Pitchers
Mike Clevinger- We are pretty starved for pitching on this slate, which leaves Mike Clevinger as the only spend-up in a matchup with the Royals. I expect Clevinger and Kyle Gibson to be the two highest-owned pitchers on this slate, and with me not having much confidence in Gibson even against the Tigers, I will be underweight on him and focusing on Clevinger as my SP1. This Royals offense has underwhelmed over the second-half of the season, and apart from Clevinger having elite numbers he has the highest expected raw point production by a sizable margin tonight.
Max Fried- If you’re looking in the mid-tier tonight, I think it comes down to two ground ball pitcher’s in Max Fried and Dakota Hudson. Hudson draws the more favorable matchup, but Fried is very similar to him the amount of ground balls he gets, yet he comes with a lot more strikeout ability. Hudson also should see a good amount of left-handed batters tonight, which is crucial for him given his negative splits against lefties. I don’t love this tier for cash games, but for tournaments I think Fried is the more sound investment.
Chase Anderson- I don’t like Chase Anderson, but we are going to have to take some risks at pitcher tonight and the Diamondbacks offense has been scuffling the last week. Furthermore, we know that Anderson is reverse-splits, and that actually matches up well with the bats that we fear in this DBacks order. At his price on DK, he’s cash game playable.
GPP Option: Alex Wood- Wood hasn’t been great for the Reds yet, I think he is rusty, but his advanced metrics say that he also hasn’t actually pitched as bad as it seems. We have used lefties against the Pirates all season, and this is a great spot to get leverage on Wood who should be lower-owned than both Fried and Hudson.
Stacks
Twins- I could probably write a few paragraphs on why the Twins are a stack tonight, but most know that it’s because they’re up against Edwin Jackson. Jackson has ground ball ability, but he has relied entirely on BABIP during his time in Detroit and this the obvious spot to go tonight in cash games / single entry.
Indians- The Indians have seen Glen Sparkman three times already this season, and have found success in all three matchups. Anyone that reads my content knows I am not a BvP guy, but it’s not hard to believe it in this instance given that Sparkman is a horrible pitcher. Similar to the Twins, I want exposure in all formats here.
Blue Jays- I was on the Blue Jays a ton last night, and while they didn’t exactly pop off, they have another favorable matchup against Felix Hernandez tonight. Hernandez is simply not the pitcher he once was, and he has been bad for over a year now. This is his first start in a few months, and the stack gets better if they are able to knock out Felix early given how bad the Mariners bullpen is.
Cash Game Core: Francisco Lindor, Max Kepler, Khris Davis, Cavan Biggio
Homerun Call: Cavan Biggio
Favorite One Off: Paul Goldschmidt
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
