I get excited when I see new names pop up on my Crushonator. I load up Rudy’s values and then run them through my virtual sausage maker and create the chunkiest Crushers you ever did see. You ever see Yasmani Grandal? That’s a Spartan man. If Plato had been alive to watch baseball, he would have put Yasmani behind his cave fire so he could see the Yas Man’s shadow on the wall and then imagine it as the ideal of man. Michelangelo would have painted Yasmani touching the finger of God. Gilette would have made him shave with a straight razor while riding a rickety train. Dos Equis would have made him interesting. ENYWHEY. Let’s hire our Yas Man and see who else we might want to fire up for DFS today.
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Starting Pitchers
Chalk: Gerrit Cole
Expensive Leverage: Freddy Peralta
GPP Darlings: Triston McKenzie, Jesus Luzardo
Cole faces off against Baltimore and I wouldn’t be surprised to see massive utilization for him today. He was also injured in his last start, so deploy him wisely. So, is this the day that you can afford Freddy Peralta? His arm is tired and he’s been crushed recently, but it’s those pitchers who fall off for a brief period that come storming back. Remember when Cole was “done” for about a month and then came back to be the most valuable pitcher in the game? Max Scherzer was “done” at the end of 2019 and look where he is now. Pitchers go through rough spots and if give up on them too early, you’ll miss their glorious return. The question is how much you want to invest in that return.
Hitters
Remember that I’m writing and submitting this well before roster lock, and these players have a greater than 50% chance of being in the lineup today. As always, check lineups before submitting your entries.
These are my crushers, who are identified as being both favorites in Rudy’s DFS Tools as well as being the top batters on the slate in terms of home/away and handedness splits for wOBA, ISO, and line drive %. Put these batters at a 40%+ exposure or build around them for single entry events:
| Crushers |
|---|
| Yasmani Grandal |
| Shohei Ohtani |
| Bryce Harper |
| Brandon Lowe |
| Vladimir Guerrero Jr. |
| Fernando Tatis Jr. |
My Hobbits are batters who have less stringent power requirements but are some of the cheaper bats on the slate.
| Hobbits |
|---|
| Adam Duvall |
| Hunter Renfroe |
| Aristides Aquino |
| C.J. Cron |
| Jared Walsh |
| Gary Sanchez |
| Kyle Higashioka |
| Seth Brown |
| Brandon Belt |
My list of unexpected cheap hitters is huge today. These guys are defined by being the cheapest bats on the slate with the highest line drive % against the handedness split. These guys are also the most likely to sit, so please check lineups if you play these guys.
| Think Differently |
|---|
| Bobby Bradley |
| Harold Ramirez |
| Oscar Mercado |
| Andrew Benintendi |
| Hunter Dozier |
| Max Stassi |
| Jesus Sanchez |
| Jake Cave |
| Jorge Polanco |
| Ryan Jeffers |
| J.D. Davis |
| Michael Conforto |
| Jed Lowrie |
| Tony Kemp |
| Dylan Carlson |
| Brett Phillips |
| Ji-Man Choi |
| Lane Thomas |
I’m Only Happy When It Rains:
MIL/DET and OAK/KCR are under threat of rain.
Doing Lines in Vegas:
Baltimore is anywhere from +260 to +300 today against the Yankees. Gerrit Cole left his last start early with hamstring tightness. What if Cole isn’t fully healed? What if he pitches 3 IP and hands it over to a middle reliever who can’t deliver? 90% of the field bet against the Raiders last night and lost; sometimes you gotta make a bold play.
