CheeseIsGood's Million Dollar Musings: Friday, May 21st (FREE)
Happy Friday! It was a big day in MLB yesterday, as every team managed to get at least one hit! I’m so proud of them all. Tonight, we get a full 15-game slate with every team in action. We’ve got aces, we’ve got Coors Field and it’s going to be a doozy of a slate to break down. Let’s jump in and see what we find.
Friday Night Pitching
The first thing that catches my eye today is that DK has suddenly raised their prices on top pitching. They’ve been stubbornly keeping elite pitchers in the $10K range, but today we’re up to three aces over $11K. I have no issue at all with the best pitchers being closer to the $12K mark, but this is kind of a strange day for it to happen with only Trevor Bauer having everything line up in terms of skill set and matchup. The prices on top bats have not come down, so this just means it’s going to be tougher to load up on both sides tonight.
THREE ACES
Trevor Bauer at San Francisco – 35.5% K, 6.5% BB, 2.20 ERA, 2.74 SIERA
Aaron Nola vs Boston – 27.4% K, 4% BB, 3.64 ERA, 3.27 SIERA
Tyler Glasnow at Toronto – 38.6% K, 9.1% BB, 2.35 ERA, 2.71 SIERA
Bauer and Glasnow are at a different level of strikeout ability than Nola, but Nola has the elite control to put him in this top tier. As far as Bauer and Glasnow, it’s a clear edge to Bauer as the ace to pay for tonight with the far better matchup. The Giants have been a much more strikeout prone team this season, coming in with the highest K% in the league against righties. Meanwhile, Glasnow gets the Blue Jays in their hitter friendly home away from home, making for a very clear choice here. The ownership should follow, and Glasnow is definitely worthy of being played in large field tournaments, but with the way salaries are tonight, I cannot prioritize him. Aaron Nola is priced right alongside Bauer on DK, which leaves him well short, but on FD we see a huge gap in pricing with Bauer at $11,800 and Nola all the way down at $9,000. The Red Sox do lose their DH spot today, but that’s not going to affect much and this is still a far worse matchup than Bauer, so it’s no contest at all on DK. We are going to find some other options in his price range, but if I can’t afford Bauer in cash games on FD, I would go with Nola’s skill set at $9,000 even in this matchup.
Overall, this is a very lopsided competition with Bauer on top by a wide margin. Ownership should follow, but that will not change my thoughts here and I’ll be overweight on the ace in the best matchup with Bauer.
ACE UPSIDE WITH QUESTIONS
Stephen Strasburg vs Baltimore – 23.9% K, 15.2% BB (10 IP pre-injury)
Ian Anderson vs Pittsburgh – 25.3% K, 11.3% BB, 3.20 ERA, 4.04 SIERA
Carlos Rodon at NY Yankees – 33.8% K, 8.3% BB, 1.47 ERA, 3.06 SIERA
Stephen Strasburg has missed a month with a shoulder injury, working back up to 75 pitches in a rehab start. Based on long term skills and reputation, $8,300 for Strasburg on DK is eye-opening, but there is far more risk than realistic upside here. I’m never going to doubt Strasburg’s ability to pitch well, but I can’t imagine them extending him much past 4-5 innings or 75-80 pitches here. With so many options on the board, I have very little interest. On FD, I won’t consider him at all.
UPDATE – Officially, the Nationals are saying that Strasburg has ‘no pitch count’. I do not believe that one iota, except to the point that, sure, they don’t have a specified hardstop number going in. But that doesn’t mean he has any chance at throwing 100 pitches. I still plan on 80-ish pitches and 5-ish innings here, and that’s completely acceptable on DK, but still not something I’m chasing. If you want to bet that he’s just 100%, then you’d want heavy exposure here, that’s just not where I’m at.
Ian Anderson has a great matchup at home against the Pirates, but he has been maddeningly inconsistent this season with a drop in strikeouts and a rise in walk rate from his rookie year. He’s faced both good and bad opponents and there has been no rhyme or reason to when his control shows up. As much as I want to chase his strikeout potential in this matchup, this is not a slate where I’m personally paying over $10K on DK for a pitcher with an 11% walk rate, even against the Pirates. FD has priced him fairly at $8,800, but there we’ve got Nola in the same range. This is really the biggest decision point we’ve got so far- Nola vs Anderson as the cheaper FD option if you can’t afford Bauer. Even with this much better matchup for Anderson, he is just not cash game worthy for me, but I can see leaning his way in tournaments. I still have Nola ranked ahead of him, but it’s a razor thin margin.
