DFS Alerts

The snow was too much to overcome apparently as the game has been postponed with no makeup date announced. This hurts those on non late-swap sites who took the chance on this game but there’s plenty of time to late swap on sites like DraftKings so make sure you do so.

Aaron Nola and Tanner Roark look to back up excellent starts

The SP’s for today’s Phillies-Nationals game are coming off excellent starts that saw Phillies SP Aaron Nola give up one run while striking out seven in seven IP. His counterpart today, Tanner Roark, was even better as he pitched seven shutout innings while striking out 15. Both have potential but also are vulnerable. Nola is particularly soft against LH bats as he has a career .330 wOBA allowed to that side of the plate. That spells bad news when you are facing the likes of Bryce Harper (.485 wOBA, .349 ISO). Harper’s expensive but often worth it in match ups like these. Daniel Murphy is another Nationals bat who should benefit from the match up as he has a +.200 ISO against RH pitching. Matt den Dekker leading off is a great value option. We’d stay away from most of the Phillies bats today despite Roark allowing a .369 wOBA to LH bats last season – only Ryan Howard and Maikel Franco have wOBA’s that top .340 against RHP.

Trevor Story to sit in game that has serious weather concerns

It’s snowing in Colorado and RG Chief Meteorologist Kevin Roth states that the game is likely to have a delay with a PPD potential. The good news is that they will likely do all they can to get the game in since their will be little chance to make it up later in the season. It’s obviously a high-risk, high-reward play and you’ll want to avoid the SP’s at all costs and load up on bats. Trevor Story is getting the day off and you’ll want to load up on LH bats from the Rockies as their opposing SP, Juan Nicasio, has a career .362 wOBA allowed to that side of the plate. Anyone in the top five of the Rockies batting order (including RH bat Nolan Arenado) are top options – Cristhian Adames batting second allows you to get a bat in for cheap. Also don’t sleep on Tony Wolters batting 8th as he too comes cheap and bats from the left side of the plate. For the Pirates, they face RHP Tyler Chatwood who has career wOBA’s allowed of over .340 to both sides of the plate. Anyone in the top six of their order are excellent options with Andrew McCutchen being the clear cut leader of that group.

Miguel Montero placed on DL

The Cubs announced that Miguel Montero has been placed on the DL, backdated to Monday. David Ross will likely become the every day catcher for the Cubs in the meantime.

RotoGrinders.com Chief Meteorologist Kevin Roth has posted his weather forecast and there is much to worry about when it comes to the early games as he has all four listed as YELLOW or worse – meaning delays and PPD’s are possible/likely. The PHI-WAS game is the safest of the four with just a YELLOW classification while the other three are all YELLOW/ORANGE or in the case of the Coors game a solid ORANGE. It’s going to be a guessing game as to which games play out and/or are delayed so make sure to keep an eye on Roth’s forecast as he updates it throughout the day in the RotoGrinders.com Main Forum.

Weather the only issue in what lines up to be a dominant performance for the Cubs

To say that Vegas likes the Cubs and Jake Arrieta today would be a massive understatement as the line is a staggering -380 for the Cubs with the Brewers projected to score under two runs in a game that has a 6.5 run total. There are some weather concerns (RG Chief Meteorologist Kevin Roth has it classified as a YELLOW/ORANGE which means there is the potential for delay/PPD) still so make sure to keep an eye on Roth’s weather forecast in the RotoGrinders main forum. Assuming the game plays, Arrieta is by far the top pitching option of the day. Despite his high price tag, he’ll likely be very highly owned (especially in the afternoon only slate) so there is some merit to fading him in GPP’s but it’s probably best to only do that if you are building multiple lineups and already have some exposure to the Cubs ace. Taylor Jungmann has the misfortune of having to be the opposing pitcher today – it’s not idea hitting conditions so the Cubs bats aren’t ones to go overboard on but you could make a stack with anyone in the top five of the order (Dexter Fowler-Jason Heyward-Kris Bryant-Anthony Rizzo-Ben Zobrist) with Rizzo (.371 wOBA/.244 ISO against RHP) the top option of those five.

