Well, well well, my Razzball friends. Come on in and grab a seat. We’re officially halfway to the weekend, y’all! That means a Return of the King (of Wednesday DFS!), and another middle of the week menu full of happiness and homers from MarmosDad today!
15 seems to be the magic number on Wednesdays, and this one is no different. But, unlike last week, we have quite a few games starting before our evening eight. First pitch is in Philly today at 1:05 PM ET where Kyle Gibson takes on Pablo Lopez. There are 6 afternoon games before the 7:05 starts, if you want to play a couple of DFS lineups, and we end off the full slate with a 10:10 PM ET matchup in Los Angeles where the Angels visit Dodger Stadium.
Apologies to Sean Bean for the stolen meme title today, but the temptation to roll with Spencer Strider, both for his name and his ratio of innings pitched to strikeouts (38:57) was much too strong. Yes, before you LOTR hardcores freak out about me mixing Strider and Aragorn with a Boromir meme, I just want to point out that I may or may not have been distracted by the beautifully manicured Vaudeville ‘stache from our lede here and decided it was worth the combination. Here’s hoping that this Strider lasts longer than Bean’s Boromir in the Lord of the Rings…or Bean’s Ned Stark in Game of Thrones…or Mr. Bean in…wait, now I’m just getting distracted.
So come on down, down to MarmoTown, and let me lead you on a (hopefully) short walk through the green hills of DFS gems. Like the last few weeks, I’ve got some value plays, some cheaper dart throws, and some pretty big name chalk plays to help you round out your tournament or daily DFS lineups today!
But, as always, last and never least, just a reminder that a lot of the notes that I take and share here are influenced by Rudy’s Streamonator and Hittertron, as well as the DFS tools available right here on Razzball. As a side note, Rudy’s draft software is well worth the buy next spring too! You can access all of this information, by signing up for Rudy’s tools using the DFS Bot link below.
New to DFS? You can start playing right now on FanDuel and put our picks to the test. If you’re scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFS Bot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray, it helps support your Razzball team!
Spencer Strider, SP: (DK) $7,700 – The kids from school will tell you that it’s a bad idea to get me going on the Tolkien stuff, so I’ll try to stay focused here. At the beginning of the season, I picked up Strider everywhere I could, despite his RP eligibility. The hope was that at some point Atlanta would see the special arm that they had and slowly work him into the rotation. Well, after two months, Strider and his unbelievably luxurious lip foliage made his debut as an SP on May 30th. Overall, he has a 13.38 K/9. Orc you kidding me?! A 0.23 HR/9. Why, that’s tinier than a hobbit’s toenail! What? That’s not enough fancy statistics to make your eyes sore (on)? Do you need Mordor? How about allowing just 4 hits in his last start, with 1 BB, and 8 K’s? And he starts today at Washington against Erick Fedde? That doesn’t exactly sound as tough as The Battle of Helm’s Deep, so I’d take Strider today for some big strikeout numbers and the potential win even if the Streamonator doesn’t like him (-8.3).
Jose Berrios, SP: (DK) $8,900 – Well, this one was a tough call to make. At first, I was going to go with Dylan Cease at Detroit, but then the starter changed to Vince Velasquez and I can’t recommend that guy for anything other than a bet that he finishes the season with an over 5.00 ERA. The sensible move that rolls right along with our Middle Earth theme here would be to take his adversary, “Mr. Faedo” ($7,600 for Detroit), but the Tigers have the worst offense in baseball so I can’t go there either. Especially when Faedo is ‘baggin(s)’ only about 6 strikeouts per game. A lot of other matchups are too close to call or feature good pitchers in tough parks, so I’m going with Jose Berrios and the Blue Jays against Bruce Zimmerman and the O’s tonight. Berrios’s Statcast page is bluer than a Smurf in a Toronto snowstorm, but he’s given up 2 ER or less in his last two starts and averaged 9 K’s over those two games. After a dry spell, the Jays have scored tons of runs in the last two series, so they should at least put Berrios in a good spot to pull out a win and record a handful of strikeouts at home. All of that, and it looks like Berrios is Streamonator’s #1 SP today (+40 and ahead of Corbin Burnes). Look for Berrios to … bury the O’s… tonight!
MJ Melendez, C/OF: (DK) $4,600 – ‘Member when MJ Melendez was a $2000 player? ‘Member when he started hitting and got all the way up to $3600? ‘Member when I said that sooner or later this recommendation is going to go from a no-brainer to a value, to a chalk play? Well, the sleepy DraftKings pricing robots are snoozing on MJ no longer. Whether it’s the dual eligibility, the power potential, the increase in playing time, or all of the above, Melendez is trending the right way. He has started in all of Kansas City’s games in June, appeared behind the plate as well as at DH and in RF, and has managed to carve out a 128 wRC+. Not bad for KC’s #1 prospect who’s making a case to get regular playing time for the rest of the year.
Nathaniel Lowe, 1B: (DK) $3,100 – It’s time to ride the hot bat to Isengard…I mean… to Texas tonight, peeps. And that hot bat comes in the form of Nathaniel ‘don’t you dare call me Nate’ Lowe vs HOU (Luis Garcia) at home. Lowe is one of those former Tampa prospects that drew comparisons to Freddie Freeman for his smooth swing and big-time potential as a corner bat on his way up to Tropicana Field. I was firmly entrenched at the front of the “Free Nate Lowe” protest line for a few years. Needless to say, I was pretty excited when he escaped the clutches of Kevin Cash and made his way to Texas. Slotting in with a full-time gig at first, his power bat was supposed to flourish. Well, that hasn’t exactly happened yet, but Lowe has been on a heater for the past week and a bit. Since the calendar turned to June, Lowe has a triple slash line of .341/.356/.682. With 6 XBH in his last 7 games, one of which was a smooth swinging 416 foot homer last night, I honestly don’t know how he doesn’t hit 25+ a year. At an affordable $3,100, I’d dig low into the DFS purse for some pennies to throw at Nathaniel today.