Carlos Rodon has a far scarier matchup than Anderson, but he’s also been by far the better pitcher. The caveat to that is it’s only been six starts, there have still been some ups and downs with control and he is still due quite a bit of regression in BABIP and HR/FB%. If this were almost any other matchup in the league, I would be chasing Rodon’s upside at lower ownership, but this is just not the spot I want to be invested. The Yankees don’t strike out as much against lefties, and they will send up at least 7-8 high power right-handed bats. I have zero interest in him on FD, while on DK, he just barely makes the cut for MME.
MATCHUP AIDED OPTIONS
Chris Paddack vs Seattle – 21.1% K, 6.8% BB, 4.45 ERA, 4.16 SIERA
Mike Minor vs Detroit – 24.4% K, 9.4% BB, 5.02 ERA, 4.24 SIERA
Marcus Stroman at Miami – 18.5% K, 5.3% BB, 2.70 ERA, 3.94 SIERA
We get a strikeout drop-off with these three, but all three are respectable real-life pitchers in one way or another and come with matchups that make them worth exploring. The first thing I’ll say is that none of these guys are good enough to chase unless they come with meaningful savings. That means that Marcus Stroman is basically going to miss my cut. Even against the Marlins, the strikeout upside just isn’t there at his salary.
What we have is a huge discount on Chris Paddack on FD at just $6,300 and a useful $7,500 salary for Mike Minor on DK.
My problem with Paddack is not just the low strikeouts, but also the decrease in innings and pitch count. He hasn’t topped five innings this season and his last two starts have been 53 and 84 pitches with 3 and 4 innings. These pitch count concerns leave me with very little interest on DK and on FD, while he’s certainly worth $6,300, there’s less reason to chase punt options at pitcher. A high strikeout Mariners team losing their DH is a perfect spot to get him back to the 5-inning level, and I’m not at all telling you not to play Paddack tonight. I’m just cautioning you that he does not have the same type of upside as any other pitcher we’ve touched on so far because of his innings. If I have to go below $7K for a pitcher on FD, it would definitely be Paddack.
Mike Minor is the type of pitcher who causes me problems. I will be clear that I have a bias towards this type of pitcher, and so you should take my thoughts here with some grains of salt. You can see from the strikeout rate that he is ahead of guys like Paddack and Stroman, and closer to the Ian Anderson range. His control is borderline, but consistent, meaning he walks 2-3 batters a game but almost never implodes. He has a long leash, capable of 100 pitches in any start and he’s when batted balls go his way, he can go seven innings like we saw last week. However, most of this season, the batted balls have not gone his way, and hits and home runs have come at the wrong time against him. He is a fly ball pitcher and home runs are going to continue to be an issue, but I see his 5.02 ERA as an outlier in the unlucky direction. The Tigers have been a little better this season, but they still have by far the highest strikeout rate in the league against left-handed pitching at 33.7%, and even more importantly for Minor’s pitching style, a terrible .080 ISO that ranks dead last in the league also by a wide margin. I told you right off the bat that I do have a bias towards Minor, and you do not need to agree with me here, but at $7,500 on DK, he’s going to be my highest owned pitcher tonight. I also prefer him to Paddack as the cheaper option on FD, though it’s close enough to chase the additional savings with Paddack.
GLOSSING OVER MORE
There are so many decent pitchers on this slate that you could end up with a huge pool of options if you choose to spread out. I’m narrowing down my choices, but any of these guys have at least something going for them:
Alex Wood vs LA Dodgers
Jordan Montgomery vs Chicago White Sox
Jose Quintana vs Oakland
Kyle Hendricks at St. Louis
Triston McKenzie vs Minnesota
This is one of those days when I don’t think I’m doing you any favors to pick out reasons why you can play 20 different pitchers. I much prefer to spread out on the hitting side tonight while trying to remain somewhat focused with a smaller pitching pool. If I’m not getting ace, then I’m looking for a pitcher in a better matchup, or I’m punting all the way down to extreme savings. Let’s see what that would mean..
