Growing up one of my favorite films was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The movie has everything; boat chases; hot Austrian scholars turned Nazi’s, Sean Connery, Knights, the Holy Grail and one of the greatest scenes in movie history. If you haven’t seen it *spoiler alert*,(actually can you give a spoiler alert if a movie is 25 years old?) in one of the last scenes of the movie Indy has to go through a series of booby traps and make choices on how to conquer them based on his knowledge of Jesus. BT-dubs doesn’t booby traps seem like it could be Justin Verlander’s current issue? Maybe he’s trapped by the power of Kate Upton’s assets and spends most road trips locked in his hotel room getting to second base? Anyyyyy way where was I? Oh yeah the booby traps! After making his way through the obstacles Indy ends up in an old dusty room at the back of a cave guarded by one of a collection of Knights whose sole duty is to protect the Grail. In order for Indiana to get access to the Grail and save the day he must choose between bevies of gaudy cups and find the true Grail. At this moment the Knight urges him to choose wisely! If you haven’t seen it watch the clip here. Either way where I’m going with this is we are presented with a far less dramatic choice every day when playing daily fantasy games on DraftKings. There are several approaches and strategies and someone is lying if they tell you they approach each day’s games the same as the day before. Sometimes you’re better off investing in hitting, and other times you’re better off splashing the dollars on arms. No one approach holds true every day. For example for today’s early games the pitching options are limited to say the least and I couldn’t blame you for going cheap on pitching and spending on hitting. The night games are slightly better with Stephen Strasburg, Garrett Richards, and Shelby Miller all seeming like solid plays.
Speaking of choosing wisely, you can start your day of good choices off by playing DraftKings with us. In fact if you haven’t played DraftKings before you can play for free by signing up here. For all newbies and experienced players alike, I will post a link in the comments to play with me and some of the other Razzball writers in a league. Without further ado below are the Razzball picks for Saturday June 14th.
Zack Wheeler, SP: $7,700 – After three straight solid starts Wheeler pitched a real stinker against the Giants this past Sunday. He gets the Padres at home, which seems to be the safest play in the early games. Though Wheeler has been wildly inconsistent thus far in his career, I fully expect 6 plus innings and 7 K’s. He’s sporting a 9.25 K/9 on the season, so the whiffs have been there it’s just a matter of him not giving up too many free passes. He’s also been a bit unlucky with his xFIP and FIP sitting at 3.38 and 3.32 compared to a 4.19 ERA. At a price of $7,700 he’s going to free up dollars to use elsewhere.
Jarred Cosart, SP: $7,000 – I’m really hoping that Cosart doesn’t burn me today, like Michael Wacha did earlier this week against the hapless Rays. The only good that came of that was Sky sharing this picture. Yes, Sky does hold the Internet title for best shared picture after that one. Annnnyway, Cosart has been surprisingly solid this season going 9 straight starts without giving up more than 3 runs. His k-rate is meh at 6.9 and his walks are high at 4.07 per 9, but he hasn’t been lucky with his ERA/FIP/xFIP splits looking in line (4.19/3.92/3.99). He also gets ground balls and his LOB% sits at 69.5%. He’s a mediocre pitcher that gets a home matchup against one of MLB’s worst offenses at a nice price. I’ll take it.
Carlos Santana, C: $4,000 – The other Carlos Santana started the season off providing more Rob Thomas duets than classic jams while sitting below the Mendoza line for most of the season. Over the last two weeks Santana’s season has started to trend in the other direction. With an OBP of .894 over the last two weeks with a couple of homers (including one last night) Santana is finally starting to give his fantasy owners something. I fully expect that to continue to trend upward today in a matchup with Jake Peavy. Peavy has been horrific lately, giving up 5 plus runs in 4 of his last 6 starts. He’s also given up 13 dongs in 13 starts thus far this season. My math skills tell me that means he gives up one a game. Maybe Carlos hits one of them.
Jose Abreu, 1B: $5,100 – I’m not going to stop talking about how his walkup music should be Poppa Large by Ultramagnetic MC’s until it happens. Abreu is my 2014 man crush on the hitting side. He’s had 4 homers since coming back from the DL and I think I’ve suggested him two weeks in a row. I’m trying to own him as often as possible in as many formats as possible. I could sit here and give you all his numbers but if you’re paying attention you already know. He gets Danny Duffy today who since his gem against the O’s back on May 17th has only provided one quality start in 4 tries. This all seems to setup nicely for a big day from Grande Dolor.