Right-handed bats should have good days in A's-Tigers game

Today in Detroit we have two pitchers who are reverse-splits oriented taking the mound. Chris Bassitt in his limited big league time has allowed a career .329 wOBA to RH bats (as opposed to .302 to LH bats). He’s also struggled mightily on the road to the tune of a .371 wOBA allowed to RH bats. J.D. Martinez (.372 wOBA/.251 ISO against RHP), Miguel Cabrera (.420 wOBA/.188 ISO against RHP) and Justin Upton (.368 wOBA/.229 ISO) are the three bats to look to from the Tigers lineup. Anibal Sanchez takes the mound for the Tigers and he is slightly worse against RH bats over the course of his career (.315 wOBA to .302 vs LH bats). Last season, however, that trend was magnified as he allowed 17 HR’s to RH bats in just 71 2/3 IP which lead to a wOBA of .368. While we won’t want to ignore the left-handed bats of Stephen Vogt and Josh Reddick on the A’s, the two bats to key in on are Khris Davis (.373 wOBA/.274 ISO vs RHP) and Mark Canha (.353 wOBA/.222 ISO vs RHP) as they are two right-handed bats who have the high upside HR potential we want.

Analysis coming soon.

Make sure to pull all players on sites with the late swap feature

Both the CHC/CIN and MIN/CLE games are considered ORANGE. Kevin advises using caution if selecting players from these games, as the rain may force delays or postponements. Make sure to check out the link below and read the full forecast before lineup lock.

Stanton homered off Kershaw last night, crushing LHP (212 wRC+, .561 ISO since 2015)

Giancarlo Stanton hit a long HR off Clayton Kershaw last night and no LHP seems beyond his might. He has pummeled southpaws for a 212 wRC+ with an absurd .561 ISO and 52.4 Hard% since last season. Scott Kazmir has been getting lit up (14 ERs – 6 BB – 10 K last 13 IP) and there has been some talk that he still be dealing with a left thumb injury suffered in March. He’s surrounded by two other hot batters in the lineup. Christian Yelich (192 wRC+ over the last week) handles lefties well (115 wRC+ since 2015) and Marcell Ozuna (152 wRC+ over the last week) has a 143 wRC+ vs southpaws over the last season plus a month.

Justin Nicolino held a 7.6K% in 2015

Nicolino wasn’t exactly blowing it past batters last year, posting a 12.3K% against LHP and a 6.4K% against RHP. Good things happen when the ball is put into play, and that is exactly what we expect the Dodgers to do tonight. Kike Hernandez (.473 wOBA – 207 wRC+ in 141 career AB’s against LHP) has a tremendous track record against lefties, and is an excellent value play given his $3.1K price tag on DraftKings. Both Yasiel Puig (.375 wOBA – 144 wRC+ career vs LHP) and Corey Seager (.372 wOBA – 139 wRC+ in 61 AB’s against LHP) also serve as great plays this evening, given their success agasinst LHP in the past. Fire up the Dodger hitters 1-6 with confidence tonight.

Yankees struggling, but have high projected run total

The Yankees have the 4th highest projected run total (4.5 runs) via our Vegas Odds page tonight against Martin Perez, but have really been struggling recently and have just an 84 wRC+ vs LHP with a 5.5 HR/FB this year. Perez has a low 11.1 K%, but keeps the ball on the ground over 50% of the time. It’s difficult to see where these runs are going to come from. Alex Rodriguez (135 wRC+) has been their best hitter vs LHP since last season. He’s been struggling, but may be ready to come out of it with a 54.6 Hard% over the last week. Teixeira, Beltran, and McCann all have ISOs between .165 to .190 vs LHP since 2015.

Trout (47.4 Hard%) & Pujols (50.0 Hard%) have hit the ball hard over the last week

Chris Young struck out a total of 10 over his last three starts and then matched that total in his last start alone. Not normally known for missing bats, his SwStr% has been above average in every start. However, his hard hit rate (44.4%) and HR rate (14.8 HR/FB) have been up significantly as well, driving his ERA well over six. With the Angels coming out of their team slump over the last week, we might be able to attack him with the top half of this lineup. Mike Trout (167 wRC+ vs RHP since 2015) has a 310 wRC+ and 47.4 Hard% over the last week. Albert Pujols tops that with 50.0 Hard% over the last week along with a few HRs. Newcomer Rafael Ortega has a 159 wRC+ over the last week from the two slot.

Jon Gray takes on the Pirates tonight in Coors Field

Jon Gray is not a pitcher that we need to avoid, especially when the game is being played in Coors Field. He holds a 20K% while pitching at home and has allowed 5 HR’s in just 25 IP at Coors Field. Comparatively, he pitches much better to RH batters at home (24.3K% – 2.76 xFIP) than he does LH batters (14.6K% – 4.96 xFIP). Lefty John Jaso (132 wRC+ – .358 wOBA vs RHP last year) is hitting leadoff and provides us a solid value at just $3.6K on DraftKings. After his 3 HR showing last night, Andrew McCutchen will certainly be one of the highest owned players this evening and serves as another great play. As usual while playing in Coors, basically the entire PIT team is in consideration tonight in GPP’s. They boast a Vegas run line total of just under 5 this evening, so fire up those PIT bats with confidence.