Some days, in my FanDuel lineups, I put my faith and my cash into a big-name pitcher and fill in the holes around him; some days I pick on pitchers and build against him. Today is one of the latter sorts of days. It feels like the slate is a mishmash of meh pitchers against good teams or good pitchers in iffy parks. I’m even a little leery of Stream-o-Nator’s top two picks: first is San Diego’s Jhoulys Chacin versus Colorado. [Sidebar: I had to look up how to pronounce “Jhoulys”. It’s You-Lease (more or less), so I should stop saying “Ghoulish”, I guess.] That is going down at Petco, but as I write this on Friday, Colorado are tied with Arizona at the top of their division; they’ve been hitting well and I’m not eager to run a pitcher up against them, even in San Diego. Second is Matt Shoemaker, pitching in LA versus Minnesota. I could go for that, but I’m not excited about the idea, a bit like Hawaiian pizza. So, I’m slapping a bandage over the pitcher slot today and playing Tyler Chatwood, the cheap, but risky (deviating from Stream-o-Nator always feels risky!), other Petco option while paying up for hitters instead; I’m focusing particularly on the Astros (versus Andrew Cashner) and Tigers (versus Miguel Gonzalez).
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Here’s the lineup I’m entering into FanDuel today (Saturday 3 June, 1:07 All-day GPP):
SP: Tyler Chatwood, $7,600
C: Gary Sanchez, $3,700
1B: Miguel Cabrera, $4,100
2B: Jose Altuve, $4,000
3B: Manny Machado, $3,400
SS: Cliff Pennington, $2,100
OF: J.D. Martinez, $4,100
OF: Ian Desmond, $3,000
OF: Eric Young Jr., $2,600
Tyler Chatwood, SP: $7,600 – I suppose I have to pick a pitcher, even though I don’t like any of them much today, really. (I’m sure they don’t like me much, either, which is fair enough.) As mentioned, I’m going way cheap on pitching so I can save money for bats, and looking to young Tyler Chatwood as he takes on the Padres in Petco. He’s been decidedly up and down, and admittedly his last start at Petco saw San Diego hitting him for 5 runs in 5 innings, but that was a month ago, in DFS we live day to day, and the Padres are precisely league-last in average right now and third-last in runs.
Carlos Carrasco, SP: $10,200 – If I were willing to pay up for a pitcher (if you skipped the blurb above, here’s the TL;DR version: I’m not), I’d go for Carlos Carrasco versus the last-in-the-AL Royals. He had a couple of hiccups versus Cincinnati and Tampa, but then righted the ship in his last start versus Oakland. I hope that trend continues today for you, if you play him.
Gary Sanchez, C: $3,700 – Oh, I know, this is a lot to pay for a catcher. But he’s been scorching lately, and I’m expecting a lot from him against Joe Biagini (hey, you need to watch this “Biagini in a Bottle” thing), who has a tough match-up against a deep, deep Yankees lineup.
Yadier Molina, C: $2,700 – I’m suggesting Yadier as a reasonably cheap option for catcher because he’s squared up against Jon Lester a fair few times in the past and hit 11 for 27 against him. However, Yadi has been up and down a bit over the last couple of weeks, so this could go either way. If I weren’t going Sanchez, I might just punt catcher altogether today and go cheap + starting = winner. That said, if Russell Martin is over the neck issues that have sidelined him for the last couple of days, he could make for a nice option at $2,600.
Miguel Cabrera, 1B: $4,100 – There are a load of juicy-but-not-cheap BVP matchups for 1B today, for some reason. Miggy is 8 for 19 versus the other Miguel, Gonzalez; Au Schizz ($4,400) is 7 for 14 versus Edinson Volquez; Edwin Encarnacion ($3,700) is 8 for 21 with 4 HRs (a quartet of parrots!) versus KC’s Jason Hammel; Justin Smoak ($3,400) could be great for the match-up versus lefty Jordan Montgomery. I’m picking the middle-ish option and going for Miggy, Hittertron’s top-rated 1B, for this favorable match-up at home.
Jose Altuve, 2B: $4,000 – Hittertron’s top-rated hitter overall for the day is actually a wee bit cheaper than I thought he’d be, given his ridiculous streak of 11 for 18 this week (at time of writing on Friday night), so I’m jumping all over this. (Mind you, it’s not hard to jump over Altuve.) He’s enjoyed righties like Andrew Cashner to the tune of .323 so far this year. But if you need to go a little cheaper, try…
Robinson Cano, 2B: $3,600 – Robinson just keeps cruising along, at a .291 10-HR clip; that’s nothing to sneeze at, so don’t go up hit creek without a Cano today because he’s 8 for 23 against Alex Cobb lifetime, with 3 HRs. For another 2B option, Devon Travis ($3,400) could also be a nice play against lefty Montgomery.
Kris Bryant, 3B: $4,100 – Kris has been a little low-key lately, but he is 9 for 20 versus St. Louis’ Mike Leake in the past, and this is at Wrigley, which has been kind to hitters so far this year.
Manny Machado, 3B: $3,400 – So, yeah, he was brutal in May. But now it’s June, and everything is allll better! Just kidding, but I am going to buy low-ish on Machado today because of his 10 for 34 and 3 HR history versus David Price, who is still finding his feet this season. I also need to start pulling back on the spending a tad, or I’m going to run out of cash before hitting the outfield.
Xander Bogaerts, SS: $3,600 – He’s 6 for 19 with 1 HR versus Dylan Bundy, and he’s been hitting everywhere he goes, particularly so at Camden Yards, where he’s .333 so far this year.
Cliff Pennington, SS: $2,100 – Here’s my punt o’ the day, but maybe not. Hear me out. You know how they say “cheap, fast, and good: pick two”? I’d probably just pick one — cheap — here, but I’ve thrown him into the mix for this price and for his weirdly good 11 for 25 history against Ervin Santana. [Sidebar: how in the hell does Santana only have a 1.75 ERA? What! Oh, he has a FIP of 4.10. The regression fairies smell baseball, they like their hot dogs with black truffle Dijon, and they’re coming for your ratios.]
J.D. Martinez, OF: $4,100 – Do not pass go, do not collect $200 (well… OK, hopefully you can collect your FanDuel $200), just dong, because J.D. is 5 for 13 versus the White Sox’s Miguel Gonzalez.
Josh Reddick, OF: $3,600 – Hittertron is very high on Reddick today, for the match-up with Andrew Cashner. Reddick is a fan of righties and he’s been doing something every day, so you probably can’t really go wrong here.
Ian Desmond, OF: $3,000 – Desmond has been cool the last few games, admittedly, but he has a decent BVP of 7 for 19 against Ghoulish Chasin’. But wait, you say: this is in San Diego, where hits go to die. No, you wait, I reply! You can take the man out of Colorado but you can’t take the Colorado out of the man: he’s even hit solidly in Petco Park this year, where he’s 6 for 14.
Eric Young Jr., OF: $2,600 – The Mike Trout fill-in (those are not big shoes to fill at all) has actually been playing pretty well: 5 for 11 since he was called up, and he hits .333 versus righties like Ervin Santana.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
There’s a chance of a thunderstorm over the Cubs’ and Rangers’ ballparks; anywhere else it’s likely to rain, there’s a roof. In a season that so far has seen almost as many rainouts as all of the 2016 season, that’s rather welcome news.
Doing Lines In Vegas
The Cubs are looking good over the Cards at -193, and ditto for Cleveland over the Royals at -173 and Tigers over White Sox at -161. The slimmest margin is the Jays over the Yankees at -115, which I agree with: so far it’s been a hard-fought series that could go either way.