Brandon Moss, 1B: $4,900 – Can we just admit that signing Moss is one of Billy Beane’s greatest finds? The guy has turned into one of the top power bats in the game. When looking at two of my favorite hitting metrics wOBA and wRC+ Moss measures out to be a top 20 player in fantasy coming at 21 in wOBA and 17th in wRC+ respectively. He faces Hiroki Kuroda today who hasn’t been good, but also hasn’t been bad either. Moss is 3/15 career against Kuroda with a home run and a couple of doubles.
Justin Turner, 2B/3B: $3,000 – Grey mentioned him in his buy column yesterday and Turner has been En Fuego the last two weeks hitting .421 over the last 14 days and .500 in the last week. He costs a measly $3,000 and brings a ton of value as an under the radar punt play.
Ian Kinsler, 2B: $4,400 – Everything has been coming up Kinsler this season. He’s having a great year hitting a top the Tigers lineup and the man he was traded for has turned into one of the season’s biggest disappointments. Kinsler has started to cool the last month, and the last two weeks especially, but he gets to face Samuel Deduno. Kinsler is 3/8 with a homer off Deduno lifetime. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a ton of Tigers stacks today.
Alexei Ramirez, SS: $3,700 – Thus far this season Sexi Alexei has been the 2nd best SS in the game behind Tulo. He’s provided a nice mix of power (7 homers) and speed (12 steals) while hitting over .300. In other words he’s provided good value across the board and in Draftkings speed and power are the two most useful assets of any potential hitter. He also once again gets Danny Duffy at home.
Todd Frazier, 1B/3B: $4,300 – Frazier has been awesome this season. I have to be honest, after showing some promise early last season. I had lost all faith coming into this season, that he would ever be more than a barely ownable 3B/CI in most leagues. Well he’s proved me wrong, and Grey right once again. Frazier is a top 5 3rd baseman only behind the likes of Miguel Cabrera, Edwin Encarnacion, and Josh Donaldson. He gets to face Yovani Gallardo today and I fully expect the Reds to put up some runs. T-Frazy is also 7/20 career with a homer against YoGa all-time.
Carlos Gomez, OF: $5,200 – The tough Car-Go is in the midst of an 11 game hitting streak, and he gets to face Mat Latos today fresh off the DL. Gomez is 8/15 off Latos lifetime with 2 homers and a couple of steals. I’m going to keep this opinion off twitter because I don’t want to feel the wrath of Dallas Latos. BTW does anyone else think Dallas had two career paths? Were there really any options outside stripper or slutty baseball wife?
Michael Brantley, OF: $4,900 – I already mentioned how terrible Peavy has been, right? I would stack away in this game and Brantley is the main cog in the Indians lineup.
Gregory Polanco, OF: $3,200 – He went 5/7 last night with his first homer. He costs $3,200 which is the same as bunch of fourth outfielders. This is an easy call, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s owned in 75% of teams today.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
There are only two games facing raindrops that don’t have one of those fancy retractable roof things. One is here in Boston and the other is the Braves vs. Angel’s game in Atlanta. The Atlanta game is only a 20% chance so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Here in Boston it doesn’t seem like the game is really going to be threatened by any significant showers.
Doing Lines in Vegas
Truthfully most of my betting is going to be on the World Cup today. I’m a Football addict and just enough of a pretentious un-American douche to call soccer Football. So I’m going to give you my World Cup Picks and a couple of O/U’s on the baseball games.
I like Columbia to win a surprisingly tough matchup against Greece, who always exceeds expectations in international competition despite a lack of world class players. I like Uruguay and Luis Suarez to roll against Costa Rica and I will pray as my Three Lions take on Italy. I’d expect Italy to play their usual tight D and keep the scoring low. Hopefully my unhealthy obsession, Wayne Rooney, can provide a spark.
As for baseball I like the over at 8.5 in the Kansas City/ Chicago game, the under of 8 in the Houston/ Tampa Bay game, and the over in Cincy/ Milwaukee game.
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