Pitchers
Gerrit Cole- What’s up everyone! We have a weird Wednesday, so I’m going to do a brief write up on the Early Slate, and then I will follow it up with Final Thoughts for the Main Slate later today. Cole is far and away the top pitcher on this slate, he has been dominant again this season when it comes to strikeouts and overall performance, and I don’t think we see a Greinke-type game here today. Cole is one of the best pitchers in the league with massive strikeout ability, and the Rockies are still arguably the worst offense in baseball on the road. He’s expensive, but he is easily my top play.
Brendan McKay- McKay is coming off arguably his best start of his young MLB career, and he is still due for positive regression when it comes to strikeouts. The Blue Jays offense is improved now that they have called up some of the top prospects in baseball, but this is still a lineup that projects to strikeout a little over 23% of the time and McKay gets the boost of facing them in pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field. Even at $8,500 on DraftKings, McKay is my top mid-tier option on this slate.
Ivan Nova- I was pretty down on Nova for the majority of this season, but over the last month he has returned to his 2018 form and at least been able to get ground balls — 47% for the season and over 53% over the last 30 days. It’s no secret that this Tigers lineup is horrible, especially with the departure of Nick Castellanos, and if you can’t quite afford McKay, Nova is a viable pivot for just over $7,000 given his matchup.
Stacks
Indians- The Indians were in the top overall spot for me last night against Ariel Jurado, before the game got postponed due to 30 extra minutes of rain. They get the same matchup today, and thus that makes them my favorite stack on this early slate. Jurado has actually been better against lefties this season, but it still comes with over 40% hard hits to both sides of the plate. Taking only the righties is a good move in tournaments for leverage, but I will have a full stack with the top of the order today.
Braves- I absolutely love this spot today, as Martin Perez has been fading down the stretch for the Twins. Perez started off this season really well, he was throwing hard, getting strikeouts, and looked like a new pitcher. Over the last few weeks, the strikeouts have plummeted, and the Braves are going to send out SEVEN batters with an ISO over .200 against left-handed pitching.
Twins- On the opposite side of the Braves, the Twins continue to be one of the best offenses in the MLB. Max Fried is not typically someone I stack against given his ability to get ground balls to both sides of the plate, but the Twins will send out six batters with an ISO above .200 against left-handed pitchers and these players certainly have the ability to get the ball up in the air against him. He’s also much worse in terms of wOBA allowed to righties than lefties, and the Twins have packed seven righties into the lineup today.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
