Happy Sunday degens. Yesterday was a bonkers day in baseball and we’ll be working through the aftermath of some of that today. What a scary scene outside of Nationals Park. Hug your loved ones people. Once you’ve hugged it out, settle in with some brunch, and let’s build some lineups to win us some cash. Our main building block today will be Zack Wheeler ($11,000). Expensive? Absolutely, but he’s also been completely studly this year and he’s got a primo match-up. I’m not touching Scherzer vs the Padres (more on that later) or Rodon vs the red-hot Astros. The Marlins are bottom five in team OPS and Wheeler is at home. Toss in the fact that the Marlins strike out the fourth most of any team in baseball and we have ourselves a winner. Stack Zack in cash games and use him as your main building block in GPPs for some easy cash.
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Drew Smyly, SP: $8,000 – Drew Smyly revenge game! OK, maybe not really, but the Rays do have the most strikeouts in all of baseball, so there’s some decent upside here. Smyly has been all over the map, sounds like a perfect risk/reward play to me.
J.A. Happ, SP: $6,600 – Finally, our dirt-cheap, I want to play all the bats, pitcher play. Happ faces the Tigers, who are, what’s the word? Terrible. Everyone always targets the Tigers but Happ might not be very high-owned because he’s also been less than great. We can cross our fingers, hope for a decent enough start, and pray our bats carry us to glory though.
Eric Haase, C/1B: $2,900 – Haase took a knock on the head yesterday, so you’ll need to check he’s in the lineup, he didn’t want to come out of the game so we’ll see. I know, I just mentioned Happ, but if you play Wheeler, there’s no reason not to toss some Haase power in your lineup.
Miguel Sano, C/1B: $2,600 – Speaking of power, Sano has plenty to spare, something we’re always targeting in our GPPs.
Keston Hiura, 2B: $2,200 – We’re going cheap at 2B today. Sonny Gray is fresh off the IL and who knows how deep in the game he goes, which means we’ll get some CIN bullpen. Hiura is hit or miss, I’m sensing a theme here today, first or last? Perfect strategy for binking a GPP.
Vidal Brujan, 2B: $2,000 – He’s gotta play eventually, right? If you don’t use Smyly I have to imagine Brujan will be in there today. Lowe and Wendle are both lefties, so I’m hoping we see the kid and he can steal his way to FanDuel point overload.
Josh Donaldson, 3B: $3,100 – Grey’s most recent buy, which I have to say, surprised me a lot. Dongaldson is old, reliable and should be able to have a field day with Wily P.
Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B: $2,900 – Maybe you’d like to go a little younger. Taijuan Walker can blow-up at any minute and this feels too cheap for Hayes’ talent level.
Fernando Tatis Jr., SS: $4,300 – Alright, this is what I mentioned in the lede with Scherzer. I don’t know what to make of today’s SD@WAS game. They are finishing last night’s game at 1 ET, then they’ll go into today’s game. That means we won’t have official lineups at lineup lock. This presents a conundrum, or an opportunity, depending on how frisky you feel. With today’s game expected to start at 2:45 ET, every other game will have started, leaving no swap options. I have to believe Tatis will be in the lineup, but stranger things have happened. So, you can play him and cross your fingers he’s in the lineup where he should be low-rostered or fade this game completely. I think Tatis is worth some play myself.
Wander Franco, SS: $2,500 – Or just go for the sure thing in the lineup and play another stud.
Nelson Cruz, OF: $3,700 – I think I’ve talked myself into a Twinkies stack today.
Christian Yelich, OF: $3,300 – Crazy that a top-three pick going into this season is no sitting in the low $3,000 range. Like Keston, I like Yelich to do some damage with the Reds bullpen.
Austin Slater, OF: $2,300 – Slater is just over here being an under-the-radar slam (9) and legs (8) superstar. Multiple ways to score is a huge bonus in DFS and with Wade LeBlanc on the bump, I can’t believe this is the first Giant I’ve mentioned. Slater leads off when he plays and that could make for a big day.
Gregory Polanco, OF: $2,200 – Fresh off the IL discount here on Polanco, who was actually hitting well pre-injury.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
No major impacts today, which is a sigh of relief. We could see some raindrops in Atlanta because…summer in Georgia. Shouldn’t make a difference for bats, but Smyly could get cut short if we are unlucky.
Doing Lines In Vegas
Wheeler and the Phils take the favorite cake today at -226. Like I said, cash game gold. Our highest over/under on the main slate is a 10 run total in Detroit and Kansas City. Matt Harvey is starting in KC, and we always love to stack against this mess. I can’t believe I didn’t mention any Royals here. They aren’t the best hitting team to stack, but even they can go off. I will absolutely throw a GPP bullet out there with a KC stack and hope for the best.
