DFS Alerts

Roark allowed 17 HRs in 111 innings last year.

Tanner Roark offers absolutely no upside with with a 15.0 K% last season, but has managed to limit hard contact in his career (4.9 Hard-Soft%). Despite that, he somehow managed to allow 17 HRs in just 111 innings last season split almost evenly between RH and LH batters. That makes Giancarlo Stanton as a good bet to launch one and a .369 wOBA allowed to LHBs overall makes Dee Gordon an interesting prospect atop the lineup along with Justin Bour (128 wRC+ vs RHP last year) and Christian Yelich (125 wRC+), though the Marlins had just an 85 wRC+ vs RHP last year.

Conley an under the radar look this afternoon

Adam Conley is not a well known name among baseball fans and he faces a tough lineup in Washington, but on a day without really any great pitching options, he might be someone that should be on your radar. In just 67 innings last season, he did a great job limiting hard contact (0.0 Hard-Soft%) and generated a 20.0 IFFB% (16 pop-ups). Combine that with an average K% (21.0) backed up by a double digit SwStr% (10.1) and you have a formidable pitcher, even if we don’t expect him to keep up with such extreme contact and batted ball rates. Washington did hit LHP well last season (106 wRC+) led by Ryan Zimmerman (182 wRC+, .352 ISO) and Bryce Harper (170 wRC+, .234 ISO), who just smashes everyone. There are also some rain concerns from Kevin’s early report. This is a game that potentially holds GPP interest on both sides.

Mediocre pitching in Dodgers-Giants game lead to some viable hitting targets

Alex Wood is elite against left-handed hitting (.228 wOBA last season with just 1 HR allowed) which makes it hard to roster the lefty bats all over the Giants lineup despite their ability to hit lefties well. However, Wood’s .343 wOBA and 14 HR’s allowed to right-handed hitters make Buster Posey, Hunter Pence, and Matt Duffy all strong options today. Jake Peavy gets the start for the Giants and he is a shell of his former self. He’s not terrible but certainly not the ace he used to be. At home last season his results were severely reverse-splits oriented with a .323 wOBA to RH bats and a .252 wOBA to LH bats. It’s perhaps a trend the Dodgers have noticed as right-handed hitter Scott Van Slyke is in the lineup today and batting fifth. He makes for a unique, contrarian play today. Yasiel Puig is another Dodger righty to target and if you’re looking for a Dodgers stack, Adrian Gonzalez and Corey Seager are probably the two best lefties to add.

Nathan Eovaldi a high-risk, high-reward SP option today

The Astros strike out a ton but they also have a loaded lineup in a hitters park which makes Nathan Eovaldi an intriguing and great GPP option at SP for today. He has electric stuff but hasn’t been able to convert that into a high strikeout rate – a match up with the Astros could change that. Still you have to look at left-handed bats like Colby Rasmus and Luis Valbuena as Eovaldi did allow a .345 wOBA to them last season and you shouldn’t ignore the hot bat of Carlos Correa from the right side of the plate. The Yankees pounded the Astros last night and face a fly ball pitcher in Mike Fiers who is somewhat of a reverse splits pitcher as he had a .287 woBA vs LH hitters last season and a .325 wOBA vs RH hitters. Alex Rodriguez is really the only Yankee RH hitter outside of Starlin Castro hitting eighth and he is a fine option to target tonight along with the slew of Yankee lefties headlined by Mark Teixeira who had a .410 wOBA vs RHP last season.

Value options galore in White Sox-A's game

White Sox starter Mat Latos is coming off a rough 2015 campaign that saw him give up a .344 wOBA to left-handed bats. This is good news for an A’s team loaded with just that and they come in with one of the higher totals of the afternoon slate. Stephen Vogt, Josh Reddick, Chris Coghlan, and Yonder Alonso all come in with greater than .340 wOBA’s against RHP last season and all come in with very affordable price tags – Reddick and Vogt are the two top options of that group. We also can’t look past switch-hitters Billy Burns and Jed Lowrie at the top of the order. On the other side, Kendall Graveman takes the mound and he’s vulnerable to both sides of the plate as his .324 wOBA vs LHP and .342 wOBA vs RHP in 2015 show. The top four in the order, especially Adam Eaton, Jose Abreu, and Todd Frazier are excellent options to target from the White Sox side of things.

Roth states it’s not going to be a pretty day in MLB with several games having weather concerns. The Astros-Yankees game comes in at an ORANGE and is the biggest risk of postponement according to Roth. Several games come in at YELLOW/ORANGE meaning there are weather concerns with the potential for delay/postponement. Those games include PHI@CIN, MIA@WAS, BOS@CLE, and TEX@LAA. Check out the rotogrinders.com forums to read Roth’s entire forecast as he’ll continually update the forecast throughout the day.

