DFS Alerts
It's All Right
The Giants’ Derek Holland has a few things going for him, but none of those things are controlling hard contact against right-handed batters. He allowed 45% hard contact and 39% fly balls to RHB leading to a .205 ISO against. The Dodgers have three strong right-handed bats near the top of the lineup with Enrique Hernandez, Justin Turner and A.J. Pollock. All three hit the ball hard with good contact ability, and they can be played together in stacks or individually in any format. The salaries are leading me more towards Pollock on FD, Hernandez and Turner on DK and Hernandez on Yahoo.
It's All Right
The Giants’ Derek Holland has a few things going for him, but none of those things are controlling hard contact against right-handed batters. He allowed 45% hard contact and 39% fly balls to RHB leading to a .205 ISO against. The Dodgers have three strong right-handed bats near the top of the lineup with Enrique Hernandez, Justin Turner and A.J. Pollock. All three hit the ball hard with good contact ability, and they can be played together in stacks or individually in any format. The salaries are leading me more towards Pollock on FD, Hernandez and Turner on DK and Hernandez on Yahoo.
Go Right Back Here Tonight
Houston is the top offense on the slate again tonight. While they didn’t exactly explode on Tuesday, they did put together 11 hits, five walks and four stolen bases. This team has a lot of ways to score points, and they are facing a left-handed starter who keeps the ball in the zone while allowing hard hits and fly balls. My first choice here would be Alex Bregman, or you can save a few dollars with George Springer from the top of the lineup. Springer led the Astros in hard hit % against lefties in 2018 and already has 2 HR, 1 SB, 5 RBI, 3 Runs, 3 walks and a .304 average in the first week of the season. He can score points in a multitude of ways.
Site Specific Values
There’s a gap between Gerrit Cole and Ross Stripling, and then there’s a gap between Stripling and the rest of the field. But on DK, Jameson Taillon’s salary closes that gap substantially. The Cardinals are a tough opponent, but they are mostly right-handed, and Taillon is a near-elite pitcher against righties. He allowed just a .267 wOBA to RHB in 2018 thanks to a 26% K rate, 2.7% walks, 52% ground balls and 26% hard hits. He is too cheap for those skills.
Good Pitcher, Great Price
As much as I like Gerrit Cole, it’s hard to ignore the salary on Ross Stripling on FanDuel and Yahoo tonight. Stripling’s only issue is pitch count, the skills and matchup are ideal. His 27% strikeout rate is well above every non-Cole pitcher on the slate, and he combines that with elite control. He is nearly unhittable against lefties and the Giants just don’t have the right-handed bats to be much of a threat.
A Class Of His Own
It is not an ideal matchup in Texas for a fly ball pitcher, but Cole is far and away the best pitcher on the slate tonight. While he can strike out anybody, he was especially lethal against lefties in 2018, striking out an incredible 41%. Almost all of the power threats for Texas come from the left side of the plate, so even if he were to allow a home run or two, the strikeouts should more than make up for it. Not quite a must play at the salary, but this is the highest upside pitcher on the slate.
A High Upside Stack
The Dodger offense has been on an absolute tear to start the season, and there’s no reason to think that it should slow down anytime soon with a matchup against Derek Holland and the Giants. Holland had good splits against left-handed hitters a year ago, but he did struggle more with righties, and the likes of Pollock, Taylor, and even Kike Hernandez (though he has pinch hit risk) make sense as part of a stack. If you want to fire a lefty or two in there as a contrarian play, give Corey Seager a look as well.
Other tagged players: Chris Taylor, Corey Seager
Safe Option With Upside
It’s not the best matchup for Taillon tonight, but he’s a pitcher who is getting better at the MLB level and seems to be growing into his role as a solid major league starting pitcher. He posted an ERA, SIERA, and xFIP in the threes a year ago, and his strikeout rate is solidly at league average. I expect ownership to be low tonight with a matchup against the Cardinals, but it’s a good park and a short slate, and I don’t mind Taillon as a GPP option if his ownership is going to be low.
