Agents of Fantasy - Heroes Who Can Take Down an MLB DFS Tournament
TJ Zwarych is one of the top up and coming Daily Fantasy Sports players in the world. Not only is he a long time RotoGrinders member, but he is also the Editor-In-Chief of TV & Film media outlet the Agents of Fandom and host of their podcast. The Agents of Fantasy are a brand new segment where TJ bring’s his love for Fandom into the Daily Fantasy Sports circle, to help you take down tournaments.
Each segment, the Fantastic Four will include my top 4 pitchers for tournaments on FanDuel and DraftKings. At times, they’ll include plays who are picking up ownership if I feel like the rostership still doesn’t reflect their upside. Typically, if there is a cash game lock and someone who is pushing 50% rostered, these pitchers won’t get mentioned.
Tonight for example, Carlos Rodon has continued his prowess as one of Earth’s Mightiest Pitchers, however the ownership reflects that. While he is a strong play for cash games, and I won’t tell you NOT to play him, he doesn’t crack my Fantastic Four, who I trust to save me from the depths from below the minimum cash line.
The Fantastic Four – Best MLB DFS Picks
Note: Brandon Woodruff is my top play on DK — as he isn’t on the FD slate, he won’t be included.
Michael Kopech (9500 DK/9200 FD) – Kopech has struggled to control his powers so far this year. He is a high-upside young pitcher, who hasn’t been able to get deep into games so far this year. Thankfully, the masses are starting to shy away from Kopech due to what on the surface looks like a short leash. Although he’s still young, the White Sox haven’t been limiting Kopech’s pitch count, he just struggles to get through innings due to his lack of control at times. While these things all sound like negatives, his ridiculous strikeout upside has me very interested at his low rostership. Kopech’s price on DK keeps him strictly in the large field tournament flyer section on DK, however his FD price with how their scoring favors strikeouts makes him one of my top options.
Paul Blackburn (7500 DK/8600 FD) – Blackburn has developed super strength this year, adding significant velocity to his fastball. While his career stats don’t look great, he boasts a 25% strikeout rate to both sides of the plate so far this season. On DK where he is cheap, he is my favorite point-per-dollar pitcher on the entire slate. He’s priced up on FD, however I still have a lot of interest in tournaments. Facing a strikeout heavy Tigers lineup with not much power outside Baez, Blackburn is in line for some quick innings tonight against a Detroit team with gushing red like a Game of Thrones wedding in PlateIQ.
Austin Gomber (6600 DK/8900 FD) – Gomber has impressed so far for the Rockies, and now he travels the multiverse to one of the biggest park upgrades possible heading to San Francisco. This is another case where he looks significantly better on one site compared to the other, however I still like him on FD. On DK, I think there is merit to a double pay down strategy at pitcher, leaving you plenty of salary for your bats to Avenge your entry fees.
Elieser Hernandez (8500 DK/6900 FD) – Last and well, probably least (?) on the list is Elieser Hernandez. A pitcher who has flashed very strong upside at times, however also has been a bit of a Human Torch at others. Hernandez gets a decent matchup against the Diamondbacks, but I don’t have a ton of great things to say outside of this is a pricing play on FD. 6900 is simply too cheap for a guy with the upside to get you 40 FDP, at sub 5% rostership.
Earth’s Mightiest MLB DFS Stacks
There was an idea, Dave Potts knows this, called the Stacking Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of of remarkable baseball players, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to hit Home Runs with people on base, like we never could.
San Diego Padres – The Padres are my favorite team to save me from the villainous other DFS players for tonight’s slate. Kyle Hendricks strikes nobody out, with his top skill being his ability to draw ground balls when facing right-handed batters. With a strong lefty heavy lineup and the only two righties I want to play being fly ball hitters, the Padres are in a great spot. Manny Machado is beginning to get expensive, but the cheaper bats in this lineup and some of the mid-tier pitchers mentioned earlier allow this full stack to happen.
Los Angeles Angels – People’s need for cheaper bats due to their willingness to pay up for Rodon, mixed with the White Sox, Marlins and Cardinals being in good spots tonight is leading to some concentrated team rostership. With others unable to pay up for the expensive bats, that makes me love the Angels even more. With a lineup anchored by baseball’s Superman Mike Trout and the phenom Shohei Ohtani, you can always feel confident in tournaments with that type of upside on your DFS squad. Jeffrey Springs has been slowly getting stretched out for Tampa and has shown strikeout upside, however this is a young pitcher giving up a ton of fly balls in a much more hitter friendly park than he is used to. With the Angels likely to see the bullpen for a large portion of the game as well, I’m not worried about the handedness of the batters I’m playing alongside Trout and Ohtani.
Philadelphia Phillies – It’s no coincidence today that I like paying up for all the expensive stacks that are low owned. Like the Angels and Padres, the Phillies are a team with immense power upside. Flexen has persevered en route to some decent games so far this year, however his sub 15% strikeout rate won’t bode well against a lineup full of players who hit the ball hard and in the air.
Player Image: Imagn