Andres Gimenez, 2B/SS: (DK) $4,500 – It’s never a bad thing to roll with DFS players at Coors Field, and tonight is no different with the multi-eligible Andres Gimenez. Yes, he’s facing a fellow lefty in Austin Gomber, but in limited action against LHP, he’s hitting .393 (28 AB). Gimenez is a contact/speed combo play that still hits the ball hard (.516 SLG%), and although he has cooled a bit over the last few, he started June with hits in 6 out of his first 7 games. This one is one to double check for lineup switches as Terry Francona may opt to play matchups, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gimenez put up some good numbers at Coors if you need to plug someone with 5 tool potential in at a MI spot today.
Bryson Stott, 2B/SS: (DK) $2,600 Like every other Wednesday, there are so many games to choose from that it’s tough to not select one of the big shortstops. Many might go with a couple of hot bats in Bobby Witt Jr., or pivot to Marcus Semien’s recent…explosion…but I’m going to head to another multi-eligible bat in Bryson Stott today. Stott is another one that has enjoyed a great start to June. His season line might be pretty horrendous, but Stott’s .300 average with 4 HR and 15.9 K% in June are encouraging signs that he might be headed towards greener pastures. Sure, he faces Pablo Lopez at home, but if he can back himself into a game like he did on June 8 (4-4, HR, 2B, 3R, 2RBI) then he could win you some money. At the worst, he’s a cheaper play if you decide to go big elsewhere.
Ezequiel Duran, 2B/3B: (DK) $2,400 – I really wanted to go with Jose Ramirez ($6,000) at Colorado today, and I wouldn’t blame you if you went with that potential huge output at Coors Field. But, I decided to go back to the well from last week’s article to check in on a value play instead of using up a huge chunk of the DFS salary on Jo-Ram. Ezequiel 25:70 was my MI from June 8. In the 10 games that he’s been up with Texas, Duran has managed to hold his own to the tune of a .351/.368/.568 triple slash line. He’s riding a 5 game hit streak heading into today, has 4 XBH in his 10 games, and has even shown a bit of speed with his second steal of the year last night (he had 7 steals in 9 attempts in AA before his call up). I’m not ready to start calling him ‘honey bunny’ quite yet, but if he keeps hitting like this, we might have to change the text on Jules Winfield’s wallet to Ezequiel Duran.
Byron Buxton, OF: (DK) $5,200 – Well, here’s where we can spend all of those dollars that we saved with the value infield plays. The obvious big name here would be to go with Aaron Judge, and even at $6,200 he might still be a good play. However, with the two studs on the mound in that game, I don’t want to mess with any Yankees (vs. Shane McClanahan) or Rays (vs. Nestor Cortes) today. Buxton was a name from TheGreatKnoche’s list yesterday too, and for good reason. Coincidentally, Buxton (and my next name) might be the only OF that can hold a candle to Aaron Judge’s output this season. Buxton’s June has been pretty otherworldly. 7 homers this month and a .973 SLG% is a pretty healthy couple of weeks (maybe I shouldn’t put healthy and Buxton in the same paragraph). Add in the potential for runs scored and maybe a steal or two and I’d say a $5,200 price tag is a ‘ton’ of ‘bucks’ well spent today.
Yordan Alvarez, OF: (DK) $5,700 – For the last name today, as I did with a couple of others, I’m calling back to a few weeks ago. Yordan is in Texas this afternoon vs. AJ Alexy (according to Streamonator) and is the 8th ranked OF on today’s Hittertron list. I gave you all a lot of his numbers a couple of weeks ago, but since it looks like I’m on the triple slash train again today, I’ll let you look in on that here too: .315/.411/.625. Grey has even spoken about how much he thinks Yordan could be a first rounder next year. This guy has more 100’s on his Statcast page than Doogie Howser had on his medical school exams. And if we need to harken back to the original Middle Earth theme, the beast from Houston is built like a talking tree or a cave troll, and certainly has been swinging the bat with the same amount of power. If I had to place a bet on Yordan Alvarez vs AJ Alexy, I know where the smart money is. I think it’s safe to assume that any fastball from AJ Alexy will get the “You Shall Not Pass” from Yordan as he launches them over the Misty Mountains in Texas.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains…
It looks like a beauty of a day for baseball everywhere today. The only windy spots to report are Pittsburgh at St. Louis (12MPH), and San Diego at Chicago – shocker – (12.6MPH). Could be a bit of wind for Tampa at NYY, but that might not matter because…
Doing Lines In Vegas…
…I know that Nasty Nestor Cortes got roughed up a bit last week at Minnesota, but I fully expect a bounce back from him today at home against Tampa (-141). No matter who you like in this game, I’d be tempted to go with the under (7.5 as of last night), and peek in on total strikeouts for each of the starters. Anything over 5.5, I’d hit for both.
Otherwise, Cincinnati and Luis Castillo was an underdog at (+120) against Zac Gallen and the Diamondbacks as of late last night. That might be worth a play as well today.
Best of luck in your Wednesday DFS lineups! If you have any questions, shoot me a note on Twitter @MarmosDad!