The Clear Ace
It’s a tough evening slate for pitching, and Gerrit Cole stands out as the clear top arm on the slate. It’s a tough matchup in a hitter’s park against a solid Texas lineup, but Cole’s floor and ceiling rise above all the other options tonight. He took a big step forward in his first full year in Houston with a 34% strikeout rate and a 2.91 SIERA, and he struck out nine over six innings in his first 2019 start. Despite the difficult matchup, it’s tough to fade him in any format tonight.
Target the Lefties and the Power
We all know the drill with Julio Teheran by now, as he has a pretty extensive history of struggling against left-handed hitters. For his career, he has allowed a .338 wOBA to LHBs and a .267 wOBA to RHBs. That’s a pretty extreme split for a pitcher with as much of a sample size as he has. The Cubs may have some issues on the mound this year, and they will need to score a lot of runs to win games. Rizzo and Schwarber pack a nice power punch, and the Cubs lefties are an intriguing mini stack on a short slate.
Other tagged players: Kyle Schwarber, Ben Zobrist Don't Bring The Heat, Bring The Cutter
Nathan Eovaldi looked really bad in his first start, and that should really lower his ownership on tonight’s five-game slate. I like Miles Mikolas as well, but we don’t have a lot of options for cheaper pitchers tonight. Eovaldi had a 3.38 xFIP with a 22.4% strikeout rate and a 10.8% swinging strike rate in 2018. When his cutter and slider are working, he can become an elite type of pitcher. Outside of Chapman and Grossman, the Oakland projected starting lineup struggles with cutters. I’m hoping we see a heavy dose of cutters and sliders tonight.
Edwin Encarnacion scratched Tuesday; Daniel Vogelbach replaces
Encarnacion 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 Daniel Vogelbach, who will now handle the designated hitter duties and slot into the eighth spot in the order, which bumps Ryon Healy, Tim Beckham, and Omar Narvaez all up one batting position to seventh, sixth, and fifth respectively. However, the remainder of the Mariners lineup will stay intact offensively as they face off against right-hander Trevor Cahill at home this evening.
As reported by: Greg Johns via Twitter
PHI-WAS will be delayed due to rain Tuesday
The start of the matchup between the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals on Tuesday evening will be delayed due to rain. There’s yet to be any confirmation of an official start time, and the Nationals have not committed to a specific timeline for providing further updates. The confirmed late start is potentially better news for the prospects of starting pitchers like Max Scherzer not being pulled from their starts early because of a mid-game delay, and as Kevin Roth detailed in the latest update to his MLB weather forecast, the teams should be able to play through some light showers once play resumes following the initial weather-related delay.
As reported by: Byron Kerr via Twitter Velocity down in his first start, and facing a lineup with RH power
Chris Sale’s velocity was down over two mph in his first start of the season and, consequently, the Mariners lit him up, going deep three times in three innings. While it’s entirely possible this is nothing to worry about, he’s facing a lineup of right-handed sluggers tonight, who are likely to be low owned with a hitter friendly umpire (Greg Gibson) behind the plate. On the chance that Sale’s velocity remains down and he struggles again, bats like Matt Chapman (124 wRC+ vs LHP last calendar year) or Khris Davis (131 wRC+, .306 ISO), who already has five HRs could provide great value at lower than usual cost against a normally elite pitcher.
Other tagged players: Khris Davis
Chad Pinder scratched Tuesday: Kendrys Morales replaces
Pinder has been scratched from the Oakland Athletics original confirmed lineup and will not start in Tuesday’s matchup against the Boston Red Sox due to a presently unspecified reason. He’ll be replaced in the lineup by Kendrys Morales, who will now play first base and slot into the fifth spot in the order, which bumps Mark Canha down one batting position to sixth and shifts him to left field defensively. However, the remainder of the Athletics lineup will stay intact offensively as they face off against left-hander Chris Sale at home this evening.
As reported by: the Oakland Athletics via Twitter Other tagged players: Kendrys Morales