TOO GOOD TO BE FREE
Randy Dobnak at Cleveland
Tyler Ivey at Texas
We’ve had a minimum salary pitcher on DK most days over the past couple weeks, and most of them have not worked out well at all. Some of them haven’t even pitched at all (thanks Dave Roberts!). But Randy Dobnak is a different case. He is not some random rookie with no sample size, he is a guy who made 10 starts last year and has 89 career innings between the bullpen and rotation. He has also spent the last couple weeks at Triple-A stretching out as a starter, so he’s not going straight from reliever to the rotation. We still shouldn’t expect more than five innings here, but at least we know what we’re getting. What we’re getting is basically Marcus Stroman. A below average strikeout pitcher with excellent control and a career 57% ground ball rate. This is the type of pitcher who is not going to beat himself and can only be hurt by extreme BABIP issues going against him. We should not expect much in the way of strikeouts here, but this is a very low power Cleveland team with only three real power threats and very little fly ball ability in the lineup. This is a DK only discussion, but when I look at this slate, I see no reason Dobnak shouldn’t be a $7K pitcher. If you’re not spending up over $10,000, you’re not getting a sure-fire ace tonight and there’s no great way to get two aces with this pricing. Much like I said with Minor, you don’t need to agree with me here, and assess your own risk tolerance, but I’m going to be playing a ton of Dobnak tonight.
I have confidence in Dobnak, but I cannot say the same for Tyler Ivey. But what I can say is that he gets to face the Rangers for his first career start and he has shown a lot of strikeout ability in the minors, up at 33.2% K in Double-A in 2019. He’s only thrown six innings at Triple-A this season and not quite hit five innings, so I can’t expect more than that, but if anyone is going to allow him to come up and retain the strikeouts, it’s Texas. Personally, I’m just playing Dobnak tonight, but I would argue with you at all if you preferred chasing the unknown and potential upside of Ivey.
PITCHING CLIFF NOTES
This is a good slate to remind you of the purpose and goal of the Musings. I am not here to tell you who to play. I say that a lot, but it’s extremely important. I am here to walk you through the thought process to show you what I’m looking at and how I come to a determination of my player pool on any given slate. Tonight, I am landing on a very small pitcher pool despite having a 15-game slate with plenty of options. You might take the same data and end up with a different primary group of options or a much bigger pool to use in tournaments. The important point is that you have a reason why you’re playing the pitchers you’re playing. With that in mind, this is how I have it narrowed down tonight.
FanDuel – Trevor Bauer is fairly priced at $11,800, but he’s the clear SP1 and I will go out of my way to get him anywhere possible. Even with good high-end bats, I would recommend starting here in cash games. Tyler Glasnow is elite enough that I will always have him in the large field tournament pool, but he is not a priority tonight. Aaron Nola and Ian Anderson are the first stop of salary savers around the $9K range. If I can’t afford Bauer in cash games, I’d be OK with Nola, but I don’t love it. I prefer Nola ahead of Anderson in tournaments, but will have an even split of the two. Chris Paddack is the clear value on FD at $6,300 and even with limited pitch count ceiling and likely high ownership, there’s no reason not to land here if you need a sub-$7K pitcher. Carlos Rodon and Mike Minor are the other two pitchers I’ll have in a handful of MME tournaments.
DraftKings – With Bauer, Nola and Glasnow bunched up, it’s a very clear edge to Bauer here as the ace I’m paying for in all formats. Just like with FD, Glasnow is in the MME pool, but I am not going to land on Nola tonight. Ian Anderson and Carlos Rodon are certainly viable with their upside, but for me, I’m just not on board with these salaries. I said this pretty clearly in the breakdown, and you can take it or leave it with my bias towards Mike Minor. I prefer him to Chris Paddack in the mid-tier, and I am comfortable with him in all formats. Where I need salary, which will happen often, I’m going all the way down to Randy Dobnak at $4,000. There are a ton of decent pitchers out there tonight, but personally, I’m going to have the vast majority of my lineups on DK built around just three pitchers – Bauer, Minor, Dobnak.
Friday Night Bats
There is a lot worth considering tonight, but it is a pretty lopsided hitting slate with the Coors Field game coming in way ahead of the field with a total of 11. Outside of Colorado, we have a jumbled mess of teams hovering around projected team totals in the 4.5-5 range. I’m going to talk through some of my favorites in terms of full stacks, individual bats and salary savers, but there’s no way I’m going to be able to touch on every viable play on this slate. The sheer number of bats to consider is making me more confident in my plan to focus my attention on just a few pitchers. I would much rather be spreading out on this side of things tonight.
