FantasyDraft MLB Expert Survey: Thursday, August 29th
Want to know who Notorious is definitely paying up for in MLB DFS today? Wondering which value play STLCardinals84 is eyeing most? You’re in luck. Our daily fantasy baseball analysts will answer a handful of questions to help you make crucial lineup building decisions for tonight’s contests. NOTE: Surveys for early slates will be posted when there are four or more early games.
Thursday, August 29th
Who is your favorite hitter for cash games?
STLCardinals84: Charlie Blackmon
meansy53: Charlie Blackmon
Pepsi7: Charlie Blackmon
stevietpfl: Charlie Blackmon
Who is your favorite hitter for tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Starling Marte
meansy53: Dan Vogelbach
Pepsi7: Trevor Story
stevietpfl: Joc Pederson
Who is your favorite pitcher for cash games?
STLCardinals84: Jacob deGrom
meansy53: Jacob deGrom
Pepsi7: Jacob deGrom
stevietpfl: Jacob deGrom
Who is your favorite pitcher for tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Jacob deGrom
meansy53: Jacob deGrom
Pepsi7: Jacob deGrom
stevietpfl: Chris Paddack
Who is your favorite cheap pitcher for cash games?
STLCardinals84: Alex Wood
meansy53: Dereck Rodriguez
Pepsi7: Alex Wood
stevietpfl: Alex Wood
Who is your favorite cheap pitcher for tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Dereck Rodriguez
meansy53: Dereck Rodriguez
Pepsi7: Alex Wood
stevietpfl: Dereck Rodriguez
Who is your favorite salary saver on the board?
STLCardinals84: Nick Solak
meansy53: Rougned Odor
Pepsi7: Sam Hilliard
stevietpfl: Sam Hilliard
Who is your top contrarian play on the board?
STLCardinals84: Elvis Andrus
meansy53: Dan Vogelbach
Pepsi7: Eugenio Suarez
stevietpfl: Hunter Renfroe
Which player are you most afraid of having little to no exposure to?
STLCardinals84: Pete Alonso
meansy53: Lance Lynn
Pepsi7: Pete Alonso
stevietpfl: Pete Alonso
Which high-priced pitcher will you have little to no exposure to in tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Hyun-Jin Ryu
meansy53: Lance Lynn
Pepsi7: Hyun-Jin Ryu
stevietpfl: Hyun-Jin Ryu
Which high-priced hitter will you have little to no exposure to in tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Aristides Aquino
meansy53: Jon Berti
Pepsi7: Pete Alonso
stevietpfl: Pete Alonso
What’s your sneaky home run call of the day?
STLCardinals84: Shin-Soo Choo
meansy53: Kyle Seager
Pepsi7: Eugenio Suarez
stevietpfl: Hunter Renfroe
What’s your favorite overall team stack?
STLCardinals84: COL
meansy53: PIT
Pepsi7: PIT
stevietpfl: COL
What’s your favorite sneaky team stack?
STLCardinals84: TEX
meansy53: SEA
Pepsi7: TEX
stevietpfl: LAD
Which useful trend or statistic stuck out most during your research?
STLCardinals84: Despite throwing six shutout innings in his last start, Trevor Williams still owns a 7.21 ERA since the beginning of June — and now he has to pitch at Coors Field.
meansy53: Lance Lynn has a 20.5% K% to lefties and 35% K% to righties. The projected lineup for the Mariners has seven lefties in it.
Pepsi7: In his last nine starts (79 IP), Jacob deGrom has allowed just eight earned runs, while whiffing 79 batters.
stevietpfl: Dereck Rodriguez has a 46.6% hard-hit rate with an 8.9% soft-hit rate against right-handed hitters this season. He also has a 13.8% strikeout rate with a 5% walk rate. Very much a pitch to contact pitcher.
What is your hot take of the day?
STLCardinals84: The Coors Field game goes officially bananas with 20+ runs scored.
meansy53: Dan Vogelbach hits a home run in each of his first two at-bats.
Pepsi7: Starling Marte homers and steals a base, otherwise known as a “jack and a bag”.
stevietpfl: Hunter Renfroe hits 2 home runs
Who is your top overall pitcher (when considering price, matchup, projected ownership, etc.) on the board and why?
STLCardinals84: Jacob deGrom – The Mets are fading fast in the NL playoff race on the heels of five straight losses, and this game is about as must-win as you can get on August 29th with the opposing Cubs currently holding the second wild card spot and looking for a road sweep. deGrom’s numbers are obviously elite with a 2.56 ERA on the year to go along with 32% strikeouts and low walks. The Cubs have been hot over the last few games but are still weaker offensively without Anthony Rizzo, and deGrom’s skills make him the clear top option in a very important game.
meansy53: Jacob deGrom – deGrom is the clear top pitcher on this six-game slate, making him a priority for me in all formats. This Cubs lineup takes a big hit with Anthony Rizzo likely to be out again. Hopefully their destruction of Thor yesterday will keep ownership a little more depressed than it normally would have been. The floor/ceiling combo here is unmatched, so I have no problem paying a premium for him due to the lack of other appealing options.
