I usually look forward to Monday’s during the Fantasy Baseball season, but today’s starting pitching has me a little down. Certainly, if you take a quick glance, things don’t seem so bad as Johnny Cueto, Gerrit Cole, Jason Hammel, Adam Wainwright and Gio Gonzalez are on the bump tonight. Now I know you’re thinking that some of those names are quite attractive, but unfortunately we’ve got some Buttafaces on the slate for today. Gio looks like he got his groove back until you look closer and see he’s faced Atlanta, Minnesota and Philly twice. Cueto has looked lost all season and even though he had 11 K’s and 0 ER last time out, he was facing the Padres. Waino has Philadelphia tonight and maybe he gets back on track, but with his current numbers, he needs a lot more than a solid matchup for me to throw any money his way. Cole and Hammel are facing each other, but both offenses are in the top three in runs and average vs RHP, so probably not the best matchups to jump on. Now that we’ve maneuvered through the mediocre minefield who’s left? Who can turn our Monday frown upside down? That man is Dallas Keuchel and at a reasonable $9,900, he’s our star tonight. He was great in DK last year and even though he’s been struggling this year I think tonight he gets back to his Cy Young form. All but 4 of his 5 starts have come on the road this season and if we take a deeper look into last year he rocked a 1.46/3.77 ERA split. He’s got a great match-up against the Twinkies tonight and my awesome In-Laws Tom & Cindy assured me that the Houston home cooking tonight will be on point for our boy to return to the Dallas Kyer’s Club.
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Nathan Karns, SP: $7,600 – He’s not going to wow you with his numbers, but he’s off to a solid start with 22.1 IP, 9 ER and 24 K’s. He’s facing a weaker Oakland line up in a pitchers park and should be under owned in cash and tourney play.
Jose Berrios, SP: $7,700 – He definitely had a shaky first start, but it seems like nerves just got the best of him. Even though they’re facing each other, I’m tempted to pair him with Dallas tonight as Houston has been struggling at the plate. They’re leading the league in K’s with 195 and hitting just a paltry .226 vs RHP.
Jon Gray, SP: $7,900 – A little expensive for a guy who’s rocking a plus 11 ERA, but he is a Rockies pitcher and he has a great match up vs San Diego.
Francisco Cervelli, C: $3,100 – I think the Regression Fairies will be making a visit to Hammel’s 0.75 ERA tonight. He’s right at 3k and he’s had multiple hits in 3 of the last 4 games.
Salvador Perez, C: $2,700 – Same story as Cervelli, cheap and regression is coming for Gio.
Eric Hosmer, 1B: $3,700 – His reverse splits are eerie identical to RHP and he’s only hitting at a .174/.391/.599 vs .379/.423/.545 on the year. Tonight he’ll start gaining some ground on evening out those splits.
Freddie Freeman, 1B: $4,200 – I thought Freddy fingered Freddie by sticking him in the 6 hole, but it worked. Freeman has started to heat up hitting 2 HR’s over the last four games, that’s twice as many as hit over the previous 20 games.
Neil Walker, 2B: $4,100 – The former Pirate loves his new home, dude has been absolutely mashing and look for him to keep it going against Mike Foltynewicz who’s getting the Monday spot start.
Rougned Odor, 2B: $3,700 – He’s been getting on base and scoring, so now go ahead and tee off on Dickey who typically struggles at the beginning of the season.
Nolan Arenado, 3B: $4,100 – I told you last week the ToreNado would be touching down and he came through with 4 HR’s over the next six games. I almost sat him yesterday because I had too many HR’s in my regular league. I know, tough problem, but I needed some bags. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it and he went ahead and hit another one, dude is scary good. I wish I could roster him at every IF position, as he’s rocking a BVP of 12/23 4 HR’s and 6 RBI against James Shields.
Josh Donaldson, 3B: $4,500 – He has 2 HR’s over the last three games and he loves hitting at home: .354/.729/1.144.
Carlos Correa, SS: $4,200 – You’ve got some extra walking around money, so go ahead and treat yourself to some top tier SS action. He’s been scary quiet for the first month of the season; April Sour’s bring Mayo Powers! I told you to jump on a cheap Pujols last week and he responded with two bombs.
Aledmys Diaz, SS: $3,200 – He’s cooled off a bit over the last four games, but he seems awful cheap vs Hellickson tonight. Thanks for the Monday special DK.
Michael Conforto, OF: $3,800 – He’s been raking collecting 5 multi-hit games over the last eight. He went 0-5 yesterday, but he had a tough match-up vs Mad-Bum. He’ll be back to smashing tonight against Folty.
Mike Trout, OF: $5,200 – I usually don’t have enough dough for the top player, but with todays pitching slate I’ll get to treat myself to some fresh fish.
Ryan Braun, OF: $4,700 – I think the Hebrew Hammer will be taking batting practice against a guy who throws harder than Jered Weaver. He’s quietly hitting .333/.577/.986 with 5 bombs on the year and I really like him at home tonight.
Carlos Gonzalez, OF: $3,800 – Here’s another guy who’s really hungry for a HR ball. He’s gone the last 11 games without going big fly, but he does feast on Shields 9/25 with 3 Bombs.
Ian Desmond, OF: $3,600 – I wish DK still had him SS eligible. He’s been really hot lately and he’s facing Dickey. Hopefully he can mix in some SB’s as he’s grabbed 4 bags over the last eight games.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
We’re in pretty good shape today as only three games have about a 30% chance of rain. Keep and eye on CHI/PIT, SF/CIN and ATL/NYM games as there is a small chance of rain across the board for all three.
Doing Lines In Vegas
Waino is leading the pack at -210, followed by Keuchel -190 and Cueto at -170 -190. I know Philly isn’t that good, but the odds makers have too much love for Waino.
