Agents of Fantasy - Heroes Who Can Take Down an MLB DFS Tournament: May 31st
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 31st
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
Mr Fantastic: Cristian Javier is without a doubt my favorite option for cash games, and I don’t mind eating the chalk in my single entry builds here as well. He’s an amazing play, in an amazing matchup, in an amazing ball park. It’s amazing. However, he’s going to have a crazy amount of people rostering him today. Despite it being a big slate, it’s tough to find strong options who won’t be heavily played. Javier, alongside Gausman and Montas, are all strong options, however the field is recognizing that as well.
The Invisible Man: George Kirby 6600 DK / 7000 FD – Kirby provides a nice source of salary relief, in a great matchup against Baltimore. People may be scared off by the Orioles recent performances, but they’re no longer playing in Fenway with the winds blowing out, against a soft tossing lefty. We have some expensive bats we’re going to want to pay up for today, and there are a lot of chalky offenses I don’t want to pivot away from. Therefore to get different, we’re going to have to find off the board pitchers. Kirby’s reverse splits nature definitely poses some risk against Mountcastle, Mancini and Hays, but the walls being pushed back and having Santander flipped to the left side should help with his upside.
The Human Torch: Eric Lauer 9900 DK / 10600 FD – The idea of playing Lauer on this slate terrifies me. His strikeout upside isn’t the only thing on fire today, as we have heat in Chicago with winds blowing out. This is the ultimate risk/reward play on tonight’s slate. He’s without a doubt the top strikeout pitcher on the board, and because of the wind in Wrigley, the field isn’t getting to him. We saw last night with Aaron Ashby that wind doesn’t matter if the batters don’t hit the ball. I’m going to have a tough time getting there in my 3 lineups on Fanduel tonight, but if I was playing 150, I would definitely be overweight on Lauer.
The Thing: Lucas Giolito 10200 DK / 10000 FD – Lucas Giolito is a fantastic pitcher. The Thing is, he’s priced up, and playing the Toronto Blue Jays. This could work in our favor, as it’s keeping the field off of him tonight. While the rocky exterior may scare away the field, it makes me very interested in playing Giolito in a matchup against the Jays who could potentially be without their best hitter tonight.
Earth’s Mightiest MLB DFS Stacks
We have some potential weather issues in Coors Field tonight, so for now I’m going to leave both of those teams off the list. If that game looks like it’ll play, and the field is scared off by the weather, it could become one of the better tournament spots on the slate. Tune into our FREE Crunch Time tonight, as I’ll be on with Carty and Roth, and our mighty meteorologist will let us know if we can play the game or not. The Dodgers are also looking like a team that will be heavily rostered by the field tonight, so although they’re in a fantastic spot, they’re not making the list.
Atlanta Braves – One of the two chalky stacks I’m looking to get over the field on today, the Braves line up in a phenomenal spot against the worst pitcher on the slate. My amazing colleague Will Priester frequently brings up how often Atlanta strikes out, and that if there is a competent pitcher on the mound, they’re an interesting team to take a pitcher and target. However, tonight is no competent pitcher. With the roof open in Arizona tonight and a ton of power in the Braves lineup, I’m going to be all over Atlanta against a 15% strikeout pitcher.
Milwaukee Brewers – Say it with me, HEAT AND WIND. Chalky team number two, and thats what makes our pitcher selection so important. Playing Cristian Javier alongside the Brewers, Braves, Dodgers or Mets tonight will project incredibly well, but it also will be the most common combo of lineups. Using some of these cheap Brewers bats like Hiura, Brosseau and Co will allow you to get different with expensive pitchers no one is playing, like Giolito.
Chicago Cubs – Say it with me again, HEAT AND WIND. Eric Lauer is arguably the best pitcher on this slate. He strikes out 29% of right handed batters, and the Cubs strikeout a lot. However, when Lauer gets hit, the ball doesn’t stay on the ground, it gets sent up into the air. As much as Eric Lauer is the top risk/reward pitching option today, the Cubs are also that from a hitting standpoint. A low strikeout guy like Wilson Contreras makes for an interesting one off, and this is also a stack with a high ceiling for tournaments that the field isn’t getting to near as much as they should be.