Top Tier
The Three at the Top: We have three very closely ranked cash game options at the top tonight in Mike Clevinger, Mike Foltynewicz and Rich Hill. I’m not sure at this time how the industry will play out in terms of ownership, but to me that is how I would rank them. Clevinger has some of the best stuff on the slate and a 24% strikeout hints at his upside. The Royals offense is terrible, and their 85 wRC+ and 23% strikeout rate over the last month makes them the most attackable offense on the slate in my opinion. Folty dominated this Marlins team a week or so ago, and he should see 6-7 righties here which is a stone nuts matchup for him. The problem is, he is more expensive than Sunshine which is what is going to knock him down slightly for me. The Marlins appear to be a disciplined offense that doesn’t strike out much, but the majority of their players have very small MLB sample sizes and Folty is good enough against righties I’ll bypass that. As for Rich Hill, he falls third here for me and is GPP-only despite the matchup with the Padres. I’ve talked about this a lot lately, but even though they strike out a lot the Padres have some very capable batters against LHP, which concerns me when Hill has allowed over 40% hard-hits this season. He actually is reverse-splits in terms of strikeouts, so the upside is there in this matchup but I think he is clearly third behind Clevinger and Folty tonight. I would pick one of Clev/Folty for cash games and move on.
Mid Tier
Zack Godley- If you haven’t noticed by the opening section, it’s going to be an extremely weird night in MLB DFS. There is literally no cheap pitcher worth rostering in my opinion, so it seems like we will have to roll with Godley as our SP2 on DraftKings despite it being a Coors Field slate. Yes, he got slammed by the Padres in his last start but no, that’s not going to keep me off of him here. The Mariners get a negative league shift traveling to Chase Field and will lose their DH. His 23% strikeouts aren’t amazing but he combines that with an ability to generate ground balls and he really has pitched well for the Diamondbacks down the stretch. I’m actually wondering if his dud performance as chalk last week keeps the interest down, but regardless he’s locked into my cash game lineup as of now.
Low Tier
A Bunch of Meh- As I said above, there is literally NOBODY I feel confident in in this range so I’m going to toss one tournament option out in hopes that you don’t puke all over your phone or laptop while reading. Alex…Cobb…against…the…Yankees. That was hard to type. As of right now though, I’m really not scared of this Yankees team given how banged up they are…and get this, don’t look now, but Cobb owns a 4.17 SIERA over the last 30 days which is a step up from his 4.53 season number. The walks are down even further to 4%, and his ground balls are right around 50%. If I need a cheap guy to jam in Coors or bats for tournaments, it’s Cobb, as scary as that sounds.
Batters (Non-Coors Field, in order of preference)
C: Wilson Ramos, Mitch Garver, Francisco Cervelli/Elias Diaz
1B: Freddie Freeman, Edwin Encarnacion, Yonder Alonso
2B: Brian Dozier, Asdrubal Cabrera, Jed Lowrie
3B: Jose Ramirez, Matt Chapman, Anthony Rendon
SS: Francisco Lindor, Manny Machado, Amed Rosario
OF: Ronald Acuna, Khris Davis, Nick Martini, Brett Gardner
Tournament Stack of the Day
Philadelphia Phillies- On a massive slate with Coors Field, we should see a number of teams fly under the radar including the Phillies. Ryan Borucki has been a disgrace for the Blue Jays posting a 5.07 SIERA with just 14% strikeouts. He has allowed 14 runs over his last 9.2 innings and he appears to be equally as bad to both sides of the plate. I wish that Rhys Hoskins was better against southpaws this season, but his batted ball profile against them isn’t as bad as the overall numbers and I feel inclined to play him if stacking this team. In addition to Hoskins, Asdrubal Cabrera, Carlos Santana and Cesar Hernandez stick out with Wilson Ramos slotting in at Catcher on DraftKings.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
