Strasvutsia! Baseball is back baby! To say I’m elated is an extreme understatement. I had the pleasure of going to Phillies/Braves opening day and was grinning ear-to-ear the entire time. Police approached me three times because I was creeping people out, but who am I kidding, you don’t want to hear about my encounters with the fuzz, you’re hear for baseball! Let us start the FanDuel season off right by picking on the Marlins, shall we? Be for real, anyone in this lineup scare you? Throw in the detail that they’re playing in Marlins Stadium, and I’m all in. German Marquez ($9,800) was an absolute beast in the second half last year. He turned in 93 innings of 2.61 ERA with a 28.4% K-BB%, and while I can’t guarantee he’ll keep that up all year, I’d put money on him having continued success today. We’ll take a look at the rest of the eight game FanDuel slate, after a word from our sponsors.
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Ross Stripling, SP: $8,200 – Dodgeritis struck early, causing Stripling to go from out of the rotation to their SP2, thanks to a shocking Rich Hill injury. Thanks to the Paul Goldschmidt trade and A.J. Pollock leaving in free agency, he faces a mediocre Diamondbacks lineup that features Jarrod Dyson leading off and Adam Jones in the 3-hole.
Joey Lucchesi, SP: $7,600 – Coming into 2018, Lucchesi was relatively unknown, but after a solid year featuring a 3.64 SIERA, Joey finds himself as the Padres number 2. Lucchesi faces the Giants, who are completely jealous of the Diamondbacks paltry lineup.
Albert Pujols, 1B: $2,700 – The Angels face Marco Estrada, who sports reverse splits, so lock in your RHBs. I don’t get paid the big bucks (wait…..I don’t get paid at all?) to tell you “Mike Trout is good at baseball”, so just pointing out a couple under the radar guys that get a bump.
Miguel Cabrera, 1B: $3,500 – With picks like Cabrera and Pujols, you’d think I’m plagiarizing an article from 2006, but Miggy’s been mashing in Spring Training. In addition, he faces everyone’s favorite cobbler, Matt Shoemaker.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr, 2B: $2,900 – While I am watching Matt Boyd today to see if he made any significant changes, I’m all about playing against him until I see improvement. Gurriel hit lefties hard last year sporting a .351 wOBA.
Matt Chapman, 3B: $4,000 – Chapman sneakily has a better ISO and wOBA vs RHP than he does when he has the platoon advantage.
Andrelton Simmons, SS: $2,900 – This is not a sexy pick, but if you’re stacking the Angels RHBs, Simmons is a decent pay down option that lets you afford Trout.
Khris Davis, OF: $4,300 – Khrush is one of my favorite plays of the day. He faces Matt Harvey and is slightly better for his career versus right handed pitching than he is against lefties. Not having the platoon advantage should keep his ownership down some, making him a sneaky play with serious upside.
Christin Stewart, OF: $2,900 – Stewart has big boy pop (27+ HRs each of the last 3 years at various levels in the minors and majors) and gets to face a fly-ball pitcher in Shoemaker.
Enrique Hernandez, OF: $2,400 – If Kike doesn’t walk out to Drake’s “In My Feelings”, I’ll be extremely disappointed. Hernandez is a lefty masher and faces Robbie Ray, who’s given up 40%+ Hard Hit% each of the last two years.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
No rain on the slate today! Hooray!! There is some wind being forecasted to be blowing in from left field at around 13 mph in the Marlins/Rockies game.
Doing Lines In Vegas
No games with double digit win totals, but Angels/Athletics total sits at 9 runs. Personally, I’m putting my money where my mouth is and playing the Rockies as a -147 road favorite.
