DFS Alerts
So Many Studs
Each of the top projected offenses have a couple of elite upside bats at high salaries. You can go with any of the Yankees, Red Sox, Indians, Dodgers studs, but if just picking out one, it has to be Giancarlo Stanton. He has homered in four of five games, and faces a low strikeout lefty in Martin Perez. Stanton’s numbers against lefties continue to be out of sight with a .343 ISO and .455 wOBA on a huge 58% hard hit rate.
Save Money For The Bats
There is a tremendous amount of high end offense that will be tough to get away from today. With that in mind, it’s tough to overlook the savings of Wei-Yin Chen at home against the Mets, who are just an awful team against left-handed pitching. Chen has been outstanding at home, where his ballpark is helpful to his fly ball style. Today’s Mets lineup has just a .128 ISO and .291 wOBA against left-handed pitching, and if all Chen does is throw strikes, the Mets should do the rest of the work for him. He has even shown some upside at home, but we don’t need that at this salary today, we just need him to be OK.
Stupid Cheap
Miguel Sano (and most of the Twins) remain stupid cheap on FanDuel. Sano has had a season to forget in terms of being sent down to the Minors for lack of production but the reality is that he’s a very good offensive player despite striking out in bunches. Sano’s career numbers against lefty pitching are very good (124 wRC+, .244 ISO) and he’s simply priced too cheap for his skill-set. Sano is more of a secondary option on DraftKings where Yonder is the same price as him at 1B and where Arenado is the preferred spend at 3B.
Hard Hitting Exposure
Yonder was a chalky disappointment on Saturday night but he’s in a similarly good spot on Sunday against Dylan Covey. Alonso has been hitting the ball hard this year (11th best barrels/plate appearance) and should continue to bat fourth for the Indians with Edwin officially placed on the DL. Cleveland’s implied run total of 5.7 runs is one of the highest on the slate and Alonso is a good way to get cheap exposure to that lineup.
Power Streak
It’s not that there aren’t other hitters in good spots, it’s just that Stanton is in an even better spot against a below average lefty in Yankee Stadium. Stanton’s splits are always fun to look at because it’s easy to forget just how good he is against LHP – he owns a career 173 wRC+ and .339 ISO versus southpaws. Stanton is on a bit of a streak as well as he’s hit a HR in four of his last five games and he’s in a great spot for power again on Sunday.
Searching For Double-Digits
This may make you fell a little uncomfortable but Wei-Yin Chen is my preferred SP2 option on DraftKings where you’ll want to get some hitting exposure to expensive Coors bats. Chen’s numbers are unimpressive but he’s been solid at home this season as he’s posted fantasy totals north of 14 DK points in each of his last five home starts. Double-digits is all we’re really looking for here with Chen and this is a good spot for him to achieve that against a weak Mets offense.
Whiff City
With Chris Sale facing limitations in his first game back from the DL we’ll have to look elsewhere in cash games. Carlos Carrasco is the next in line and gets one of the best matchups in the league against the White Sox. PlateIQ has Chicago’s projected lineup with a strikeout rate north of 25% and it’s unlikely you’ll find a more whiff-heavy lineup on the day. Carrasco has shown some strong strikeout upside himself this season with a 27.8% strikeout rate and 14 SwStr%.
Power Spot For High-Priced Bat
The Cardinals have the privilege of facing Jakob Junis on Sunday, whose HR/9 ratio stands at 1.93 and is allowing 40.9% hard contact. This is good news for Matt Carpenter and his Cardinal friends. Carpenter is expensive and will need to do some damage to pay off his price tag, but he’s been so good this season that it’s hard not to like him in this spot. 24 of his 32 home runs have been against righties and he continues to hold a 1.002 OPS against them. I’m planning to roll out some Cardinals stacks on Sunday hoping they tag Junis for some home runs, and I will definitely have Carpenter in those stacks.