Phillies-Reds game could be surprising source of offense

The game only features a over/under of 8 but with Charlie Morton and rookie Robert Stephenson on the mound the potential for some fantasy goodness is there. Morton fares well against right-handed hitters only allowing a .275 wOBA last season but struggles mightily against lefties as he gave up a .384 wOBA to them last season. Joey Votto (3rd) and Jay Bruce (5th) are the two big bats to target in the Reds lineup and Scott Schebler is an excellent value option leading off. The Reds starter Stephenson is a top prospect who can strike out batters (140 K’s in 134 IP between AA and AAA last season) but he struggles with his command (70 BB’s in those 134 IP last season) and has shown a tendency to get hurt by the long ball (18 allowed in 136 2/3 IP in AA in 2014). The Phillies lineup isn’t fearsome for sure but given the situation there are bats we can target for our DFS lineups. The top six in the lineup are all in play and all low cost due to them being Phillies. Odubel Herrera, Ryan Howard, and Maikel Franco are the top three targets on the team in the middle of the order.

Sonny Gray returns after food poisoning

Sonny Gray was just another arm on Monday, but the illness that pushed him back to tonight makes him more interesting on a short slate. He may not have the upside of a Strasburg and generates an ERA much better than his underlying metrics, which makes him less valuable in a daily fantasy sense than in real baseball, but he’s still a good pitcher in a great park with one of the higher floors tonight and a reasonable price tag. On a pitching light night, feel free to use him in any format with very little interest in using the White Sox bats.

Brandon Phillips scratched, Mesoraco bats 4th

The Cincinnati Reds have scratched Brandon Phillips. Mesoraco will move up from to the cleanup spot and DeJesus will bat 7th. With the questionable weather forecast, this is not a game with a lot of appeal to start with.

Forecast in Atlanta improving, making Stephen Strasburg a safer target

With the rain in Atlanta looking like it should hold off until later in the night (the chances of rain before 10 PM are very low at this point), Stephen Strasburg becomes a much safer target as his window should be clear. It’s unlikely that he’ll be pulled as a result of a long delay, so he’s playable in cash games.

The updated weather forecast is much more optimistic than the earlier one, removing all reds, though the PHI@CIN game remains high risk. Other concerns in the STL@PIT game and more importantly the WAS@ATL game look to be improved as well. You can find his latest update in the Rotogrinders forum and the link below

Andrew Heaney to 15 day DL

The Angels have just announced that Andrew Heaney was placed on the 15 day DL with a left flexor muscle strain. It shouldn’t have a big long-term effect, but the Angels were already shallow on pitching. Alden Gonzalez is reporting that Nick Tropeano is likely to take his spot when it comes up again on Monday.

Dodgers take aim at Cashner's 30.5 Hard% over the last two seasons

The Dodgers have come out murdering the baseball and look to add Andrew Cashner to their victim list tonight. Cashner pitched much better than most Padre pitchers at home last year (2.98 xFIP), but struggled overall despite pitching decently against the Dodgers last season after allowing 3 HRs to them in his first start of 2015. There are better choices out there for us even tonight. While not really often delving into PvB here, a couple of Dodgers have interesting numbers against Cashner, including Adrian Gonzalez (4 HRs in 32 ABs) and Carl Crawford, who has struck out 10 times in 27 PAs, but also has a 105 exit velocity and three extra base hits when making contact. Corey Seager is a top option at SS, Justin Turner has a major reverse platoon split, and Chase Utley is also useful do to his spot atop the lineup.

Maeda makes MLB debut in San Diego

Currently, Kenta Maeda is a bit of an unknown. Traditionally, Japanese pitchers have sometimes struggled to adapt to major league hitters not chasing out of the zone as much as they are used to, but the Dodgers have had perhaps more success than anybody tapping into the Eastern market and if we’re going by projections (which is all we really can do at this point) they just might do it again. Steamer projects him for a 20.5 K% and 18 HRs allowed in 172 innings, while his fangraphs profile calls for good command of four pitches with marginal velocity. Teams often struggle getting their first look at a player and other than spring training and video from Japan, the Padres haven’t seen Maeda yet, so it’s probably pretty easy to stay off a weak offense. On a light pitching night, it might be tempting to play with the newest toy and while it’s probably smart to have him in a few lineups, there’s still a lot we do not know.

Khris Davis bats 2nd, Rodon struggles against RHBs

Carlos Rodon has a ton of talent and dominated LHBs last season, so it might make sense that he’d be in a good spot against a weak offense in a great park. However, he struggled to throw strikes and get RHBs out (.350 wOBA), which is what the A’s will stack the lineup with against him. Additionally, he’s priced fairly high on both major sites. A sneaky way to go might be the Oakland bats, who face a 3rd straight lefty after putting up a 116 wRC+ against one good and one great one already. Khris Davis moves up to the two spot and has a career .254 ISO vs LHP. Valencia and Butler have also traditionally hit LHP well, while Marcus Semien bats 9th, but had a 144 wRC+ vs LHP last year. Carlos Rodon is a great talent, but currently a flawed pitcher who needs to prove his change-up can consistently get RHBs out.