Glad to see you haven’t completely moved on to fantasy football just yet. There’s still money to be had on the baseball side and as a matter of fact, there’s quite a bit. DraftKings is running a baseball version of the Millionaire Maker. To the best of my knowledge, they’ve never run one of these for MLB and I’m pretty excited to take a few whacks at it. I’ve played these for PGA and of course, NFL and playing for a shot at a million is pretty silly to think about. It’s MLB, anyone can win you that dough on a given night, so let’s see if we can dig up some gems for this evening.
J. A. Happ is the pitcher I’m going to be looking at the most when building tonight’s lineups. I can’t understand a couple things about Happ, first is his price. Happ is $7,500 tonight, cheaper than John Lamb. Happ has been on an impressive run lately, much like Josh Tomlin. Tomlin costs $3,000 more tonight and is facing the K-stingy Royals. Happ’s ERA in August was a tidy 1.98 and he’s kept that momentum rolling into September with a 1.38 ERA in 2 starts. Also included in those 7 total starts is 42 Ks and 7 BBs in 40.1 IP. The other thing I don’t quite understand is the Streamonator’s hate for Happ tonight, ranking him as the 12th best pitcher on the day. That seems criminal, much like what the SON wants to do to my kitchen appliances. Maybe DraftKings and SON know something I don’t here. The Cubs are a solid hitting team, sure, but they lead the league in strikeouts and strikeouts mean points in the daily game, so that’s a plus for Happ. The Cubs are also in the bottom 8 in team OPS vs. LHP. This makes sense as their typical 2-4 hitters (Schwarber, Coghlan and Rizzo) are all lefties. Seems like another plus for Happ. Kris Bryant you say? PNC Park is one of, if not the hardest park for RH hitters to go deep in. If that’s not enough, Happ will be pitching the second game of a double header, which means he could be facing an even shakier lineup as the studs take the night off. I don’t know about you, but I’m sold. Let’s all hope Happ is just awesome and look at a few more picks to help us win that million.
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Stephen Strasburg, SP: $9,800 – Looking through today’s pitchers, Felix and de Grom are your no doubt aces but I wouldn’t sleep on Strasburg either. First of all, that would be very uncomfortable and second of all, it’d be just like Strasburg to finish the year on a great run just to sucker us all back into drafting him again next season. Stras struck out 13 Mets last time out and the Phillies aren’t exactly an offensive powerhouse. David Buchanan, who we’ll get to later, opposes him so a win should be easy enough to record. That’s of course provided Stras doesn’t pull a muscle and leave in the second inning after giving up 7 ERs.
Brett Anderson, SP: $6,500 – The Rockies are very, very bad on the road. Anderson doesn’t have the high upside we want for a Milly Maker lineup, but he makes a nice, safe 2nd pitcher for cash games.
Jake Odorizzi, SP: $10,000 – Something we need in these ginormous tournaments is a low owned, high upside player or three. On the pitching side, it’s a bit of a struggle to find upside at a low price, so instead we’ll go with upside at a relatively high price in a seemingly poor match-up. The poor seeming match-up should keep people off Jake, that and his price tag. Odorizzi just faced the Yankees in Yankee stadium recently and was pounded for 5 runs, including 3 HRs. However, he still managed to strikeout 8. Yankee stadium is clearly more hitter-friendly than the Trop and if Odor can keep the ball in the yard I think he has the highest upside for what should be a fairly low-owned player.
Kurt Suzuki, C: $2,700 – Alfredo Simon is prime stacking material tonight and it can all start with a cheap catcher. it doesn’t hurt that Suzuki has taken Simon deep twice in his career either.
Matt Adams, 1B: $3,300 – We’re going off the reservation a bit for the picks today, we need something that is going to differentiate is from the pack of 143,000+. Fatty Adams is hoping to be back in the lineup for the Cards tonight after finally being cleared. He’ll get to swing in hitter friendly Miller Park and face a pitcher in Ariel Pena who’s been hit around a bit in the minors and looked pretty “meh” so far in the majors. He’s a pinch hit risk late, but it might not matter if he’s clocked a couple taters before then.
Clint Robinson, 1B/OF: $2,500 – Robinson maybe isn’t too far off the radar as he’s been getting the playing time at 1B cuz Zimmerman has had a boo-boo and has looked good doing so. David Buchanan meanwhile, never looks good doing anything, especially pitching in the major leagues. There will be many, many Nationals stacks tonight, and for good reason.
Hector Olivera, 2B/3B: $2,000 – I have no idea why Olivera has 2B eligibility but Chris Colabello doesn’t have 1B. That’s immaterial however, for a minimum price tag and the 2B tag, Olivera makes for a decent play against soft tossing Mark Buehrle. You should be warned that Buehrle did just receive a cortisone shot however, so he will most likely throw a complete game shutout.
Anthony Rendon, 2B/3B: $3,700 – His price is still too low, I just can’t help myself.
Kyle Seager, 3B: $4,300 – Has been molten hot and Tropeano has not. I’ll ride the hot bat here and could even see a Mariners stack in play tonight.
Mike Moustakas, 3B: $3,900 – Speaking of stacks, the Royals might not be a bad one either. It seems like a lot of folks are buying what Josh Tomlin is selling. He’s very homer prone though and while KC isn’t known for their HR prowess, they can get down if the conditions are right. They could be a low-owned stack that pays off nicely.
Chris Owings, SS: $3,100 – Tyson Ross is a human stolen base dispenser, so this goes for all the ARI speedsters; if Owings gets on base, he’s a threat to move around the bases freely.
Aaron Hicks, OF: $3,700 – Back from the DL and back atop the order since Buxton has done little to solidify himself there. If the Twins are stackable, you can’t do so without the leadoff man.
Angel Pagan, OF: $3,100 – Seven hits in his last four games including a HR and three SBs, not too shabby. Lamb has been very WHIP-y and the Giants are a team that will capitalize on that.
Matt Kemp, OF: $4,600 – Kemp has been making up for lost stats lately and padding those final numbers. He’s seen plenty of Chacin, albeit in Colorado, and has 3 HRs off him in his career. Arizona isn’t referred to as Coors south for nothing, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a multi homer game from Kemp tonight.
Nick Markakis, OF: $3,700 – You want low owned, here’s a low owned player for you. In a strange case of BvP and going against the platoon advantage the lefty Markakis is 22/49 with 2 HRs career vs. Buehrle. It’s a long shot, but hey, so is winning a million bucks playing fantasy baseball.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
A day free of weather issues is something I love to see. There’s nothing worse than making decisions based on the strength of your radar reading.
Doing Lines In Vegas
Brett Anderson and Jacob de Grom both share the largest favorite honors tonight with both getting a -250 from Vegas. The Mets vs. Marlins tilt gets the lower total though, coming in at 7 runs. Felix and the Mariners vs. Tropeano and the Angels also have a 7 run total. The highest total on the night is found in the battle of Texas as Houston @ Texas is set at 9 runs.
