DFS Alerts
Howie Kendrick (back) scratched Wednesday; Carter Kieboom replaces
Kendrick has been scratched from the Washington Nationals’ original confirmed lineup and will not start in Wednesday’s matchup against the Toronto Blue Jays due to back stiffness. He’ll be replaced in the lineup by Carter Kieboom, who will now play third base and slot into the seventh spot in the order, which bumps Asdrubal Cabrera, Eric Thames, Kurt Suzuki, and Starlin Castro all up one spot in the order to third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively. However, the remainder of the Nationals lineup will stay intact offensively as they face off against rookie right-hander Nate Pearson “at home” this evening.
As reported by: Byron Kerr via Twitter Other tagged players: Carter Kieboom
Value At A Weak Position
Jonathan Schoop is someone I find myself eyeing up across the industry mainly because of his positional eligibility. Second base stands out as a position to save at on Wednesday’s slate and Schoop is a cheap option hitting towards the top of the lineup. Schoop is merely an average hitter at this stage in his career but he is someone that does at least have a little bit of pop and has the potential to provide you with some power for cheap.
An Overlooked Expensive Stack
With the prevalence of top pitching options on tonight’s slate, many will be gravitating towards using cheaper hitting stacks like the Royals. For those that don’t, the Yankees look to be the top used option on the expensive side – which may leave the comparably priced Dodgers and their 5+ implied run total with a ballpark upgrade overlooked. Christian Javier will lead a likely bullpen game for the Astros, so while the lefties in the order (Muncy, Bellinger, Seager, Pederson) are ones to target, I would have no issue with the righties whatsoever. All of the Dodgers currently project single-digit owned, and SlateIQ currently has them as the 4th highest likelihood of being the top stack in large-field GPPs tonight. Pair them with a cheap SP2 on DraftKings and you will have plenty of leverage.
Other tagged players: Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager
Top Value Pitcher
Andrew Heaney stands out as Wednesday’s top value option at the SP position. Heaney had a solid 6 strikeout performance in his first start of the season against Oakland in which he threw 4.2 innings, allowing 1 ER. He finds himself in a significantly better matchup tonight at home against a young Mariners lineup. Heaney has solid strikeout stuff as he posted a 28.8% strikeout rate last season and has excellent upside on his price tag.
MegaCron
C.J. Cron is simply underpriced on DraftKings and I fully expect him to be one of the highest owned hitters on the slate. Cron is a very talented offensive player and has mashed left-handed pitching throughout his career to the tune of a 120 wRC+ and .218 ISO.
Awkward Spot
Man, I am not going to lie – this is a bit of an awkward spot for me. I don’t think that there is any doubt that Royals players are simply underpriced on DraftKings on this slate but I also really like Matthew Boyd as a contrarian option at SP for tournaments. The reality is, if you’re building a “cash game” lineup for this slate, you’re likely going to wind up with 2-3 Royals in your lineup simply due to how cheap they are. While I am not against just eating Royals chalk in cash games or 50/50’s (fading a chalky Jorge Soler is big time scary), I think the correct approach is to go underweight on them in tournaments.
Other tagged players: Jorge Soler, Maikel Franco Best Pitcher, Best Matchup
Pitching is loaded tonight, and it is not going to be a necessity to pay up for pitching in all formats on all sites, but as a starting point, there’s no reason to look past Gerrit Cole. He led all of baseball with a 39% strikeout rate in 2019, and he pitched five strong innings against a tougher opponent than this in his opening start. As great as Jacob deGrom is, Cole is a higher strikeout ace, and he is facing a weaker, higher strikeout lineup in Baltimore, making him the go-to ace tonight.
Austin Nola (undisclosed) scratched Tuesday; Joe Odom replaces
Nola has been scratched from the Seattle Mariners’ original confirmed lineup and will not start in Tuesday’s matchup against the Los Angeles Angels due to a presently unspecified reason. He’ll be replaced in the lineup by Joe Odom, who will now handle the catching duties and slot into the ninth spot in the order, which bumps J.P. Crawford, Dylan Moore, and Mallex Smith all up one spot in the order to sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively. However, the remainder of the Mariners lineup will stay intact offensively as they face off against left-hander Patrick Sandoval on the road this evening.
As reported by: Shannon Drayer via Twitter Other tagged players: Joe Odom These Power Bats Could Crush
While the new ballpark in Arlington seems to be playing more pitcher friendly than the old one, these three lefties have plenty of power to hit it out of any park. Choo and Odor both posted an ISO comfortably above .200 while Gallo posted an outstanding .313 ISO against RHP. They’ll be facing Merrill Kelly who surrendered a .327 wOBA and 44% hard hits to left handed batters in 2019, and an Arizona bullpen that ranked in the bottom third of the league.
Other tagged players: Joey Gallo, Rougned Odor
A Lot Better Than His 2019 Numbers
Derek Holland struggles to get right-handed hitters out and should be picked on by right-handed hitters in this game tonight. Holland had a .407 wOBA with a .324 ISO and a 48% hard-hit rate against right-handed hitters last season. I hate stacking in this ballpark, but I think the Brewers are very much in play. Cain should hit leadoff and look to improve his 2019 numbers against left-handed pitching.
Go Right Back Here Tonight
The Royals were tremendous last night, scoring 14 runs, with six homers. While we won’t often see that many homers in a game, picking on this Tigers pitching staff is going to be a good idea all season. The top overall power bat is Jorge Soler, but when factoring in position and salary, Salvador Perez stands out on DK at just $2,800 at the catcher position. While he missed 2019 with injury, he has been one of the league’s top hitting catchers for years. He had four straight 20-HR seasons and is one of the only catchers in the league who hits in the middle of the lineup.
Value Play With Power Upside
Rony Garcia will be making his Major League debut tonight for the Tigers. He had some really decent numbers in AA last season but is making a big jump from AA to the Majors. Soler had a 47.9% hard-hit rate with a 93.3 average exit velocity against right-handed pitching last season. My biggest concern is the strikeouts, but for tournaments, I’ll roll the dice on him at this price on DraftKings.
Hits Sinkers Really Well
Valdez is a sinker/curveball guy, and the Dodgers profile really well against him. Chris Taylor is really cheap on this slate, and hits sinker’s really well. He has a .387 wOBA with a .328 ISO against sinkers since the start of the 2016 season. He should hit 5th or 6th for the Dodgers and makes for a nice value play across the industry. He had a .262 ISO with a .358 wOBA against left-handed pitching last season.
A lot Of Hard Contact
I think Homer Bailey is in play tonight, but I do think Carpenter profiles really well against him. Carpenter struggled in 2019 and finished the season with a .180 ISO and a .325 wOBA against right-handed pitching. The one thing I liked about Carpenter last year, even with the down year, he was still hitting the ball hard. He had a 9.8% soft contact rate against right-handed pitching. Bailey allowed a 40.8% hard-hit rate against left-handed hitters in 2019. There should be a lot of hard contact in this matchup, and at this price, I’m willing to take a shot on Carpenter.
Value Pivot Option For Tournaments
As much as I like Lindblom, I do think we need to pivot some teams to another pitcher. Patrick Sandoval is going to be that guy for me. He’s going to give up a couple of home runs in most of his starts, but he also has some big-time strikeout upside in this matchup. He had a .299 wOBA with a .136 ISO and a 26.8% strikeout rate in 127 PAs against right-handed hitters last season. We have the Seattle Mariners projected for six right-handed hitters tonight. Nola scares me but nothing is safe about any pitcher on this slate.