DFS Alerts
Situational Play
Kuhl is strictly a situational play worth a long shot in GPPs if you’re making multiple lineups. This is a tough travel spot for the Cubs as they travel to Pittsburgh to play a 1:35 PM EST game versus the Pirates after finishing up with their Sunday night baseball game around 11:45 PM EST. Kuhl has been largely mediocre for the Pirates so far this year (4.20 ERA, 4.09 SIERA, 22.5K%) but will likely get a bit of a watered down Cubs lineup (perhaps we see Chris Gimenez in for Willson Contreras, which is a massive downgrade offensively) in an otherwise tough matchup. Kuhl will also have the benefit of home-field advantage with this game taking place at pitcher friendly PNC Park.
Spread Out Ownership
It will be interesting to see how ownership gets spread out at SP2 for Memorial Day’s early slate as there seems to be a handful of ways you can approach roster construction. Spread out ownership is great for GPPs as as it gives us the opportunity to easily go overweight on some talented pitchers that may be in a less than ideal spot contextually. Enter Luke Weaver who will take on the red hot Milwaukee Brewers at hitter friendly Miller Park. Weaver has strung together three straight starts of 20+ DraftKings points and has seemed to correct his early season woes. A matchup versus the Brewers (103 wRC+) in hitter friendly Miller Park is not a favorable one but despite the Brewers early season success there are strikeouts to be had in their lineup (24.7 K% vs RHP). Weaver is still priced cheap enough where he has some upside in his price tag.
Situational Play
Kuhl is strictly a situational play worth a long shot in GPPs if you’re making multiple lineups. This is a tough travel spot for the Cubs as they travel to Pittsburgh to play a 1:35 PM EST game versus the Pirates after finishing up with their Sunday night baseball game around 11:45 PM EST. Kuhl has been largely mediocre for the Pirates so far this year (4.20 ERA, 4.09 SIERA, 22.5K%) but will likely get a bit of a watered down Cubs lineup (perhaps we see Chris Gimenez in for Willson Contreras, which is a massive downgrade offensively) in an otherwise tough matchup. Kuhl will also have the benefit of home-field advantage with this game taking place at pitcher friendly PNC Park.
Francisco Cervelli (illness) scratched Sunday, Elias Diaz replaces
Cervelli has been scratched from the Pittsburgh Pirates original confirmed lineup and won’t start in Sunday’s matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals due to an illness. He’ll be replaced in the lineup by Elias Diaz, who will handle the catching duties and slot into the seventh spot in the order, which will bump Austin Meadows all the way up to the second spot and Gregory Polanco up to sixth, respectively. It goes without saying that there have been some noteworthy changes to this Pirates order, so be sure to check out the updated lineup on the Starting Lineups page as they face off against right-hander Miles Mikolas at home this afternoon.
As reported by: Liz Bloom via Twitter
Mookie Betts scratched Sunday; Blake Swihart replaces
Betts has been scratched from the Boston Red Sox original confirmed lineup and will not start in Saturday’s matchup with the Atlanta Braves due to a currently unspecified reason. He’ll be replaced in the lineup by Blake Swihart, who will play left field and slot into the seventh spot in the order, which will bump Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts, Mitch Moreland, Dustin Pedroia, Rafael Devers, and Eduardo Nunez all the up one batting position, respectively. It goes without saying that there have been some noteworthy changes to this Red Sox order, so be sure to check out the updated lineup on the Starting Lineups page as they face off against right-hander Mike Foltynewicz at home this afternoon.
As reported by: Jason Mastrodonato via Twitter Gerrit Cole continues to lead qualified SPs with a 2.17 SIERA and 33.5% K-BB%
Cole is coming off of what is likely his two worst outings of the 2018 campaign thus far, surrendering three home runs en route to allowing five earned runs in his last 11 innings pitch, which is not even that brutal of a stretch and is just a testament to how unbelievable he’s been through first 10 starts this season. Cole currently sports an unsustainable 40.2% strikeout rate, but just because that type of strikeout percentage isn’t usually sustainable doesn’t mean that Cole’s numbers are entirely fluky as he continues to maintain a career-high 15.3% swinging strike rate, 2.17 SIERA, and 2.42 xFIP that support his low 1.86 ERA on the young season. His pitching profile also doesn’t signal some sort of colossal regression either, especially since Cole has made a conscientious effort to change his approach on the mound, which is evidenced by him throwing his slider and curveball significantly more often, resulting in a complete flip in his batted ball splits with a 47.7% fly ball rate and 30.5% groundball rate that contradict 31.4% fly ball and 46.5% groundball rates over the course of his career. A matchup with the Cleveland Indians on Sunday afternoon may be enough to slow Cole’s blistering pace, but they aren’t exactly offensive juggernauts against right-handed pitching either, checking in at 15th in wOBA and OPS while striking out at the 11th-best clip in the Majors this year. This, combined with the Indians current 3.9 implied runs total makes Cole a respectable option in cash games on today’s main slates, particularly on multi-pitcher sites, but he appears to be better utilized as a pivot in tournament formats away from the likely higher owned aces in Stephen Strasburg and Chris Sale this afternoon.