Poor Awesome In Sneaky Spot
I’ll be the first to admit I dislike the Detroit Tigers. I rarely roster their players and think they have one of the worst offenses in baseball. I’m giving them some consideration on Sunday, however, as they face rookie Kohl Stewart making his major league debut. Stewart was drafted back in 2013 but has toiled in the minors since then. Still only 23 years old, Kohl has bounced around Double-A and Triple-A this season. He’s nowhere close to a Top-100 prospect and wasn’t even selected in last year’s Rule 5 draft, so expectations shouldn’t be too high for this debut. He’s been hit around in the minors and has allowed 129 hits through 108.2 innings, but he’s also struck out 101 batters. There’s nothing in his numbers that suggest he will have success at the major league level, so I’m willing to roster a few Tigers’ bats on Sunday, starting with Castellanos for his power. This is a GPP-play only considering how bad this offense is, but it wouldn’t shock me if they put up a few runs against the rookie at low ownership.
Lefty-Masher In Fantastic Spot
The Diamondbacks’ offense has sputtered lately but this is a great spot for lead-off hitter David Peralta against Luis Castillo. Castillo has shown wide splits against lefties this year, where they are hitting .301 with a .902 OPS against him. 12 of his 20 home runs have been by lefties and he continues to struggle against them. Peralta can take advantage of this, as he’s hitting .328 against righties with a .955 OPS. 15 of his 20 homers have also been against righties. Peralta is expensive and may go overlooked, but this is an elite spot for him.
Lefty In A High-Strikeout Matchup
Playing Matt Boyd is never exciting but he has some things working in his favor today. The Twins have the fourth highest K% against left-handed pitching at 24.1%. The Twins also just lost Logan Morrison for the year and are running thin on talent. Boyd has a respectable 21.8 K% and has done well to limit the walks and home runs this season. The price is nice enough where I’m considering Boyd in all formats on two-pitcher sites so I can take advantage of the matchup.
Ace Number Two
If you’re unable to get up to Chris Sale today, it comes down to Carlos Carrasco vs Noah Syndergaard, both in great matchups. The difference here is that Carrasco has been in top form with strikeouts recently, while Syndergaard has been pitching more to soft contact, keeping his strikeouts low. I have no concerns with either of these guys today, but Carrasco, though with a little more risk, faces a higher strikeout opponent and has pitched to a 33% K rate over the past month with just 3.7% walks. The Syndergaard savings, especially on FD is nice, but the upside is higher for Carrasco today.
Ace of Aces
The only question on Chris Sale today is if he’ll pitch deep enough to pay off his salary after missing two weeks on the DL. The skills are beyond elite, and the matchup is ideal, and even if limited to the 90-pitch range, there is a high floor with plenty of ceiling for Sale today. On FD, he’s priced up so excessively that I don’t think he’s the cash game play, but on DK/FDRFT, the gap is small enough that I would still want to start with Sale in cash games today. He is less necessary in tournaments, but certainly play him if you have the ability.
Rookie v Rookie
Goodrum has a matchup here today against a guy making his first major league start. Kohl Stewart has faired pretty well in his time in AA this year, but this guy does not appear to be ready for the majors. He has decent K stuff, but nothing special and going up against Goodrums high K rate and the fact that he may have the jitters plays out very well for Goodrum in this spot. On the year, Goodrum owns a .222 ISO and.426 CXwOBA vs. RHP with his pricetag of just 3.8k on DK and the fact that he’s multi position eligible, he makes as a perfect upside punt play.
An Unlucky Under-priced Hitter
I get that Ozuna doesn’t have great numbers on the year, but he has gotten pretty unlucky and has a pretty good matchup. On the year, he has a drastically lower wOBA (.297) than CXwOBA (.405) even though he doesn’t strike out at a large clip. He gets a matchup vs. Junis who has given up a .339 wOBA and .224 ISO to righties this year and although KC is a pitchers park, it will be 90+ degrees there and humid which essentially turns it into a hitters ballpark. You can fade Ozuna if you really buy into his struggles recently, but I suggest that you play him at this tiny price tag in a good spot.