Agents of Fantasy - Heroes Who Can Take Down an MLB DFS Tournament: May 17th
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 brings his love for Fandom into the Daily Fantasy Sports circle, to help you take down tournaments.
May 17th
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. However, sometimes on smaller slates, four pitchers won’t be an option.
The Fantastic Four – Best MLB DFS Picks
Today feels like a day to get different with our bats, not at pitcher. Rostership seems pretty concentrated for a large slate, however the pitchers the field is going to are also the ones I’m most interested in rostering today. Sometimes, the classic heroes are the ones who save the day.
Update: Dylan Bundy is on a pitch count today, I’ll give my full thoughts on Crunch Time, but sub in Alex Cobb into that spot.
Jose Berrios 7800 (DK)/7200 (FD) – Berrios really struggled to start the season, keeping Blue Jays fans’ thoughts inside in the Negative Zone. Whether he wasn’t fully stretched out due to lack of spring training, or whether he had jitters with his new team, Berrios has picked it back up as of late. Although he has still given up some runs the past few games, Berrios has had a ridiculously tough schedule this year with the majority of his matchups coming against the Yankees, Astros and Red Sox. Tonight, Berrios gets a Seattle team with a strikeout rate of 24.8% going back to last year. While they have some power, if Berrios gets past Winker and Suarez, he should be able to go deep into this game and rack up the fantasy points.
Jameson Taillon 9300 (DK)/9200 (FD) – A different multiversal version of Camden Yards exists on our Earth this year, with the walls pushed back and home runs coming in a slower rate. Jameson Taillon has been a consistent option so far this year, and he now has a fantastic matchup in Baltimore. The Orioles second half of their lineup is loaded with strikeouts, and if Taillon can get through Mullins and co. at the top of the order, he should be able to go deep into this one.
Dylan Bundy 8500 (DK)/7000 (FD) – Some people view super heroes as necessary, while others thin the world would be better without them. This is the cast for the two sites and Dylan Bundy today, as DK is ready to forget about him while Fanduel is thrusting him into the limelight. A 7K pricetag is far too cheap for Bundy, especially in a strong pitchers park and a good matchup against the Athletics. Although he will be highly owned on FD, I still like him as an option. He isn’t nearly as strong of a play on DK, however his lack of rostership still gives me quite a bit of interest in tournaments.
James Kaprielian 7700 (DK)/ 6400 (FD) – Similar to Bundy, Kaprielian is a different beast tonight on FD. Not only is he severely underpriced, but on a site where strikeouts are rewarded extra, his skillset shines through. Although the Twins boast powerful bats and super speed throughout the lineup, they still lineup with mostly right handed bats, where Kappy Attacky strikes out an impressive 27% of batters. This is likely the most risky of our options today, but especially on FD, he has a very strong chance of being the highest point-per-dollar pitcher on this slate.
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 hit Home Runs with people on base, like we never could.
The San Francisco Giants are far and away the top offense on the slate, however last night was a perfect example of how things can go awry with this team. While Joc Pederson and Lamonte Wade Jr. project as some of the very top options for this team, they also pose a significant pitch hit risk. Brandon Belt and Mike Yastrzemski will be the top options as they pose less of a pinch hit risk, however if we are playing these guys tonight, we are also going to need to find ways to get off the board.
Colorado Rockies – Ahh yes, it’s important to get different tonight, so we should play checks notes the other team in Coors Field? With an aggressive amount of early rostership going towards the Giants and Yankees, the Rockies aren’t being played near as much as they should be. Alex Cobb has pitched very well so far this season, and is even in play today in tournaments if you’re not stacking the Rockies. While Cobb has piled up the ground balls and strikeouts, he has struggled with walks. Thats why, to me the Rockies are a stack or leave alone team today. My top options are the players who either don’t strike out, or can get the ball in the air. Therefore, I’m starting my Rockies stacks with Blackmon, Cron, and McMahon, with Connor Joe and Sam Hilliard being the players I’m most interested in completing the stack.
Los Angeles Angels – The Angels are a team I always love playing, especially when they’re under played. Often in the late night hammer, the Angels are a high powered offense capable of descending from the beyond to save your lineup. While I typically like stacking them more facing right handed pitching, Taylor Hearn has actually shown some reverse splits tendencies, and Shohei Ohtani has absolutely no issue hitting pitching from either hand. While the back half of the lineup isn’t very appealing, Ward through Walsh is a great way to get similar upside to the Giants and Angels without the same levels of rostership.
Houston Astros – Nathan Eovaldi is not a bad pitcher by any stretch of the imagination. He strikes batters out at a high clip and is one of the best options the Red Sox have. Unfortunately, when batters make contact on Eovaldi, they hit the ball hard. Facing an Astros team that doesn’t strikeout often at all, I like taking shots on this team tonight. Similar to the Angels and Rockies, we’re looking for teams with players that can match the upside of our top offenses tonight. It’s tough seeing the Yankees and Giants failing tonight, so we aren’t looking for teams of baseball players, we’re looking for Avengers.
While the Yankees and Giants are the top tier today, the rostership is going right there with them. The Rockies, Angels and Astros are three teams that can match the upside of these powerhouses, and spring you to the top of leaderboards tonight.