak, who have been alternating starts, or preferably both, as well as Brandon Drury and Hunter Renfroe. The team should have Anthony Rendon back as well, adding another playable right-handed bat to the lineup. Rendon has not hit for much power this season but he was creating runs 25% better than average over his first 133 plat appearances. Matt Thaiss is a playable catcher and Jared Walsh lurks in the bottom of the lineup with a left-handed power bat along with hit-tool rookie Zach Neto.
Play: Angels bats/stacks, Cubs bats/stacks in small doses, value pitching if inclined.
Update Notes:
Follow on Twitter for daily links to all published content.
