I watch a lot of baseball. Most nights, it’s on the TV while we’re puttering around at night and before I’ve plopped myself down for the evening. Therefore, by osmosis, my wife watches a lot of baseball but admittedly doesn’t pay a lot of attention to the action or the announcers. The other day though we were watching and an announcer made the comment that a player “got good wood on the ball”. This sent my wife into a 10 minute gigglefest of no recovery. Yes, I’ve got a keeper. Sticking with the theme of getting wood on the ball, that’s exactly what the Padres do not do. Only Miami has a lower team OPS and only Texas has more team strikeouts. Hence, I present my top pitching choice of the evening, Alex Wood ($19,700). Wood may not have the wins to show for it, but he’s been pitching pretty well thus far (3.32 ERA / 1.02 WHIP). It’s possible Jordan Lyles makes the Dodgers look silly tonight and Wood still doesn’t get a win, but I expect him to have the other stats to make him worth it. So, get some good Wood on DFS tonight and win all the monies!
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Jose Quintana, SP: $15,800 – Finding some to pair with Wood tonight could be a major problem. There are 11 other pitchers to choose from and they all have warts. Carrasco would be awesome, but that’s a big chunk of change to eat up on pitchers. Maybe you can find enough cheap offense to make it worth your while, but I don’t know. Quintana at least has a decent match-up, despite his struggles this year. San Fran has the third most strikeouts in the league, so that’s a thing. It’s tough out there tonight.
Tanner Roark, SP: $22,300 – The afternoon slate isn’t much better for pitching. Aaron Nola is the ace of the day, but after that, there’s a lot to be desired. Roark gets the aforementioned Marlins with their league worst team OPS. Target away!
Ian Kennedy, SP: $11,800 – Sticking with my pet stats, the Texas Rangers have the most strikeouts in the league and the 4th worst team OPS. All of that should be good news for Kennedy who has an 8.5 K-rate. Not too shabby and worth a shot in GPPs for K-upside.
Jose Peraza, IF: $7,600 – It’s a Coors night! All your Reds and Rockies are in play, especially those at the top of the lineup. Eugenio Suarez should be an auto-play.
Anthony Rizzo, IF: $9,100 – Something I always like to do is take a look at the Stream-O-Nator and see who the worst-ranked pitcher is for that day and stack up against them. Tonight, that honor goes to Chris Stratton. Stack your Cubbies as a pivot off the Coors game if you’re so inclined to fade it.
Jose Abreu, IF: $8,400 – I’ll take a shot picking on Liriano. He’s so Jekyll and Hyde, he could throw a no-no or give up 8 in 3 IP. If he does, expect Yoan and Abreu to be right in the middle of it.
Jesus Aguilar, IF: $8,000 – This shouldn’t take long: Aguilar is hot fiyah! Also, Grey just told you to BUY. He’s got 4 HRs and a .350 average the past week! Also, Jason Vargas is bad, very, very bad.
Mark Reynolds, IF: $7,800 – Speaking of hot, Reynolds has had a nice start to his Nats career. It looks like he’ll have the short side of the platoon at firstbase with Matt Adams, but with lefty Wei-Yin Chen going, he should be in there. Reynolds has 2 HRs in just 7 career ABs vs. Chen, so it’s possible he sees him well.
Adam Duvall, OF: $8,200 – Another call to our friendly Coors field confines. Duvall has the power to put 3 HRs out tonight. A GPP play for sure.
Lorenzo Cain, OF: $9,000 – As mentioned in the Aguilar blurb, Vargas is Matt Harvey-lite. He’s the Duke of Badness.
Byron Buxton, OF: $5,700 – It’s not really time for Buxton to start being awesome yet, he’s still being Sux-ton (see what I did there?). BUT, he is only $5,700, which might be enough to help you stack some Cubbie or Coors bats and just fill out a spot for cheap. I still believe (maybe foolishly) that there’s still some upside in this kid somewhere.
Marcell Ozuna, OF: $6,300 – If you’re playing the early slate your cheap, potentially upside-y OF play is Ozuna. He can’t be this bad, can he? For this cheap, it’s worth a shot and a hope he breaks out of his season-long slump in a big way.
Gerardo Parra, OF: $7,600 – Speaking of cheap; cheap Coors bats are hard to come by. Keep an eye on if Parra is in the lineup or not and jump on him if so. Coors upside is hard to deny.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
It’s humid on the east coast, which means there could be some thunderstorms here and there. There is a risk of rain in STL@PIT, TOR@PHI and LAA@NYY. New York and Pittsburgh are the most worrisome, so keep an eye out for those spots.
Doing Lines In Vegas
Alex Wood and the Dodgers are the biggest favorites on the day at -195. Outside of Coors (11 runs) the highest over/under is in Texas (10 runs). That could be trouble for Ian Kennedy, but he’s still worth a GPP play I think. The lowest over/under is the Dodgers vs. Padres tilt, but an interesting low number is MIN@SEA (Odorizzi vs. LeBlanc). Interesting that two bad pitchers have a low over/under. Seattle is favored at -142 so LeBlanc could be a sneaky option.