As reported by: FanGraphs Back to the Brewers
If you are looking for a lesser-owned stack to move off of the likes of the Coors bats, the Rangers, or “insert-team-facing-James-Shields” (the Tigers, in this case), the Brewers look to be in another great spot today against a struggling Zack Wheeler. They exploded yesterday against southpaw Jason Vargas, and today have a high Vegas-Implied Team Total playing again at their hitter friendly home park. Wheeler has struggled against both sides of the plate this season but particularly against lefties, allowing a .347 wOBA and a whopping 43.8 HC%. Travis Shaw and Christian Yelich profile as the best options here, but Wheeler’s stuff against righties hasn’t been effective enough to shy away from a full stack of this Brewers offense. I think many may gravitate to the other side of this game and roll out Mets bats against Chacin (and for good reason), but don’t overlook the Brewers offense in today’s matchup, as we may be in store for a high scoring affair this afternoon at Miller Park.
Other tagged players: Christian Yelich, Jonathan Villar
If at first your Game-Stack succeeds, Try and Try again
I have been doing more game stacking over the last couple years and it has treated me extremely well. This game screams game stack to me.. We have the perfect recipe, Terrible starting pitching in Shields and Hardy, 2 of the worst bullpens in baseball, 2 teams who hit much better during the day and pretty nice hitting conditions in Detroit. I love the Sox righty power vs lefties like Hardy, especially Abreu, Anderson and Davidson who all have terrific splits. On the Tigers side I am all about the lineup 1 though 7 against the fraudulent James Shields. Detroit has some major pop that I think crushes Shields and that Sox pen today. I am especially high on Candelario, Castellanos, Martin and Hicks
Other tagged players: Nick Castellanos, Niko Goodrum, Leonys Martin, John Hicks, Jose Abreu, Matt Davidson, Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, Yolmer Sanchez
Cheap Brewers
There’s barely any overlap of cash game plays between the two main sites (FanDuel/DraftKings) because FD left out the two highest total games of the day. That makes finding guys that you can play on both sites difficult but Jonathan Villar (barely) fits the criteria. Villar is cheap enough at a relatively poor position (Scooter makes the position stronger on DK) that you can consider him in cash games in a matchup against Zack Wheeler and the Mets. The Brewers lit up the scoreboard for 17 runs on Saturday and while the matchup on Sunday isn’t as favorable, it’s still strong enough to consider cheap Brewers for cash. Villar won’t wow you offensively but will flash power every once and a while and has some stolen base upside – that’s all you really need to justify playing him at these prices.
Nick Pivetta a High-Upside Option Against Toronto
Pivetta has been on fire of late, posting 25 K’s to only 2 BB’s in his past three starts. Today he squares off against a Blue Jays team that has a 24.1% K rate against RHP and loses their DH moving to an NL park. Pivetta has also shown extreme home/road splits this season, racking up 43 K’s in 36 innings and only allowing opponents a .240 wOBA when pitching at home. Pitch Pivetta with confidence today against Toronto.
Too Cheap on FanDuel
I love to pay up for aces on FanDuel but Pivetta is just way too cheap at $8000. I don’t know if I will go there in cash games but it is something to consider and I love him in tournaments. The Blue Jays offense can struggle against right handed pitchers and especially against the slider. Pivetta throws that pitch 15% of the time which could end up giving him a lot of success today. Pivetta also has a 3.50 xFIP and a 29% strikeout rate on the season. He’s limited the hard contact to 27% and only walks about 5.6% of batters he faces, which should help limit any big damage he could give up. I love his price on FanDuel so much that I had to write him up here and still think he is a good play on FanDuel.
Lock and Forget
Gallo unfortunately isn’t available on FanDuel’s main slate but I wanted to highlight him regardless because of his $3,800 price tag on DraftKings. Gallo is a lock and forget it guy for me at that price in an extremely favorable power matchup against Jason Hammel in Arlington. Hammel is the owner of a 5.08 SIERA over 60 IP this year and there’s not much to indicate that things will get easier. Hammel has actually allowed fewer HRs (7) than expected this year despite not being able to generate much soft contact (13.1 Soft%) or being able to strike anybody out – he owns a laughable 12.5% strikeout rate. The Rangers offense as a whole is up there with Coors as the top stack of the day and they are my favorite team to stack if looking strictly for power.
Ace in the making
With three straight games of 27 plus DK points Pivetta is very high on my list today. I thought this kid would turn the corner this year and while he’s still a bit inconsistent, he is finding his way and turning into a real ace. This season 39.3% of the batters facing Pivetta have started in an 0-2 hole.. Thats’s phenomenal.. Second only to Max Scherzer in all of baseball. He has a nice k rate at 28% and when he isn’t walking guys is truly elite.. Especially against righties. The Jays are a streaky offense with a 22.2% k rate against righties on the season and don’t have a lot of lefties outside of Justin Smoak that scare me. I don’t think a lot of people will go here today and i love the play for GPP’s
Cheap Lead Off Option
I know James Shields has not been a complete disaster this year but I am going to go back to the well here and continue to target him. Martin leads the Tigers in 2018 with a CXwOBA of .508 and has looked great this year. People have argued that Shields is using his cutter more and that has led to some of his success but Martin actually hits Shields cutter well. Martin has a .429 ISO against cutters this season! Vegas also agrees that Shields success should decline soon because they have the Tigers projected at 5 runs today.
Follow The Hot Weather
While some places are cooling off Texas continues to have hot weather and get a matchup against Jason Hammel. The Rangers opened with a 5.36 implied total and it just keeps on climbing. There are tons of cheap ways to get exposure to this game but Joey Gallo is one of my favorite cheap options. He’s been smashing the ball lately and has a top 10 plate IQ rating on this slate. Gallo also smashes the three pitches that Hammel throws and I think he’s got a shot at hitting two homers today and breaking the slate.