Agents of Fantasy - Heroes Who Can Take Down an MLB DFS Tournament - June 21st
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 21st
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 big 13-game slate tonight, with a lot of offenses in great hitting weather. Sean Manaea is definitely the top option for optimal lineups and cash games, however, for tournaments, I like to pivot elsewhere. Both he and Nestor Cortes are strong options, but the field is playing them in bunches. Let’s look for some ways we can differentiate.
The Top Two
Spencer Strider $8700 FD / $8600 DK – Although Strider will be played a bit more than I’d like, on such a large slate I don’t think we will have to worry about it. The Giants don’t strikeout a ton, but the K upside Strider has shown so far this season is second to none. He provides a nice discount from the aces on tonight’s slate and is my favorite option to target for upside. Strikeouts are the name of the game tonight, and Strider is leading the charge.
Roansy Contreras $7700 FD / $7400 DK – Speaking of young pitchers with strikeout upside, Contreras is second on the list to Strider, and comes at even more of a discount. It’s a little scary how good the weather is in Pittsburgh tonight, but this is still Pittsburgh, not Wrigley Field. The Cubs have some power in the lineup, but they also have a lot of strikeouts. Contreras has a shot to match the upside of some of the aces on tonight’s slate, at a much lower price tag.
Tournament Darts
Erick Fedde $6900 FD / $5700 DK – Yuck. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. This one doesn’t fit the bill as a high strikeout upside play, but I have a mild interest in Fedde for other reasons. On DK, he has an incredibly cheap price tag and paying down for him allows us to target some high-end bats. In addition, Baltimore has played as one of the toughest hitting parks in baseball this year, which could be beneficial as we are seeing some great hitting environments tonight. It’s crazy… but so crazy… it just might work.
Gross, cheap, James Kaprielian is moderately tempting even though he has been awful this season. Oakland is a good pitchers park, and Seattle has some high strikeout bats. Kevin Gausman would be a great option if he hadn’t lost form as of late, and while Dylan Cease has very high strikeout upside, the best hitting environment tonight is in Toronto.
Earth’s Mightiest MLB DFS Stacks For Today
Toronto Blue Jays – We have 95 degrees and almost 20 mph winds tonight in Toronto. This is the ultimate risk/reward spot tonight. Dylan Cease is phenomenal at striking out batters, especially those from the right side of the plate where the Blue Jays find their strongest hitters. However, he also walks too many batters, struggles to keep the ball on the ground, and faces one of the best lineups in the league. The Jays upside is simply too high to ignore tonight, and they won’t be played as much as the other top teams due to the perceived difficult matchup.
St Louis Cardinals – Chi Chi Gonzalez is not a good pitcher, the St Louis Cardinals are a pretty good offense. The laughable 12% strikeout rate won’t be enough to luck his way through the Cardinals lineup, especially when it is accompanied by a .323 iso to right-handed batters. Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt are two of my favorite options on the entire slate, and I’m all aboard the Cardinals train for a full stack as well.
Atlanta Braves – Anthony DeSclafani is starting his first game off the IL in what is essentially a bullpen game for Giants. Another game primed with good weather, I’ll be all over the Braves stacks tonight. It’s tough to pinpoint individual batters outside of Olson as we don’t know who will be coming out of the pen, but this is still a great offense from top to bottom with a plethora of stacking options. From Acuna to Harris, this is a very strong stack tonight for tournaments.