Though his birthday was on Saturday, let’s all wish him a great year ahead. And many more on Channel 4. The now 34 year old Yu Darvish, $9,900 today on FanDuel, is having an incredible start to the season. Including the last half of 2019, this stretch is arguably the most dominant of his career. It’s fun to see. But we don’t let fun get in the way of winning; we need value. Well, wouldn’t Yu have it. Even as the most expensive pitcher on the slate, it’s tough to ignore Darvish as also being the best value. He has kept his high strikeout rate while halving his walk rate this season, and faces a Cardinals lineup near the bottom of the league in most every offensive category. Thus, we recommend whirling Darvish into your lineups. Yu lineups will look great. As long as you don’t mess up the rest of it. So let’s not mess up the rest of it. Read on to secure additional picks.
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As always, don’t put all Yu eggs in one basket. We need to diversify.
Dylan Cease, P: $8,200. Facing a Tigers team with an on-base rate under 30%, who are also striking out over 10 times per game.
Tarik Skubal, P: $6,000. The White Sox can inflict some damage on starting pitching, but at $6,000 Skubal is an interesting play if we want to stack a lineup with stud hitters and take a flyer on his upside. This could go a lot of ways, but the conditions favor pitching today at Guaranteed Rate Field, and we like the kid in his big league debut.
The Boston Red Sox are our favored primary stack today. The wind is blowing out to left, the starting pitching is mediocre, and Vegas likes this game to score a bunch of runs with the line opening at 10.5 with pressure to the upside. Below is the order we’d prefer them in our lineups, based on value:
Rafael Devers, 3B: $3,000
Alex Verdugo, OF: $2,700
Xander Bogaerts, SS: $3,500
J.D. Martinez, OF: $3,700
Jackie Bradley Jr., OF: $2,100
Michael Chavis, 2B: $2,600
Mitch Moreland, C/1B: $2,900
Additional plays we see from this game stack today:
Andrew McCutchen, OF: $2,400 – McCutchen hit his first home run of the season on Sunday. Maybe this is a turning point? If there’s anyone he can keep this going against it’s a struggling Zack Godley.
Didi Gregorius, SS: $2,900 – Same as McCutchen and the Red Sox above. We like the matchup and hitting conditions today at Fenway.
Finally, fill it out with value. These are some plays with higher upside at lower cost:
Lourdes Gurriel, Jr., 2B: $2,400
Randal Grichuk, OF: $2,400
Steven Souza, Jr., OF: $2,300
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
Perfection.
Doing Lines In Vegas
Look for under nine to hit more often than not between the Tigers and White Sox. This is the league’s first look at Skubal, and Cease should be able to handle the Tigers.
