There were some really strange things happening in baseball last week and it’s becoming quite clear that the pitching landscape is a scary place. These pitchers remind me of a mouse being thrown into a snake cage and it’s just a matter of time before they get caught. By the way, I had a fifth-grade teacher who made us watch a snake strangle and eat a mouse and that set quite the impression on me as an 11-year-old. This dude was a nut, he had animals all around the classroom and he traumatized half of us with this nature crap. Anyway, streaming pitchers brought me back to that traumatizing period of my life and I feel like these pitchers are in a similar state. With that said, we’re going to look to finish off the first half strong and give you some dynamite streamers here.
Welcome to the final day of June 2019, FanDuel DFSers. It’s going to be a beautiful one. Let’s get some meat over evenly heated coals, crack a beverage, and enjoy the day. Barbecue is a process, but the payoff is well worth it, very similar to DFS. The more time we take, the better the rewards. So let’s get to it.
We have a 9-game FanDuel Main Slate today, and not one game has much risk of postponement. There might not be a single cloud in the sky; it’s going to be that great. So, who should we start on such a perfect day? Let’s continue to play with fire and start flamethrowers
Gerrit Cole ($11,200) and
Max Scherzer ($12,500) in the majority of our lineups. Not only do they lead their respective leagues in strikeouts, both have very favorable match-ups this afternoon. We should expect nothing short of dominating performances, making them very likely to return value even with their expensive salaries. Sometimes it’s best to just keep things simple and not over complicate it. Meat and fire. Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer. Lock them in, and let’s figure out the rest of our lineups from here.
Read past the break for suggestions on how to fill them out with some good ol’ Midwestern stacks.
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Put on a nice shirt. Floss. I meant your teeth. Stop doing that stupid dance. Get serious. You need to look presentable when he comes to save your fantasy rotation. He's
Jesus Luzardo and he's the cat's pajamas. The real nice ones with the pockets. Luzardo is still building up after a shoulder injury sidelined him for the first half of the season, but in Thursday's start at Triple-A he threw 66 pitches over five innings. There shouldn't be too much further to go from here before he's able to join the Athletics rotation, which is where we thought he'd be back in March. My guess is he'll be promoted after two, maybe three more starts, or shortly after the All-Star Break. Luzardo was the headliner in Grey's
buy column this past Friday, and outside of maybe Dylan Cease, there aren't many impact pitching prospects left in the minors for this season. So accept Jesus in your heart and on your fantasy team. Here's what else is happening around the minor leagues...
As someone said, Ketel Marte is 170 lbs soaking wet. And being 6'1", he doesn't have a particularly big frame (Jose Altuve is 5'6" and weighs the same). Marte has been a slap-happy hitter that puts the ball in play and legs them out. After a hot stove trade sent our Ketel from Seattle to Arizona he began to get a taste of success. He improved his plate discipline working at AAA and his OBP went from .287 (in 2016 with the Mariners) to a respectable .345 along with a slight uptick in power after being called up in June of the 2017 season. Then in 2018, he put it together for respectable 14 HR with a slash of .260/.332/.437 over a full season. Last year he showed some sneaky HR potential, but nothing like what we've seen this season...
Coming into last night the Baltimore Orioles were the fourth lowest scoring team in the league with 321 runs scored. They are still the fourth lowest scoring team today, but they did manage to score a season high 13 runs against Mike Clevinger and the Clevinger Indians. I mean Cleveland Indians. To be fair to Clevinger he was only responsible for seven of those runs over one and two thirds innings. Not exactly what his owners were hoping to see in his return from the IL. Am I the only one that thinks he looks like 2017 deGrom? And which one of them played Mitch in Dazed and Confused? But enough about that. After raking in Triple A and being called up to Baltimore back on June 3, Sisco has done very little. On Friday night he exploded with a homer, a double, a single, three runs and five RBIs! For my points readers, he had 18 points before this game in which he totaled 15 more nearly doubling his season total. While it was a great performance, Trey Mancini is the only Baltimore bat I'd consider owning. I say no thanks to Villar, in case you were wondering, but I do have a points league perspective. So I guess if you need saves he's cool. You cool, man?
Sometimes a comet comes streaking across the MLB sky. Today is one of those days on FanDuel, when a highly talented guy gets called up and makes his first start and starts out ridiculously cheap. Lefty
Brendan McKay ($5,700) is already a legend. He held Judge and Stanton to 0-4 with three strikeouts when they were rehabbing in the minors earlier this year. Furthermore, he's held right handed batters to a .160 average and .462 OPS this year. Lefties have hit a robust .185/.464. He's facing a Rangers squad that only hits .250 0n the road and .238 against left handed starters. Some may stay away from him because he is a rookie, and because Justin Verlander is starting against the Mariners today. But McKay's value is just too good to pass up. Plus, we need the salary cap space for some pricey batters today.
