Welcome to Bales’ MLB Game Theory. In this article, I will outline my favorite plays at each position for MLB’s Sunday slate. You can find all of Karma’s staff cores through our MLB Premium Package. Without further ado, here are my favorite plays at each position.
| Pitcher | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF |
| Glasnow | Hosmer | Profar | Arenado | Tatis | Pham |
| Smyly | Freeman | Pinder | Machado | Story | Dahl |
| Wacha | Olson | France | Chapman | Semien | Laureano |
| LeBlanc | McBroom | Frazier | McNeil | Torres | Tucker |
| Tanaka | Pujols | Albies | Davis | Correa | Peralta |
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*If you don’t already play 3 lineups and 3 max entry contests daily, try using the teams provided in the stacks above to maximize upside and correlation in your MLB lineups.
Slate Thoughts:
- The clear-cut SP1 on this slate in Tyler Glasnow. You’re likely going to have to spend down on your SP2 to fit the Coors bats into your lineup. Drew Smyly, Wade LeBlanc, and Yusei Kikuchi are the three options to consider. That’s the order I like them, but Kikuchi gets the Bill Miller ump bump for a low price tag. I simply can’t get behind his talent level. Still, there isn’t an SP2 that you’re likely going to feel comfortable with if you’re attacking the San Diego/Colorado game.
- Michael Wacha looked good in his first game of the season and he gets a boom or bust matchup against the Atlanta Braves tonight. Tyler Chatwood, Mitch Keller, and Zack Greinke are three more GPP options, although Greinke feels a bit overpriced. I’ll be avoiding the pitching in the Cleveland/Minnesota game, while it doesn’t look like Masahiro Tanaka will throw more than a handful of innings tonight.
- In cash games, you’re going to be using as many bats from the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies that you can fit. The game is set at 12.5 runs and will be far and away the highest owned on the slate. You may be forced to use salary relief options to fill out your roster tonight. Some of the top options are Ryan McBroom, Josh Reddick, and Chad Pinder.
- You can go virtually anywhere else in tournaments. One of my favorite tournament stacks is the Oakland A’s. The Chicago White Sox and New York Mets also stick out as high upside stacking options. Carlos Carrasco isn’t a pitcher I’m likely to use tonight, making the Minnesota Twins an outstanding leverage stack. Whenever you can get an elite offense with low ownership, it’s something that should be considered.
