Or will he? Dun, dun, DUNNNNNN…ok, I don’t think he will. What, you thought I’d drop a hot beat and a fresh rhyme on you a la Grey? Psssh, I ain’t about that life, son. I’ll belt out some Cornell for you live and in person, but you won’t catch me getting lyrical up in this wordpress. Ok, ok, supply and demand so here’s a hot track. I’m not sure what the equivalent of being rick rolled is in this day and age, but consider yourself as such. You got served! But now that I’ve served you in a way you didn’t like, let me serve you in a way you should: JC Ramirez at $14,400 is middling in terms of price on this slate and ripe for K opportunity facing the surging Rays. Surging, I say? Yes, I do. Sadly, the Rays are a weird bunch so far this year. Though their K% against righties leads the league, they’re 2nd in the league in wRC+ against them as well. If you want some further schism, Rays are also 1st in K% on the year but 4th in wRC+. All this to say that Ramirez isn’t a slam dunk, but I think the Ks will give him a nice baseline. I’ll tentatively give him the green light as an SP2 in cash, but will definitely be in on him as either a 1 or 2 for tourneys on today.
Speaking on Chris Cornell a bit more, if you’ll permit me…we’ve had some great sounds come out of Seattle and it’s a sad trend that lots of those lungs lend themselves towards ending early. Cornell was a voice you heard above the fray, whether you wanted to or not. He had a long and amazing career. People who thought he sold out with Euphoria Morning and beyond have no clue what it means to be an artist who wants to challenge themselves. The man could sing anything he wanted…and he wanted to be a lot of different artists. You metalheads who needed the hard edge couldn’t appreciate that his love of Beatles and Otis Redding brought you Superunknown. In kind, you all who couldn’t appreciate his time with Soundgarden who thought it was just screeching noise, don’t actually understand that soul comes in many forms. I’m gonna drop one of those in between tunes that seemingly few heard here called Sweet Euphoria and going on with my picks for this slate…right after I drop the Razzball Listener’s League that goes down with tomorrow’s slate. Reserve your spot now, win money tomorrow. It’s almost like investing!
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Zack Greinke, SP: $23,400 – The pitching elephant in the room. If you’re playing cash tonight, you’re playing Greinke. What, you’re gonna argue with me? La, la, la, not listening. The opening line was -195 and it’s moved UP since. Hush, honey chile…
Gerrit Cole, SP: $18,800 – Shhhh…while you all were dropping the dookie on Gerrit’s name, he gotten very good again. Not great but…very good. Therein might’ve been our problem. He’s not Max Scherzer…more Meh Scherzer. The Braves are a solid offense, but a good pitcher can exploit them. Cole has limited walks and K’d enough per game to be viable. Methinks he’s a solid SP1 for GPPs today.
John Lackey, SP: $17,400 – Lackey at home against a less than scary San Fran line up is easy SP material for this slate. If you’re wondering about Michael Pineda, I didn’t overlook nor ignore him. He could be good, but KC hasn’t been bad of late, even though they haven’t been good, but I think picking him for cash is bad, so are we good? Good. Pineda intrigues me if the crowd moves off him. All that said, if Greinke isn’t my SP1 for cash today, heeeeeere’s Johnny as his step in.
Brad Peacock, SP: $11,400 – Do you need a bit of cash relief? Seriously, do you? Cuz that’s the only reason why we’re here. If you go stars and scrubs with your SPs today, Peacock is out here for you to get some potential. I say that knowing full well today SHOULD be a bullpen day for the ‘stros, but the Vegas world actually kinda likes Houston today so I’m having a hard time letting go of showing you my Peacock (inception link!).
Paul Goldschmidt, IF: $10,800 – I’ve already hinted that the Dbacks were expected to win big tonight. Because it’s in Chase Field, the O/U will be high and since most of the runs are expected to come from Arizona, we should be high on said bats. A wrinkle to this element? Miguel Gonzalez has shown reverse splits for quite a stretch and this year is no different. The hot stack tonight will be the Dbacks righties so feel free to dive in on Chris Owings and Yasmany Tomas. If you’re feeling frisky, throw in Nick Ahmed while you’re at it. If you’re feeling contrarian, roll with a Teddy Heater Monday Fave: Jake Lamb.
Gary Sanchez, IF: $9,300 – The Yankees are my stack of the day. Vargas is in full regress mode and I want some of that sweet action as flyballs in Yankees stadium tend to find their way out of said stadium. If you’re going all in, Matt Holliday, Starlin Castro, Chris Carter, and Aaron Judge are the names to know.
Edwin Encarnacion, IF: $8,100 – If you’re looking to scale back from the nosebleed section of pricing…EE hasn’t been doing much parrot trotting this year, but the upside still exists especially against Scott Feldman. Let’s call this a DFSBot batty call (DFSbot’ty call?) as he’s the 12th highest player in upside points on the slate. If you wanna spend a few more internet shekels up, there’s Carlos Santana at 10th in upside points at $8,400.
Ian Happ, IF/OF: $7,600 – Newsflash! He’s still hitting. Cash game easy at this price.
Mike Moustakas, IF: $7,200 – Goldy, Sano, and Cruz all have 10 HRs. You probably already know that as that news is out there. But why aren’t we talking about the Mous’? He’s loose, baby! Mike gets the short porch and I’m a bit giddy over here. Too cheap not to get in on that Moistasskiss today.
Mike Trout, OF: $10,800 – I feel stupid referencing the top priced IF and OF but…there’s merit tonight. Odorizzi’s FB% coupled with his penchant for giving up hits to righties is a prime success point for rostering Trout. In cash games, go fish!
Chris Davis, IF/OF: $9,300 – Maybe the hot streak is behind him, but you wanna know what’s in front of him? Kyle Gibson, that’s what. Kyle is off to a horrible start and Camden Yards does him and his 2.51 HR/9 against lefties this year zero favors. You can obviously tell by pricing who’s supposed to be the stack target so I’ll just drop Davis here and assume you know that you can sprinkle Orioles throughout your LU today with confidence.
George Springer, OF: $8,100 – Michael Fulmer is a 3.75 ERA guy masquerading as a 2.75 one. Don’t let someone else score the points while he’s making things right again.
Bradley Zimmer, OF: $7,200 – At this price, Zimmer-mania won’t be going out of style any time soon. I don’t love Zimmer long term, but at this price and against this opponent, I’ll Bradley buy in.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
There’s some questionable weather things going on in the NYYvsKC tilt as well as ATLvsPIT. Nothing serious as of right now, just more of an FYI so you check your TL for the 411.
Doing Lines in Vegas
As of this scribing, Greinke rides alone atop the slate with a -200 line in the AZvsCHW game along with Lackey in the CHCvsSF tilt. You know my thoughts on the Arizona game and I’m sure it’ll be the thoughts of most which means if you wanna get crazy, feel free to throw Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia in some of your LUs. Pineda and the Yankes roll in at -170. Watch the lines on these three as it could predict where to go for your cash and where to fade and attack for GPP. Why do I say this? Because there’s seemingly zero love for pitchers tonight. Most games are being played in neutral to friendly hitter’s parks and a lot of O/U lines reflect this; there are zero sub-8 lines to grab your eye tonight. That said, there is some intrigue. PHIvsCOL has dropped a full run from it’s initial opening, down to 8. If I’m feeling frisky, I might sidle up to Jerad Eickhoff a bit more come lineup lock. On the flipside, if you’re looking for high O/U, you have CHCvsSF (jumped a full run to 9.5) as well as BALvsMIN with the same line. I didn’t mention Cubs as I felt they were even more obvious than my other stacks, but Lackey and crew should do some work today at home.
