Finally we have what baseball fans have been craving for months, a full slate of games to enjoy. Unfortunately, they are all over the place as far as start times and there’s only two night games. I’m not sure what baseball thinks it’s competing with in the prime time slots, but we have plenty of day games to sort through. The “Main” slate on FanDuel today includes from the one o’clock games all the way to five (ET). In the four o’clock slot we’ve got Lance McCullers ($8,000) and the Astros taking on the Mariners. Even with 16 teams making the playoffs now, the Mariners won’t be making a push. It’s been almost two full years since McCullers last threw a meaningful pitch, so there is certainly some amount of risk involved with this pick. However, that’s baked into the price as well. It may take some serious memory, but McCullers was a 10/11 K/9 pitcher back in his heyday. Could there be some rust? Most definitely. Will he still likely get the win? Vegas says the Astros are a -260 favorite, so I think yes. As Dustin May proved on Thursday, if a pitcher is cheap enough, you can still win some money with them only pitching 4+ innings.
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Mike Clevinger, SP: $10,400 – If you’d rather play things by the book and keep it safe, Clevinger is your arm today. The Royals remain horrendous and the Indians are at home in this one. Vegas has them pegged as -240 favorites, so securing that win shouldn’t be an issue. I’d expect a handful of strikeouts to go along with that win.
Dinelson Lamet, SP: $8,000 – If you’re playing the “All Day” slate, I might suggest taking a peek at Lamet who is at home against the D’Backs. Lamet was up around 13 K/9 last year and as we say in DFS, strikeouts pay the bills!
Julio Urias, SP: $7,600 – I originally had Rich Hill in this spot, who was priced $400 cheaper, but, SURPRISE! Baseball season wouldn’t be the same without Rich Hill being scratched from a start. Instead, we’ll roll the dice that Urias can get through more than 4 innings. The upside here is huge, even bigger than Rich Hill’s blister. There should be plenty of strikeouts and an easy win for Urias. I think I just talked myself right into this one.
Carlos Santana, C/1B: $3,300 – One of my favorite things to do when searching for plays is to scroll to the bottom of the Streamonator and pick on whoever is the lowest. Today we have Alex Cobb, Taijuan Walker and Brady Singer. Santana should be batting cleanup against Singer and the Indians should roll in this one.
Mitch Moreland, C/1B: $2,700 – Worst of the worst as far as pitchers is Alex Cobb. Remember Cobb? I’m old enough to remember when he was the new shiny toy for the Rays. Well, now he’s the washed up toy of the Orioles and the Red Sox should put another whopping on them.
Kolten Wong, 2B: $2,500 – Wong should be batting leadoff once again for the Cardinals who face off against Trevor Williams. No offense to Trevor, we had our fun a couple seasons ago when Grey was in love with him, but these days I’m looking to stack against him.
Jose Peraza, 2B: $2,400 – I’m loving the cheap Peraza shares early on this season. Also look for Michael Chavis ($2,600) to fill this spot if the Sox swap things around. Both will be great values today.
Josh Donaldson, 3B: $3,000 – Unless you’re a big Dallas Keuchel fan I think you’d agree that the Twins are in a good spot to score some runs today. Donaldson should be right in the thick of that and I can’t say I understand why he’s so cheap today.
Matt Carpenter, 3B: $2,500 – Carpenter is checking in pretty cheap at the start of the season. His numbers vs. Trevor Williams aren’t too shabby either with three homers in 29 plate appearances. You could do worse.
Javier Baez, SS: $3,400 – I found it hard to find decent, cheap options at SS today, so I’ll go with a couple in the upper mid-range. Baez faces Corbin Burnes, who everyone seems to be in love with all of a sudden. I would keep an eye on that Wrigley wind during this day game and if it’s blowing out, I’d wait and see on Burnes because Baez and the Cubs could be in for a big day.
Didi Gregorius, SS: $3,000 – I’m not actively looking to pick on Caleb Smith, I’m more just excited to see Didi in Philly
Nelson Cruz, OF: $3,600 – Cruz is our BvP special of the day. He’s knocked five dingers off Keuchel in 53 PAs, that’s pretty decent.
Nick Castellanos, OF: $3,100 – I was pretty high on Nick coming into this season back in March, and though it feels like forever ago I did that research, nothing has really changed at all as far as how well I think he’ll do. Ivan Nova comes into Cincy and I think we could see the Reds hit him pretty hard.
Alex Verdugo, OF: $2,300 – Maybe my favorite value play of the entire play right here. Verdugo sat with a lefty on the mound for Opening Day but with Alex Cobb on the bump today, he should be ready to do his best to make Boston forget about Mookie. Good luck kid!
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
No rain on the horizon today, so fire everybody up! It’s looking to be humid with temps near 100 in St. Louis today so watch for the Pirates v Cards game to pop off.
Doing Lines In Vegas
McCullers and the Astros are the biggest favorites today at -260 with Clevinger and the Indians right behind them at -240. The highest over/unders today also happens to be in the SEA@HOU tilt along with MIN@CWS, with both games at 9.5. However, there isn’t a single game today under 8.5, so maybe Vegas is hedging a bit.