Diamondbacks at Rockies – Seth Frankoff at German Marquez
Seth Frankoff spent the 2018-2019 seasons in the KBO and since coming back, we’ve seen just nine major league innings. Those nine innings have been terrible, but we don’t really have any idea what we’re going to get out of him yet. In his minor league career as well as his time in Korea, this has been a guy with solid control and slightly below average strikeouts. That is exactly what I want in a pitcher to play against at Coors Field. Throw strikes and let them get it for the altitude to do its work. The Arizona bullpen is a mix of righties and lefties, so we should assume we see a little but of both tonight. If I’m just picking out one bat here, it’s clearly Trevor Story, but I am mostly seeing this as a stack or a place to find some value. C.J. Cron and Josh Fuentes are both under $4K on DK and under $3,300 on FD. Dom Nunez is also a cheap option on FD with some power. Overall, this Rockies team just isn’t good enough to target individual bats other than Story on a 15-game slate, but for full stacks, this is the top of the board.
It’s much easier to highlight some individual bats on the Arizona side with some clear splits from German Marquez. He has brought his ground balls up against lefties this season, but the strikeouts are still much lower and the hard hits remain high. What we want against Marquez are lefties with fly ball ability, which puts Eduardo Escobar at the top of the charts. Now that Ketel Marte is back in the fold, as well as adding Josh Reddick to the lineup, this is a very tough spot for Marquez. He may well face eight straight lefties and Colorado is down to just one mediocre left-handed reliever. Pavin Smith and Daulton Varsho are cheap on FD, but even guys like Escobar and David Peralta are quite affordable and guys I’d look at for cash games. DK has Escobar and Marte priced up, but that’s it. The rest of this lineup is affordable enough to fully stack, and I’ll also be using guys like Smith and Varsho on their own in tournaments.
While Marquez is a better pitcher than Frankoff, when factoring in salaries, overall talent of the lineup and the bullpen, I’m going to the Arizona side first tonight.
NEXT IN LINE
Washington Nationals vs Jorge Lopez
Tampa Bay Rays at Anthony Kay
Houston Astros at Kyle Gibson
SD Padres vs Chris Flexen
A’s at Angels – James Kaprielian at Jose Quintana
Philadelphia Phillies vs Martin Perez
After Coors Field, this is one of the most difficult offensive slates we’ve seen all season. That’s not because it’s bad, but it’s so spread out without much separation. I’ve identified this group of seven teams as my second tier, but you could easily make a case for the next half-dozen teams being here as well.
Washington Nationals vs Jorge Lopez – Lopez is a below average strikeout pitcher with three straight seasons above a 6.00 ERA. There’s just nothing here. He is worse against lefties with no ability whatsoever to control batted balls, allowing a .248 ISO and .384 wOBA the past three seasons. I can make a case for Juan Soto being the top overall bat on this slate and if I was spending top salary for a cash game hitter, it would be him. Add in more affordable lefty power from Kyle Schwarber and Josh Bell with strong contact righties like Trea Turner, Starlin Castro and Josh Harrison, and this becomes an easy stack. Any of the three lefties are worth considering on their own, particularly on DK, but this is ideally a full stack for me.
Tampa Bay Rays at Anthony Kay – Kay is still more of a ‘long opener’ than a full starter, as we’ve seen him top out at four innings. He’s not a terrible pitcher, but average at best and this is a huge ballpark upgrade for Tampa. The biggest problem here is trying to identify where the offense might come from with the Rays. Two of the three best hitters here are Austin Meadows and Brandon Lowe, but not ideal to play them on their own against a left-handed starter. Randy Arozarena looks like the top bat here, but not a standout in the context of the slate at his salary. We also run into a lot of pinch-hit risk elsewhere in the lineup, so I will have a hard time playing cheaper righties on their own here. I’d have the most confidence in Mike Zunino and Willy Adames staying in the game after Kay gives way to the bullpen, but these aren’t guys I’m chomping at the bit to play. The salary that I like the best here is Manuel Margot at $3,400 on DK, and in any type of Tampa stack, I would just play him and hope he stays in the game. If I’m just picking out which teams I expect to score the most runs on this slate, Tampa is near the top of the list, but as far as figuring out where they come from, I don’t love it.
Houston Astros at Kyle Gibson – Gibson has been extremely solid this season, with eight straight quality starts. When I look at his numbers and then the salaries for the Houston bats, I just don’t think I’ll end up with a single full Astros stack on DK tonight. I might get one on FD, but the primary options here are Yordan Alvarez or Kyle Tucker as individual tournament bats. Gibson is still not striking out lefties, down at just 14.8% this season, and his ground ball lean is of no concern to the fly ball power of Alvarez and Tucker.
