The Wild Card race is starting to flesh itself out and today shows the AL teams in as Toronto, Tampa Bay and Seattle. The teams looking in from the outside as of Saturday are Baltimore, Chicago, Minnesota and Boston. On the NL side Atlanta is out in front by 11+ games with San Diego and Philadelphia owning the next two slots. Milwaukee is still in the hunt and San Francisco is still mathematically alive though it does not look good right now.
What does that mean for DFS, you ask? Mainly, those teams fighting for the final slots on each side will need to ensure they are all in every day and will be playing hard with the goal of playoffs in mind. I tend to lean on those teams chasing the Wild Card as they will rarely remove a starting pitcher early for rest and they will normally play their studs on the offensive side.
Our pitchers are solid and have been that way for the better part of the 2022 season. Half of our bats are on heaters and some are slumping. Let’s jump on the hot streaks and take our chances of our bats coming out of their slumps at just the right time.
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Drew Rasmussen, SP: DK: $8,300 / FD: $7,500 – The Rays are second in the AL Wild Card chart and will lean on Rasmussen to help solidify that standing. Rasmussen brings a solid 2.92 ERA/1.70 WHIP into the contest with the AL Wild Card leading Blue Jays. The weekend series will go a long way to lock the Rays into a Wild Card berth or move them down the ranks. Rasmussen does not light up the strikeout column but has solid numbers. I look for him to go deep into the game as the Rays need a big start from him to stay competitive down the stretch.
Logan Gilbert, SP: DK: $8,500 / FD: $10,200 – I am embarrassed to type about Seattle losing multiple games to the Athletics while chasing the Wild Card. Seattle will continue to run the young arms out there every five days and, if those guys continue to do their part, the Mariners will be just fine and will earn the Wild Card. What Seattle really needs is for the offense to find some consistency. Gilbert brings an ERA/WHIP only slightly higher than Rasmussen at 3.13/1.19. Where Gilbert outshines Rasmussen is with his strikeouts (167).
Jonah Heim, C: DK: $3,500 / FD: $2,100 – Our guy Heim is in the midst of a nasty slump. The positive to said slump in a price discount. Other than taking a chance, with the discount, I have very little to share with you about Heim’s recent performance. This is a pure gut pick playing at home.
Pete Alonso, 1B: DK: $5,500 / FD: $3,900 – I am enlisting the Polar Bear to get some revenge against the Athletics (on behalf of my Mariners). Alonso is sporting an RBI per game and one HR every three games over his last 15 total games. He is sitting on the cusp of 40 HR and has already set a career high in RBI. Look for Pete to stay hot against the lackluster Oakland lefty on Saturday.
Luis Rengifo, 2B: DK: $4,200 / FD: $2,300 – At some point, we need to save some money, right? We can normally do so at catcher and 2B. Why not do so with a guy with a scorching bat? There is nothing amazing about Rengifo and there are some DFS players simply jumping over his name because the Angels are irrelevant after Trout and Ohtani or because they have never seen the name prior. It is time we started paying attention to Rengifo as he is riding a +.325 average with four HR over his last 15 games. He is a switch-hitter facing the on-again, off-again Joe Ryan. For the price discount, I will hope for the middle season Ryan versus the guy that was a major player in the recent combined no-hot bid by the Twins.
Austin Riley, 3B: DK: $5,300 / FD: $3,700 – Similar to Heim, Riley is in a nasty slump even though he has already set a career high for HR. For guys of Riley’s caliber, slumps are not normally long and tend to end with a big bang! Against a lefty in Philly, I like Riley’s chances of coming out of the slump with a big weekend.
Willy Adames, SS: DK: $5,200 / FD: $3,600 – There is no better place than to keep a heater going than at the Great American Small Park against the hapless Reds staff. Coming in batting .382 over his last 15 games with 5 HR and 18 RBI, I think Adames fits our hot streak pattern very well.
Eloy Jimenez, OF: DK: $5,500 / FD: $3,800 – Currently on the outside looking in, the White Sox have been nothing short of a disappointment in 2022. I invested, heavily, in those White Sox in my season-long leagues and do not want to discuss how those teams look today. One of the bright spots, when healthy, has been Jimenez. Over his last 15 games, Jimenez is batting .350+ with 5 HR and 17 RBI. Detroit will send Drew Hutchinson and his 4.60 ERA and 1.47 WHIP to the bump and I am confident Jimenez is excited for the matchup.
Steven Kwan, OF: DK: $4,600 / FD: $3,600 – As much as I love the last 15 games for Kwan, I love the Kwan line just as much. Though he does not hit for much power, Kwan is on base all the time and scores a lot of runs for the front running Guardians. With a +.320 average over his last 15, Kwan brings almost a run per game and a more than 2-to-1 BB-to-K rate with five stolen bases. You do not need power to win DFS…you need balance and Kwan more than brings stats to help earn you some money.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
No adverse weather to discuss for Saturday.
Doing Lines In Vegas
If you are a fan of player props, lay some money on the Over Ks for Burnes, deGrom and Alcantara.
