Agents of Fantasy - Heroes Who Can Take Down an MLB DFS Tournament - June 7th
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.
June 7th
For 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
We have a huge slate today, with plenty of fantastic pitching options. If I were playing 150 today, I think I’d be keeping my pool at 9 players, however playing the 5 lineups I am, I’ll try to get 5 different pitchers in them.
Carlos Rodon projects as the top play for cash games and optimal lineups, but the field is going to be playing him far too much in tournaments tonight. I’ll be underweight on him, while also getting exposure to the likes of Kyle Wright, Justin Verlander, Kyle Bradish and Cole Sands. While all of these players garner my interest tonight, they don’t crack our super team.
Alek Manoah $11,000 (FD) / $10,000 (DK) – Manoah has soared up the Cy Young rankings in the AL early this season. He has lived up to his top prospect status, and is turning into an ace in real time. With only one start all season making it less than 6 innings, Manoah has been the description of safety to date. Tonight, he brings his 31.4% K rate to right handed batters this season, to a right handed heavy Royals lineup. Manoah is my top pitcher on the board for tournaments, and I love that he isn’t attracting the same amount of rostership as the other top tier guys.
Tarik Skubal $10,400 (FD) / $9,800 (DK) – Skubal has taken his game to another level this season, going from athlete to superhuman. His one area of concern, has been right handed batters hitting the ball hard as line drives. Thankfully, he faces a Pirates offense in a pitcher friendly park, that struggles getting the ball of of the ground. While they don’t strikeout a ton, the Pirates absolutely aren’t a lineup to be feared, and I side with the ceiling of Skubal tonight.
Garrett Whitlock $7,000 (FD) / $6,900 (DK) – Whitlock has been a pitcher with a crazy strikeout percentage when pitching out of the bullpen, and we’ve seen that decline as a starter. Having said that, we don’t have to expect another 0 K outing last his last appearance. The Angels are battling injuries, and the ones who are playing are battling some of the toughest hitting slumps of their careers. Whitlock is cheap enough that there isn’t much risk, and if he can rekindle some of his strikeout upside, could be in for a huge game.
Mitch White $5,800 (FD) / $6,100 (DK) – I was torn between Sands and White for my final spot tonight. Although Sands seems to boast strong strikeout upside in a limited sample size, he’s giving up walks and a ton of hard contact facing a Yankees team I don’t feel like picking on tonight. Although Mitch White hasn’t been perfect, he also provides strikeout upside in a much better matchup against a battered down White Sox lineup. Despite starting the season in the bullpen, he crept above 5 innings in his last game, and we can hope to see that pitch count increase has he garners more starts. This is more of a value flyer in tournaments than a central lineup building block, but I’m very interested in his upside for tournaments.
Earth’s Mightiest MLB DFS Stacks For Today
Toronto Blue Jays – The Blue Jays are the top offense on the board, and aren’t garnering the amount of ownership as they should. The bats are back as of late for the Jays, as they’ve seen power surges all throughout the lineup thanks to Dean’s Mush on Grinders Live. While Keller does a good job of keeping the ball on the ground, this Blue Jays team is simply too stacked with players who hit the ball hard, for a pitcher who doesn’t strike players out to fair well here. While the underpriced Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is still the top option, keep your eye on the lineup and be ready to stack this team top to bottom.
Atlanta Braves – The Braves are a fun team to target with pitchers who have high strikeout upside. This is a team with a lot of power, that loves to swing at everything under the sun. Tonight, they face a lefty who pitches to contact, outside of his pitcher friendly home ball park. Sign. Me. Up. While I love Acuna and Swanson up top, don’t forget about the catchers and Matt Olson in your stacks.
San Francisco Giants – While it’s obviously more fun to target a Rockies pitcher in Coors Field, I still love the Giants tonight. They’re the top stack that looks to be going the most underrepresented by the field tonight, and they still pose a lot of upside against German Marquez, who has struggled this season. Marquez has been getting hit hard by lefties his entire career, and faces a group stacked top to bottom with skilled left-handed hitters. Although we have some pinch hit risk to worry about, I still love the Giants stack here.
Player Image Credit: Imagn