SD Padres vs Chris Flexen – Flexen has also been respectable in real-life, but he has a scary low 14.2% strikeout rate and we shouldn’t assume he keeps up a low 7.1% HR/FB rate. The control is great, but he just doesn’t have enough swing and miss ability to think he can get through this San Diego lineup with Fernando Tatis back in the fold. There has been very little difference in the splits from Flexen and I’m just going straight for the big bats here without being overly concerned with righty-lefty. Fernando Tatis and Manny Machado are the spend ups, with Machado being too cheap on FD. Along with Tatis, the Padres have also gotten Eric Hosmer back, who along with guys like Trent Grisham and Jake Cronenworth are fairly priced pieces to add to San Diego stacks. I don’t even mind any of these Padres lefties as cash game pieces against the low strikeout Flexen. Generally, I prefer not to full stack against pitchers with elite control, but on this slate, I am finding myself gravitating heavily towards San Diego. They have the right mix of spend up power, mid-tier contact and some dirt-cheap punt options that work around any lineup construction. At this point, I’ve got them up alongside the Nationals as my top non-Coors offense.
A’s at Angels – James Kaprielian at Jose Quintana
Both of these offenses have some big power bats worth using in tournaments tonight. I don’t particularly love either side as full stacks, though it’s certainly viable.
For the A’s, they face the left-handed Jose Quintana, who has allowed 46% hard hits to righties the past two seasons. He does have moderate strikeout ability, but this is a team with a lot of righty power led by Matt Chapman, Ramon Laureano and Mark Canha. When you add in Jed Lowrie, Sean Murphy, Stephen Piscotty and Chad Pinder, Quintana is going to see a lot of hard-hit balls against him tonight. I’ve got Chapman and Laureano on top of my list, and if I’m stacking one side of this game, it would be Oakland.
James Kaprielian looked solid in his first major league start and this is someone I expect to be a decent major league pitcher right away. With the Angels condensed offense, I’m not digging much further than Shohei Ohtani and Jared Walsh. I’m assuming we see typical splits from Kaprielian, so I am just interested in chasing some lefty power, and that’s Ohtani and Walsh is where it starts and stops.
Philadelphia Phillies vs Martin Perez – Perez is still one of those guys who is rarely as bad as it seems like he should be. He’s only allowed more than three runs once this season in eight starts and has a very low 24% hard hit rate saying that it’s not entirely fluky. The right-handed fly ball power of Rhys Hoskins is the only thing I can pull out of this lineup to get excited about. Other than him, we’re playing for a game where the BABIP goes against Perez, and he doesn’t have the strikeout ability to get out of it when that happens. This is just an OK stack for me tonight.
POWER HUNTING
Ronald Acuna and Marcell Ozuna vs Tyler Anderson – Anderson has been solid this season with average strikeout ability, good control, limited hard contact and a 3.50 ERA. But we’re still looking at a lefty who doesn’t keep the ball on the ground against right-handed bats who throws strikes. The Braves are completely stackable here, but I would first be hunting for power with high end bats like Acuna and Ozuna.
Christian Yelich and Friends at Jeff Hoffman – Hoffman has made eight starts this season, and while the results have been all over the place, the splits have not. He has struck out an impressive 29.1% of right-handed batters, but a horrendous 11.7% of lefties, along with poor control. The main problem with spending up to Christian Yelich or going cheaper with a lefty power bat like Dan Vogelbach and Travis Shaw is the wildness of Hoffman. You’re more likely to get a walk than a pitch to hit, but at some point, the Brewers should end up with baserunners where one big swing could pay off any of these salaries. I will have some stacks here, with the affordable lefty power bats being filtered into tournament lineups as salary savers.
Jesse Winker and Tyler Naquin vs Adrian Houser – You are certainly allowed to play Castellanos and Suarez here, but Houser remains an elite ground ball pitcher to righties, up at almost 70%. That is just not something I want to trifle with. No trifling! But against lefties, he’s a lower strikeout pitcher, and a more manageable 5% ground balls. Neither Winker or Naquin are big fly ball hitters, but both have enough hard-hit ability to get the job done. The Reds are not high on my list tonight, and more of an MME flier.
