Tonight we get to play everybody’s favorite game, “Guess the lineup for Game 2 of the Coors Double Header”. Just rolls off the tongue really. I love me some Coors field, but I dread days like this when there’s a double header with start times spaced 5 hours apart. What stinks about this is when the first game gets finished up around 6:30 EST or so, there’s 30 minutes until most games kick off and zero percent chance that Walt Weiss can muster up a lineup in that small amount of time. This leads us to either fade Coors, yikes, or take a guess at what we think the lineup will look like and leaving our lineup flexible enough to make changes late. This might mean we fade the early games entirely and it creates some interesting opportunities depending on how much you want to gamble. Here’s what I mean: if you think a lot of people will be off the Coors game due to lack of lineups and not wanting to sit around and wait for them, stack away and hope for a big leg up on the field. On the other side, if you think a lot of people will be waiting for those lineups to post and thus ignoring the 7:00 EST start times, load up on earlies, find a nice stacking option and hope you can shoot the moon. If you are going to wait around for the Coors lineups, I’d suggest having a lineup ready and being prepared for as many scenarios as you can. This means going through the options if each player is out of the game 2 lineup. There’s a handy feature DraftKings has that I’m not sure a lot of people know about or use. If you click on “My Lineups” up at the top there’s a button that reads, “Create New Lineup”. Here you can play around with all the lineups you want to create, you can make one for every scenario you can dream up and save them all to your lineups page without entering a contest. Having these lineups ready to go will not only give you a better handle on your options when, say, AJ Pollock is suddenly out of the game 2 lineup, but will also make for a little less sweating as you can simply import your “No Pollock” lineup and be ready to roll while others are floundering. I love fish puns, let’s get to some more picks, just for the halibut.
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Madison Bumgarner, SP: $12,400 – Next evolution of fantasy baseball idea: Allow the option to swap in your pitcher’s hitting stats at the end of the night for one of your batters who has underperformed. Oh, Jose bautista went 0 for 4 today, well, Madison Bumgarner went 2 for 3 with a HR, guess I’ll swap his stats in. Think of it, NL pitchers get a boost in value, Bumgarner might be a second rounder, and fun will be had by all. Oh and the Dodgers have been no hit twice in the last 2 weeks, so there’s that.
Jonathon Niese, SP: $6,500 – The nose knows what Colon did to the Phillies last night and he’s looking to sniff out a win. Nose puns, almost as good as fish puns. There’s limited upside with Niese, but he’s a rock solid and cheap SP2.
Andrew Cashner, SP: $6,100 – There is a serious lack of cheap upside tonight and when that happens, I’ll just look for cheap and a good match-up. Cashner has been pretty “meh” this year, but Cashner at home is down right good. His home ERA is 3.34 and more importantly his K/9 at home jumps up to 10 vs. 6.2 on the road.
Justin Verlander, SP: $9,700 – The narrative is out there: “Verlander is back”, “JV is amazing again”. This may be true, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it is wise to fade the Royals for DFS purposes. These guys just don’t strike out. I have a feeling people will be hoping to jump on the Verlander bandwagon at a slightly reduced price, but don’t give in. Verlander’s upside is extremely limited in this matchup, you can find better options.
Salvador Perez, C: $3,200 – Speaking of Verlander, look who has a very nice BvP vs. JV. 18/38 with 2 long balls and no, that is not a reference to a Verlander selfie.
Evan Gattis, 1B: $3,700 – You can pay 5 or 6 grand for your 1B and find a nice matchup, but there’s some value plays as well. Elias is fairly mediocre and Gattis has been on a bit of a hot streak. I like El Oso Blanco to take Elias yard tonight. Gotta love discount taters.
Ben Paulsen, 1B/OF: $3,600 – I think it’s a fairly safe bet that Paulsen plays in game 2 vs. the righty de la Rosa. You know I’m a big Rubby fan, but…Coors.
Chris Coghlan, 2B/OF: $3,400 – Oh look, another righty and there’s Coghlan, back hitting third after a brutal stretch of lefty pitchers had him riding the pine. That pine riding drives Coghlan’s price way down and I’m ready to pounce on that like a fat kid on a cupcake.
Wilmer Flores, 2B/SS: $3,200 – I’ll take some cheap power upside all day long at this price. Wilmer’s hot schomtatoness may have worn off a bit but Harang is just the guy to bring it on back.
Kyle Seager, 3B: $3,500 – Speaking of schmotatos that are hot, I mentioned in my last article how Seager gets no respect and even with his hot streak he’s not getting any love. He’s got 4 HRs and a SB in the last two weeks and has swiped 3 bags off Feldman in his career (in 12 ABs). Give the man some love.
Brad Miller, SS: $2,900 – With Austin Jackson out of town, Miller got a look in CF last night. I’m not sure if that is a trend that will continue, but he looked alright out there to me. Miller has been playing all over the diamond for Seattle because his bat should be in the lineup when possible. You can tell I’m ready to pick on Feldman and Seattle has the lefties to make it a long night for him.
Jacoby Ellsbury, OF: $4,500 – Jacoby earns BvP special of the night honors tonight vs. Rick Porcello. Ells has quite frankly owned Porcello to the tune of 11/17 with 4, count them, 4 HRs and 2 SBs. Wowza.
Jayson Werth, OF: $3,300 – Hey, he’s hitting and his price is based on facing C-Mart not Marco Gonzalez who gets the call instead of Martinez. Marco hasn’t wowed in AAA this year, but that is in the extremely hitter friendly PCL. Still, I’ll take the hot, cheap leadoff hitter against the kid tonight.
Marcell Ozuna, OF: $3,000 – Always look to capitalize on late pitcher changes. A decent part of DraftKing’s pricing algorithm is handedness based so when a player suddenly has the platoon advantage in a matchup your ears should perk up a bit. Manny Banuelos is going to slide into the Braves rotation and Ozuna is primed to benefit. Not only that, but Banuelos will likely be on a pitch count since his time on the DL was elbow related. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the Braves bullpen is bad. Really. Really. Bad. Ozuna smash.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
Clear blue skies everywhere today, enjoy.
Doing Lines In Vegas
Outside of Coors it’s Yankees/Red Sox and Indians/Blue Jays with the highest over/unders with 9 each. Bumgarner vs. Greinke gets the ultra-rare 5.5 over/under tonight. Jonathon Niese is the night’s biggest favorite, sitting at -220. Like I said, no upside, but odds for a respectable game are high.
