Pitchers
Cash Games
Max Scherzer- Scherzer put up another dominant season in 2018 posting a 2.71 SIERA along with just under 35.0% strikeouts. It’s no secret that he is arguably the safest pitcher in all of fantasy baseball, and it comes with a massive ceiling every time he takes the hill as well. He gets a mediocre matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies tonight, and there’s also some serious rain concerns in the forecast. Regardless of the matchup, I would love to start my cash game builds with him, but I’m ultimately going to need to wait and see about the weather before making any final decisions.
Blake Snell- If the whether ends up being too murky for me to trust Max in cash games, my next spot to go is Blake Snell at home against the Colorado Rockies. Snell had a really weird first start, he surrendered five runs over six innings of work, striking out only three Astros, but he also generated 11.0% swinging strikes and was relying on his curveball rather than his dominant slider. I really have no idea why he wasn’t using his slider more, but the swinging strikes show me there’s nothing to be concerned about yet and tonight’s matchup is quite a bit better against the Rockies. Colorado put up the second-worst wRC+ in the MLB on the road a season ago, and if Snell can navigate Story/Arenado I see a potentially huge outing on the way. I’ll be interested to see if we see his slider early and often tonight — the Rockies were middle of the pack against the pitch last season and Snell’s is one of the most dominant in the game.
Jose Berrios- If I end up using Snell over Max, my first move would be to use the savings and jam in Jose Berrios alongside him in cash games on multi-pitcher sites. Berrios was locked in for his first start, punching out 10 Cleveland Indians across seven 7.2 innings. The Royals are a below-average lineup and Berrios gets one of the best pitching environments on the slate in Kansas City. This is not a patient Royals lineup, and they ranked bottom-eight against curveballs a year ago, which happens to be Berrios’ second-most used pitch. There should be enough value bats to easily pair him alongside Snell should you want, and that gives us both a solid floor and a high ceiling for cash game builds.
Marco Gonzales (DraftKings)- If you feel as if jamming in Berrios alongside Snell leaves you too thin, or you plan on rolling out Max, the last option I present to you is Marco Gonzales. Gonzales is not a great pitcher, but he isn’t bad either. He has strong control, and ability to generate ground balls and decent strikeout stuff at just over 21.0%. This Angels lineup without Ohtani/Upton is HORRIBLE excluding Mike Trout. He is under $6,000 on DraftKings, so using him and hoping for five-six innings with decent run prevention and a few strikeouts is a viable strategy — my only issue is, there’s no must roster offense or Coors Field tonight so I’m not sure if dropping down that low is needed.
Tournament SP Pool: Chris Sale, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Marcus Stroman along with Jason Vargas (punt)
Building Blocks
Robinson Cano- Jose Urena looks to be bothered by a knee injury, and even if he is fully healthy, he is not a good pitcher to left-handed batters. Cano has strong on-base skills against righties with only 14.5% strikeouts last season, and his near 46.0% hard hits stick out as the best overall on this mets roster. On FanDuel, he’s expensive, but on DraftKings, he is a cash game staple for me.
Michael Brantley- The Astros set up to be the highest-owned offense tonight against Shelby Miller, which has me drawn to their newest member Michael Brantley. Miller boasted a 4.50 xFIP with 60.0% hard-contact allowed to left-handed batters in 2018. Brantley instantly became one of the most disciplined hitters on the Astros roster, he struck out under 10.0% of the time against righties in his last season in Cleveland, coupled with 41.3% hard hits.
Mallex Smith- Smith has been great atop the Mariners lineup to kick off 2019, putting up fantasy point totals of 12, 9, 31 and 18 through the Mariners first four games. He’s in another good spot tonight against Trevor Cahill, who remained one of the worst pitchers in the MLB in terms of holding runners last season. The Mariners have some big-time speed in Dee Gordon and Mallex Smith, and with Smith locked into the lead-off spot you could do worse than pairing him with Brantley in two of your OF spots tonight.
Stacks
1. Red Sox- This game takes place in the pitcher-friendly confides of the Oakland Colosseum, but the Red Sox upside is nearly unmatched on this slate against Mike Fiers. Fiers is a guy that allows a ton of homeruns, nearly 1.5 per nine innings, so taking some of the power threats like Mookie Betts, JD Martinez, Rafael Devers, Mitch Moreland and Xander Bogaerts makes for an elite five-man GPP stack.
2. New York Mets- The Mets are not a team I usually stack, but against a banged up Jose Urena I can get behind it. I noted above with Cano that it’s the lefties we mainly want here, so jamming in Cano alongside Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo seems like the best starting point. Dom Smith is expected to get the start in place of Pete Alonso today, and if he’s near the top of the order I love the savings he provides.
3. Seattle Mariners- Trevor Cahill is not someone I typically stack against given his near 60.0% ground ball rate, but that just shows you that there aren’t many dynamic offenses to pay for on this slate outside of the Astros and Red Sox. Cahill struggles to hold runners, meaning Mallex Smith could get things off with a bang and they have a slew of hitters such as Edwin Encarnacion, Domingo Santana, Mitch Haniger and Jay Bruce that can get the ball up in the air tonight.
Chalk Stacks: Astros, Blue Jays
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