Pepsi7: Jacob deGrom – On a slate lacking elite arms, Jacob deGrom is easily the top option on the night. The New York Mets ace is having another dominant season and he is as consistent as they come, allowing two or less earned runs in his last nine starts, while racking up 79 strikeouts in 59 innings pitched. The Chicago Cubs are not an ideal matchup by any means, but they do strike out the 10th-most in Major League Baseball versus right-handed pitching and will be without their best hitter in Anthony Rizzo. In terms of raw points, deGrom should lead by a landslide.
stevietpfl: Jacob deGrom – As much as I like Chris Paddack on this slate, deGrom is the clear-cut top option on this slate. Bats are also important on this slate, which makes the deGrom/Rodriguez build popular on two pitcher sites. deGrom has a 2.96 xFIP with a 31.8% strikeout rate and a 15.9% swinging-strike rate. The Cubs projected lineup has a .214 ISO with a 22.6% strikeout rate against right-handed pitching this season. There is a lot of power in this lineup, but there is a lot of strikeout upside as well.
Who is your top overall hitter (when considering price, matchup, projected ownership, etc.) on the board and why?
STLCardinals84: Charlie Blackmon – Coors is the obvious spot to go for offense tonight, with both teams owning implied team totals over seven runs. We have two bad pitchers going, and an explosion feels imminent. Given the struggles of Trevor Williams, I’ll give a slight lean toward the Colorado side. Give me Blackmon as the top overall bat against a bad righty, as Blackmon owns a .424 wOBA, .252 ISO, and 1.009 OPS for his career against RHP at Coors. You can’t go wrong with offense in this game tonight, but Blackmon is my first priority.
meansy53: Dan Vogelbach – The skills of Lance Lynn drop off quite a bit against lefties. Specifically, as noted above, he only gets 20.5% strikeouts against them. With that (striking out) being Vogelbach’s one big weakness, I love the potential of him being able to get a hold of one tonight. The massive park shift in his favor is obvious, but I also think DFS owners will be skittish to use Mariners since Lynn is one of the few good pitchers on the slate. I think we can use that to our advantage in tournaments with not only Vogelbach (.283 ISO versus RHP this season) but other Mariners as well.
Pepsi7: Charlie Blackmon – The Colorado Rockies leadoff hitter has a plus matchup on deck, making him my top overall bat on this short slate. Trevor Williams is a below-average pitcher who struggles mightily to retire left-handed hitters, allowing a .393 wOBA, while striking them out a 13.3% clip. On the flip side of this matchup, Charlie Blackmon continues to rake against right-handed pitching at home, producing a .511 wOBA and a .410 ISO. Whether you are playing cash games or GPPs, you are going to want to get exposure to Blackmon this evening.
stevietpfl: Hunter Renfroe – As I highlighted above, Rodriguez is a pitch to contact pitcher, and while this is okay in this ballpark, he tends to struggle with power hitters. Renfroe has a .314 wOBA with a 33.6% strikeout rate against right-handed pitching this season. This should scare you off in most matchups. With Rodriguez having a low strikeout rate, I’m not worried about Renfroe striking out. He has a .255 ISO with a 45.5% fly ball rate and a 45.5% hard-hit rate against right-handed pitching this season. This is a high upside spot, and I really like him to be low owned on this slate.
Thursday, August 29th (Early Slate)
Who is your favorite hitter for cash games?
STLCardinals84: Yordan Alvarez
meansy53: Matt Olson
Pepsi7: Matt Olson
stevietpfl: Yordan Alvarez
Who is your favorite hitter for tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Matt Olson
meansy53: Yordan Alvarez
Pepsi7: Yordan Alvarez
stevietpfl: Matt Olson
Who is your favorite pitcher for cash games?
STLCardinals84: Mike Clevinger
meansy53: Mike Clevinger
Pepsi7: Mike Clevinger
stevietpfl: Mike Clevinger
Who is your favorite pitcher for tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Jose Berrios
meansy53: Jose Berrios
Pepsi7: Jose Berrios
stevietpfl: Jose Berrios
Who’s your favorite cheap pitcher for cash games/tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Dylan Cease
meansy53: Glenn Sparkman
Pepsi7: Glenn Sparkman
stevietpfl: Glenn Sparkman
Who is your favorite salary saver on the board?
STLCardinals84: Seth Brown
meansy53: Seth Brown
Pepsi7: Seth Brown
stevietpfl: Seth Brown
Who is your top contrarian play on the board?
STLCardinals84: Robbie Grossman
meansy53: Jason Castro
Pepsi7: Franmil Reyes
stevietpfl: Jake Cave
Which high-priced hitter will you have little to no exposure to in tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Yoan Moncada
meansy53: Tim Anderson
Pepsi7: Jose Altuve
stevietpfl: Jose Altuve
Which high-priced pitcher will you have little to no exposure to in tournaments?
STLCardinals84: Chris Bassitt
meansy53: Chris Bassitt
Pepsi7: Chris Bassitt
stevietpfl: Chris Bassitt
Which player are you most afraid of having little to no exposure to?
STLCardinals84: Miguel Sano
meansy53: Jose Altuve
Pepsi7: Jose Altuve
stevietpfl: George Springer
What’s your sneaky home run call of the day?
STLCardinals84: Ryan O’Hearn
meansy53: Mark Canha
Pepsi7: Franmil Reyes
stevietpfl: Jake Cave
What’s your favorite overall team stack?
STLCardinals84: OAK
meansy53: MIN
Pepsi7: MIN
stevietpfl: HOU
What’s your favorite sneaky team stack?
STLCardinals84: CLE
meansy53: CLE
Pepsi7: CLE
stevietpfl: MIN
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