White Sox at NY Yankees – Carlos Rodon at Jordan Montgomery – All I can say here is that the Yankees right-handed power is never out of the mix in tournaments. As good as Rodon has been, he still allows fly balls to righties, and he’s not going to strike out all of them. But on a 15-game slate, I can’t make it any kind of priority to play against one of the top pitchers. Montgomery is not quite as good as Rodon, but this is another pretty solid pitcher. Right-handed power is worth a look here as well with Montgomery being not much more than average against righties. Andrew Vaughn is a salary saving option, and then we’re looking at Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, and one of the catchers, Mercedes or Grandal.
MAYBE YOU CAN STACK THESE TEAMS??
KC Royals vs Jose Urena
NY Mets at Jordan Holloway
Minnesota Twins vs Triston McKenzie
Chicago Cubs at Carlos Martinez
This is where the full slate just starts getting a little silly. There are 30 teams playing tonight, and only a small handful of top pitchers. You can easily make a case to stack 20+ different teams tonight. I will tell you that I am going to run 150 lineups through the lineup builder and get a few random stacks of all these teams, but for my primary builds, I’m really trying to narrow things down a little more than this.
If I’m going to this tier, it would be the Royals first, as I have the least confidence in Jose Urena. But even with him, his ground balls have taken care of business this season and he’s been very good against righties. I really only want to stack against him when we have strong left-handed heavy lineups, and that is not the case here.
With both the Twins and Cubs, we’ve got upside pitchers but guys with control and consistency issues. McKenzie has walked four batters in five of his seven appearances this season, while also allowing seven home runs in 28 innings. He has talent and strikeout ability, but until we see it on a consistent basis, a team with as much power as Minnesota deserves to be stacked against him. The same goes for Carlos Martinez coming off the IL. He’s already allowed 4+ runs in three of his seven starts and the strikeouts continue to underwhelm. I prefer the Twins ahead of the Cubs, but these are reasonable large field tournament stacks.
SHOW ME SOME VALUE
Particularly on DK, if you’re trying to get an ace pitcher tonight, you are going to need several cheap bats to make it work. Once you start trying to fit more than one or two big bats along with an ace, you’re left needing punt options at multiple positions. These are some of the guys that are standing out as salary savers tonight:
Catcher – Daulton Varsho, Victor Caratini, Martin Maldonado (If Varsho is in the lineup, he’s the clear standout here)
First Base – Andrew Vaughn, Josh Bell, C.J. Cron, Dan Vogelbach, Pavin Smith, Yandy Diaz
Second Base – Luis Arraez, Domingo Leyba, Mike Brosseau (pinch-hit risk), Jake Cronenworth
Third Base – Brian Fuentes, Starlin Castro, Brian Anderson
Shortstop – Willy Adames, Chad Pinder, Gleyber Torres, Kevin Newman
Outfield – Andrew Vaughn, Brian O’Grady, David Dahl, Stephen Piscotty, Eddie Rosario, Justin Upton, Willie Calhoun, Pavin Smith, Gregory Polanco, Manuel Margot, Max Kepler
Over on FD, as usual, there is a little less need to go dumpster diving with how many top bats are available around the $3K mark, though more of them are up in the mid-$3’s tonight. Some of the standouts here in the low $3’s are C.J. Cron, Manny Machado, Marcell Ozuna, J.T. Realmuto and Ozzie Albies. The vast majority of what I would call top plays on FD are in the $3,500-$3,800 range, and any non-Bauer lineup will be able to load up on these guys like Eduardo Escobar, Charlie Blackmon, Nelson Cruz, Rhys Hoskins and Randy Arozarena.
HITTING CLIFF NOTES
This really is a wide-open hitting slate once we get past Coors Field and I would expect to see the ownership reflect that. Maybe we see Washington getting up to enough ownership to have to consider, but there is nothing else on this slate where I’ll make any decisions based around ownership.
I prefer the Diamondbacks ahead of the Rockies, and while those are the top two teams on this slate, I don’t feel the need to get above the field on one game out of 15. Along with the Nationals, the Padres are my next favorite full stack, and then it’s a group with the Rays, A’s, Phillies, Twins, Braves and Cubs.
The more I dig around in this slate, the less I am enamored with full 4-5 man stacks. The salary cap in ace-lineups will probably dictate landing on stacks, but in the lineups where I’m going with cheaper pitching, I plan to use more mini stacks and one-off power bats. Some of my favorites here would include Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuna, Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis and Manny Machado and Brewers lefties.
Image Credit: Imagn