Pitchers
Cash Game SP1’s: Stephen Strasburg and Blake Snell- Tonight is all about locking in your SP1 between these two, and figuring out who you want to go with as your second pitcher given the wealth of options we were afforded at under $8,000. I’m not going to dive deep into the analytics here, because by now if you read this article you should know these are two of the best and most consistent pitchers in all of baseball, especially for DFS. We need to address the matchups, and each of them have a strong one with Stras getting the White Sox at home, and Snell getting the Tigers on the road. Both of these teams strike out at ton, but I think Stras gets the slight edge with the White Sox losing a DH, as well as having a bit longer leash than Snell. I love both options, and either are great plays in all formats, but for now, I will be siding with Strasburg in cash games, and Snell in GPPs.
Note: Add Noah Syndergaard for GPP’s as an SP1 consideration, behind both Blake Snell and Stephen Strasburg
Barrel of SP2’s
Max Fried- As I just mentioned, we have a few quality mid tier options tonight, making it the perfect night to mix and match in GPPs, but a tough overall decision for cash games deciding on one of them. The first option to me, is Max Fried, who has been as good as it gets when it comes to control this season. He’s walked just 6.3% of the batters he’s faced, and he has an elite matchup against the Pirates who rank bottom-three in the MLB in wRC+, ISO, and wOBA against left-handed pitching. His strikeout rate doesn’t jump off the page at 22%, but he combines the elite control with over 50% ground balls, and the Pirates are striking out almost 25% of the time against LHP, so there could be a few extra K’s in the mix tonight.
Jerad Eickhoff- The next option is our friend Jerad Eickhoff, someone I am routinely on more than the rest of the DFS industry. Strikeouts are the name of the game in DFS, and while his 22% strikeout rate doesn’t jump off the page, he backs that up with over 11% swinging strikes and he draws the Padres…who, you know, strike out the most in the league against righties (over 27% of the time!). His strikeouts actually rise over 23% against right-handed batters, and he should be in line to see six or seven of them tonight. I expect Fried to be higher-owned, and he is safer, but given the upside in this matchup, I have them graded pretty closely.
Devin Smeltzer- We have only seen Smeltzer one time, so I’m not even going to pretend that I know what he’s going to be as a major league pitcher, but he profiles as a fly-ball heavy pitcher with decent strikeout ability. He struck out seven in his major league debut, and now he has a date with one of our favorite offenses to attack: the Cleveland Indians. The Indians are striking out over 23% of the time against southpaws this season, and they own the fifth-worst wRC+ (74), just above the likes of the Giants, Pirates and Marlins. I wouldn’t trust him for cash games with Fried/Eickhoff there, but for tournaments I will surely have exposure.
Note: For tournaments, I am adding Chase Anderson to the SP2 mix in a matchup with the Miami Marlins.
Complete Pitcher Pool: Stephen Strasburg, Blake Snell, Noah Syndergaard, Max Fried, Jerad Eickhoff, Devin Smeltzer, Chase Anderson
Building Blocks
Ronald Acuna- Acuna is my top spend up on this slate, and someone that I feel is not too expensive to build around in cash games. He draws Steven Brault tonight, who owns A 6.63 xFIP with just 12.5% strikeouts against right-handed batters this season. Acuna has destroyed lefty pitching again this season, following his rookie campaign with a massive .340 ISO against them this season.
Eugenio Suarez- Suarez is another lefty-masher, like Acuna, and has an equally strong matchup tonight against Genesis Cabrera making his second ever major league start. Cabrera struggled at Triple A this season, and only lasted 3.2 innings in his debut, allowing three runs to the Phillies. Suarez isn’t quite on Acuna’s level, but a .292 ISO with 58% hard hits will certainly get the job done.
Kyle Schwarber- This is still a price play, as Schwarber has been leading off for the Cubs for over a week but still remains under $4,000 on DraftKings. The Cubs will be one of the highest-owned offenses tonight against Jeff Hoffman with the wind blowing out at Wrigley Field, so I don’t mind locking in some cheap exposure for cash games.
Stacks
1. Dodgers- We haven’t seen enough of Taylor Clarke to really know what he is, but what we do know is that the Dodgers mash right-handed pitching, as well as fourseam fastballs…a pitch that Clarke is throwing nearly 50% of the time to left-handed batters. The usual suspects of Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Max Muncy and Corey Seager make up my stack with Alex Verdugo being the fifth on DraftKings.
2. Yankees- They’re in an amazing spot tonight against Clayton Richard, and with their prices + the size of the slate we should be able to get them a bit lower-owned than what they should be. Gary Sanchez, Clint Frazier and Luke Voit all own a ,200 ISO or better against left-handed pitching this season, they also sport .200+ ISO’s against sinkers, which has been Richards primary pitch to righties this season.
Chalk Stacks: Rangers, Cubs
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
