In what will be a wild weekend across the Majors, there will be five Interleague matchups over the weekend, throwing a wrench into a lot of Pitcher v. Batter data. Just imagine if this were last year and everyone was in Interleague at the same time minus two teams… But with even divisions of 15 these days, Interleague happens every day with this weekend amping them up to five Interleague matchups taking over ten teams. Cut to the hitters on the Padres at Yankees Stadium, “Hey, Venable, I can actually see the fences from home plate!” I generally will avoid hitters against new pitchers that are throwing well, and will tend to like pitchers more against line-ups that have never seen them.
This Friday, another RAZZBALL EXCLUSIVE CAN YOU BEAT RUDY GAMBLE contest is back, opening up a few more spots to a 40 person contest, getting you one step closer to the $100,000 Sweet Spot for a shot at a $20,000 top prize. It’s the usual game, $5.00 an entry, up to two per person, and you can only get in through our exclusive link. Spots 2-10 double up, and people from last week who finished 1-11 are not invited. I can’t believe I got 12th last week! I was winning for a good while there with early pitchers going, but then Edwin Encarnacion went bonkers off the AAA Astros pitching. But to quote the immortal Maury Ballstein, “what do we do when we fall off the horse?”
Buffering the memories from last week’s picks:
SP – Matt Harvey 8 IP 5 H 1 BB 0 ER 7 Ks (28.4 Pts)
CI – Evan Longoria 1-4 2 RBI 1 2B 1 R (11 Pts)
MI – Jean Segura 1-4 (3 Pts)
OF1 – Nate McLouth 1-4 1 3B 1 R (10 Pts)
OF2 – Jake Marisnick 1-4 (3 Pts)
UTIL – Adrian Gonzalez 1-4 1 R (5 Pts)
TOTAL – 60.4 (Previous three weeks: 67.2, 77.65, 61)
As usual for my picks – solid pitching (Harvey paired with Henderson Alvarez scored the bulk of my points) without hitting on any… well hitters. Encarnacion and his 43 points last Friday was the MVP of the night, and I’ve picked him three or four times in the past! Stupid Astros pitchers… Why I love DraftKings, I can get right back on the schnide (spelling? shnide? Did I make this term up? Rob Schneider? Stapler?). Here’s who I like on Friday (note – prices taken from today’s games as article written before the Razzball contest was open – prices subject to adjustments):
SP – Chris Archer ($7,800) – My early look at matchups as I mentioned on this week’s podcast is officially scrapped for a new lead hurler on Friday. Using Rudy’s handy-dandy line-up tool, you can see a lot of success off Ubaldo Jimenez from Marlins hitters (I know small sample, but very scared of Giancarlo Stanton‘s 3-4 with a homer) so I’m going with the red-hot Chris Archer against a San Francisco team that has never seen him and pitching in the Trop. Got K stuff, pitching deep, didn’t issue a walk in three of the last four, I think he’s a no-brainer.
CI – Garrett Jones ($3,700) – Saving my wad for my outfield (that’s a weird open to a sentence), Jones will be a very undervalued pick on Friday and someone I doubt anyone would have drafted. Sure he’s kind of been ho-hum this season, but he’s 5-9 off Jhoulys Chacin with two homers. But what I really like is the two additional walks and he’s never struck out against him. That’s the sort of combo of stats I like to see.
MI – J.J. Hardy ($4,300) – My DraftKings picks wouldn’t be complete without having a Hardy for Hardy, who seems to proliferate into my line-up every other week. He’s seen a lot of Aaron Harang (and I mean, honestly, there’s a lot to see), and while he’s only 6-26 off him (.231), 3 of those hits were homers and Harang isn’t quite the power pitcher he used to be. Love the power upside at home.
OF1 – Carlos Beltran ($4,300) – Beltran has been cooling off a bit as of late, his second half dropoff seems to be in full effect yet again, but I am going to stick with him on Friday. I just have a feeling Bronson Arroyo gets torn up in this one, and Beltran is a .344 hitter off him with 2 homers in 32 ABs. I see a lot of upside here with Beltran hitting atop that order.
OF1 – Josh Reddick ($3,900) – It’s been a tough season for Reddick, but I like him on Friday hitting off Alexi Ogando in the desert. He’s 3-6 off him, those being two doubles and a homer so all extra-base hits, and Reddick is 8-8 on the basepaths this season. Ogando has allowed three steals this season in fairly limited innings, so I could see that part of the game helping Reddick as well. He’s very reasonably priced to fill out your outfield.
UTIL – Adrian Beltre ($5,700) – It ended up being a big-name 3B I wanted with my saved budget, and I’m going with Beltre who is 5-12 off Tommy Milone with two homers. This one will be in Arlington and Beltre is as solid as you can get at third.
Shoot your DraftKings questions below or tweet me @jbgilpin – good luck this week!
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