MLB DFS (9/4/18) – Bobby’s Batter Up

•  This PREMIUM article features top offensive batters per position
• This includes value plays, upside plays, and contrarian plays
• Strategic game theory on why we are selecting these batters
• Advice on the best “Game Stacks” of the day
• The same players in these articles are the same players you can find in the core of our lineups!

Top Stacks – One of the most important concepts to understand in DFS MLB.  Watch our daily YouTube live podcast for more information on this understanding/mindset.  Keep in mind it is ok to stack 4 guys or 3 from the same team.  This mathematically increases your chances of “cashing” in tournaments.  It isn’t as necessary to stack in cash games (double ups/heads up).  Below is our rankings starting from the best at number 1.

1. 1. Cardinals (-104) –   Full 15 game slate and I’m back from my short break to bring you the top GPP stacks on this slate and it starts with the St. Louis Cardinals who can absolutely mash RHPs.  As an away National League team with a 4.6 run implied total, I’m extremely intrigued by the value + upside of the batters from this team.  Six Cardinals come in with a wRC+ of 100 over the course of this season against RHP.  Matt Carpenter leading off his the clear #1 play here but comes at a pretty steep price tag of 5.3k which is well worth it.  His 153 wRC+/.397 wOBA/.299 ISO justifies his price tag and he should be a staple in your Cardinals stacks tonight.  Follow him up with Jose Martinez, batting 3rd, who is priced 1.2k cheaper than Carpenter at 4.1k but has very similair statistics in a 131 wRC+/.365 wOBA line that should be extremely productive in the heart of the order.  Look to surround these guys with Yairo Munoz (if in lineup), Yadier Molina, Kolten Wong, and Paul DeJong in your GPP stacks.  Vegas likes this game a lot with a 9 run O/U and Mike Mikolas is too good to get beat by this defeated Nationals team with nothing to play for.

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Favorite One-Off: Jose Martinez
            2. Best Bet for a home run: Matt Carpenter
   2. Pirates (-142) – The Pirates are not playing for a lot but they are not completely out of the wild card race so there is still technically something to play for and that’s something we definitely look at from a narrative perspective in September baseball.  The Pirates have a juicy 4.6 implied run total in a game they are favored, at home, with an O/U of 8.5 in the game. The Pirates have a full 9 players with a wRC+ of 100 or better against LHP.  Let’s start off with the top play from this team in Elias Diaz who hopefully will be in the starting lineup because he owns an extremely impressive 150 wRC+/.224 ISO line against LHP and would be an extreme value in this lineup.  We know the Pirates aren’t much of an analytical organization so we better not get our hopes too high but I would love to see it and he’d be in most of my lineups if in a respectable spot in the order (6th or above).  Cody Reed has been good this year over 17 innings, no doubt, but this is way too small of a sample size to look at so let’s take a peak at his total MLB innings across previous years (4.32 SIERA = ’16 and 6.46 SIERA = ’17).  Obviously, Reed has not been a great MLB in his short careeer and although he may have improved in the minors this year I a not convinced and neither is Vegas.  Load up on the Pirates tonight against Reed and an awful Reds bullpen.

Written By: @DF_Advantage