I swear every time I write it seems like Steven Wright is on the mound and every time I’m here touting him. Despite an 8-4 record and an AL best 2.01 ERA, Mr. Wright remains the Rodney Dangerfield of pitchers, getting no respect. Just look at his DraftKings pricing over his past three starts, $12,200 two starts ago, $11,100 last time out and now tonight, he’s at $10,600. This in spite of having thrown 9 innings of 5 hit shutout baseball against the White Sox in Fenway Park last time out. I get the match-up is a little tougher and it’s on the road against the Rangers, but good grief, hasn’t the man earned it to this point? Clearly, someone at DraftKings HQ is a knuckle-ist. They hate all things knuckles, brass knuckles, knuckle heads and moose knuckles. He’s priced at the bottom of the ace pile, right before all the scrubs when he should be priced near the top. No matter, I hope his price keeps dropping and I’ll just keep on rostering him every chance I get. I suggest you do the same, or are you a knuckle-ist too? Let’s take a look at a few more bargains for the Saturday DraftKings slate:
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Carlos Carrasco, SP: $10,000 – DraftKings is offering a whole slew of options for today including the rare “4 o’clock” slate featuring 5 games all getting rolling at 4:10 EST. This is in addition to an early slate kicking off at 1:05 and the evening slate that starts at 7:05. It’s a smorgasbord of slates! I’ll be sticking to the two later slates for my picks today and hot Carrasco sauce fits into the 4 pm action. If Wright at $10,600 is a bargain, Carrasco at $10,000 is almost free! Sure, Carlos hasn’t been is hot and spicy self of old, but better times are on the horizon and you’ll want to be on board when that 7 IP, 12K start happens.
Brandon Finnegan, SP: $6,500 – Speaking of free, I present to you “Pitcher facing the SD Padres” today. Cody Reed really burned me last night, but I’m willing to double down on the terrible Padres. In order to squeeze in all the Coors exposure I can get, I’ll need the salary relief Finnegan provides as well.
Jake Odorizzi, SP: $7,600 – I wouldn’t typically recommend a starter facing the beer league softball Orioles in Camden Yards, however, the double header is a special case. Chances are, during a twin bill, one of the two lineups will be filled with the B-team. It’s worth keeping an eye out in case Odorizzi is facing a lineup of Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Flaherty, and Nolan Reimold. If the A-team is in there, give me a $4,000 Jhoulys Chacin vs. the As and cross my fingers he doesn’t get clobbered.
Wilson Contreras, C: $3,000 – All he does is hit bombs! At this point, I’d even roster him if he’s not starting the game. (Kidding…kinda).
Hank Conger, C: $2,400 – The other beauty of a double header? Every catcher gets a turn, no matter how cheap.
Mike Napoli, 1B: $3,300 – My first choice would be Goldy or Reynolds in this spot, but if you’re feeling the Coors fade today I could totally see a case for Napoli. Nap’s cooled off a bit of late, but he’s always good for that 2 homer game upside. He’s taken Anibal deep once before and really provides some salary relief to cram in more Coors plays.
Adam Lind, 1B: $3,700 – Lind is in the same boat as Napoli, a guy capable of a double dong that has cooled off a little lately. Mike Leake is perfectly mediocre and a great target for a rebound.
AJ Reed, 1B: $2,900 – The Astros new toy should be playing tonight and gets a cake match-up against Chris Young. With any luck we can score a cheap middle of the order bat tonight before his price steadily rises.
Phil Gosselin, 2B/3B: $3,300 – Chip Hale ate his Fruit Loops early and often yesterday and penciled Gosselin into the cleanup spot. I’m not sure what those Fruit Loops were cut with, but that’s just bonkers. Regardless, as a DFS player, it’s your job to sniff these things out and take advantage. A $3K cleanup hitter in Coors is like finding a twenty while out for a stroll in the park.
Josh Harrison, 2B: $2,800 – This is strictly a price play. I don’t care who Kenta Maeda is, this is too cheap for a guy that just hits. Even last night, brought in as a pinch hitter he got a hit. It’s what he does.
Brandon Drury, 3B/OF: $3,900 – Freshly recalled after the great Diamondback philosopher Socrates Brito hit the DL, expect to see Drury in the lineup against the lefty, de la Rosa. Keep an eye out; knowing Chip Hale, maybe Drury will be batting cleanup today.
Kyle Seager, 3B: $4,100 – Seager is a nice, middle of the road option tonight, one that could perform like a top priced option. Kyle doesn’t get any respect either, he and Steven Wright are the anonymous nobodies. I can’t wait for that to drop, it’s been a long time coming since the initial kickstarter campaign went live (in May of 2015), but should be worth the wait. Anyway, I’m loving the lefty heavy M’s against Leake tonight. Lefties are slugging a pretty solid .476 against so far this year against him.
Javier Baez, 3B/SS: $4,000 – I generally like a cheap SS, however, there are absolutely none worth rostering during the afternoon slate. Keep that in mind when building your roster today. You’re almost forced into spending money at the SS position.
Brandon Crawford, SS: $3,700 – There’s not a lot of cheap SS love in the night slate either. I settled on Crawford for the power upside alone. I’m not a Hellickson believer, so this was a pretty natural choice of target.
Jayson Werth, OF: $4,100 – I’m going to have some fun with BvP for the early games and first we have Werth vs. Garza. I think Garza is a prime pitcher to target today since most people will be off him with two solid starts under his belt. I think this is a mistake and a nice buying opportunity for stacking Nationals. Back to Werth, though: he’s faced Garza 17 times and has 7 hits, including a HR.
Ichiro Suzuki, OF: $3,100 – Lackey has been having a great season, and I won’t recommend too many Marlins today. However, I had to get these numbers out there for a potentially cheap leadoff man. Ichiro has faced Lackey a whopping 119 times! In those 119 ABs, Ichiro has 36 hits and a HR. No doubt this was 35 singles and 1 homerun, but still.
Colby Rasmus, OF: $3,900 – Chris Young is easy pickins these days. Unfortunately, it’s not a short schedule day or we could all but guarantee a homer for Rasmus. It’s a small slate though, that might count for something.
Leonys Martin, OF: $3,600 – With Aoki off to AAA, Martin should be locked into the leadoff spot when a righty is on the mound. This lineup is a murderers row for RHP. Martin, Cano, Seager, Lind, Seth Smith and nevermind that Nelson Cruz is smack in the middle of all that. If Leake gives up less than 5 runs tonight, color me shocked.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
Summer is officially in full swing and it couldn’t be a nicer day for baseball. As of right now, there’s not a drop of rain in sight.
Doing Lines In Vegas
Madison Bumgarner and the Giants are the biggest favorites tonight with a giant (pun intended) -320 line. That’s moved up from a -300, so Vegas is pretty heavy on Bumgarner dominating the Phils. That game also features the lowest run total at 6.5 runs. Bumgarner/Wright seems like a cash game duo made in heaven to me tonight. It’s looking to be a day full of offense as well. The next lowest run total for the day is the Mets (deGrom) at the Braves (Teheran) which features a 7 run line. Beyond that though, there’s not a single game below an 8 run total. Expect the bats to be lively all day long.