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It's not easy making a reliever as an MLB closer these days. The ball is juiced and more hitters than ever have figured out that swinging for the fences pays off even with some extra strikeouts. Those factors equal plenty of blown saves these days. The pitching landscape is changing. You need to take more cracks at saves than ever, even if you strike out, too.
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From the journal of Jim Morrison, he wrote about an encounter he had with lizard wearing a crown of thorns that he alternated calling, Jesus Luzardo and The Luzard King. Here, I wish to transcribe Jim's musings, "Today, I rode with a large Native American man to a Wawa to get some beej ferky (sic). The Native American man told me about the many lives he had lived and how he never trusted rookie pitchers. He recounted a story about how he traded all his pitchers for Chris Paddack, due to a great April in 2019. This was confusing to me, since this was 1970, but this wise Native American knew more in his head, which he covered in an Indians baseball club hat, than I'd ever know. Was this Lou Boudreau? Before we got to the Wawa, which was only three minutes away by automobile, so not sure why it was taking so long -- were we lost? -- the Native American man pulled over and picked up a pitchman for an insurance company which was an animated lizard. This was The Luzard King. An obvious lizard, which made it weird when it kept saying it was a gecko. The Luzard King said it had a shoulder issue early in the preseason of the 2019 season, which I had a premonition would be 38 years after my death. Also, oddly enough, I'm being fed a quote from the future from Prospect Mike about Jesus Luzardo. He will say, 'Luzardo’s stock just continues to rise. He’s in the rarified air of 'best pitching prospects' now. The lefty threw 109 innings across three leagues in 2018 and posted a 129/30 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Everything is plus or better – the heater, the curve, the change, the control. He’s the total package, like the package I filled with anthrax and sent to Grey.' Who is this Grey he speaks of? Who is Prospect Mike? Was it the peyote talking or was it something more mysterious?" And that's me quoting Jim Morrison quoting Prospect Mike! Don't think Luzardo is going to be up before the All-Star Break, but now is the time to stash him. He could be a top arm in the 2nd half, or at least a solid Middler like early Yonny. Call him Once Uponny. Anyway, here's some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
Well, the All Star break may not be until next week, but we’re already more than halfway through the season, folks, as just about all MLB teams played their 81st game earlier this week. As we look over the season’s first half from a fantasy perspective, it’s clear that some suggestions for deep-league pickups have been more successful than others. Let’s focus on the positive: starting with the NL this week, let’s take a look at a few of our own Deep League Fantasy All Stars, guys who were mentioned in this column earlier in the season and weren’t even drafted in most leagues. Each of these players has managed to achieve at least some degree of mixed-league relevance, and we'll look at them with an eye towards the hope that they can continue to provide value in slightly shallower leagues over the second half of 2019.
Welcome back to the weekend DFSers! We have another massive 14-game slate on FanDuel, with everyone playing except for the Yankees and Red Sox, who are shipping off to London. Pitching is a little on the light side today, with Jacob deGrom and his tough match-up with the Braves being the most expensive pitcher on the slate at $11,500. There are some really awesome hitting match-ups today, so I'm more likely to pay down a little at pitcher in order to fit in the big bats. That's why I'm locking in
Merrill Kelly ($8,600) as my starting pitcher. In five starts since a rough start in Coors on May 28th, Kelly has gone 34.1 innings pitched, while allowing just nine runs and striking out 32. More importantly, Merrill Kelly faces the Giants, who have the fourth-worst wRC+ against right-handed pitching for the season. In addition, this game will be played in Oracle Park, giving Kelly a park upgrade as well. Let's take a look at what paying down at pitcher on FanDuel can get us.
New to FanDuel? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!
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Yesterday, the Pirates exploded for five homers, touching up Brad Peacock (3 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 4.13). Maybe the Pirates would’ve let up more if his name was Brad Parrot. Kevin Newman led the way once again, going 3-for-5, 2 RBIs with his 4th homer, and 2nd homer in as many games. Of course, he will be in this afternoon's Buy column. Didn't need Newman to star in the show off the Peacock, but fantasy owners should still be saying, "Hello, Newman." Then, Starling Marte (2-for-5, 3 runs) got a slam (12) and legs (12), as he plays his OCD for laughs, as one can do in the decade of the 90s. Then, Jacob Stallings, subject of Permanent Midnight and staff writer on ALF, got into the action, going 3-for-3, 2 runs, 2 RBIs with his 1st homer. Then, Corey Dickerson (1-for-4, 2 RBIs) hit his 2nd homer, and had his 2nd big game in a row. Previously, Co-Dick was famous for what Siamese Twins filled out on a medical report, but maybe we should be "Stuck on You!" Finally, Josh Bell (2-for-5, 2 RBIs) hit his 22nd homer, 2nd homer in the row and Bell said, "If we're doing this like the 90s, I saved you," but the Pirates couldn't be reached for comment, in hiding, wearing a puffy shirt. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
