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Vegas Overview – Below is an excerpt from our sister site, Bet Karma, which has daily player props, live trends (below), and much more! Access ALL odds, trends, and line movement for all sports here > BetKarma Live MLB Trends
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Pitching
MLB DK Pitcher Table
Zach Plesac: Plesac hasn’t allowed an ER over his last two starts and has show strikeout and length upside that is not reflected in his price. Plesac gets an elite matchup with the Mariners today, they have a high strikeout rate as a team and especially struggle vs right-handed pitching. I would make Plesac a priority in all formats.
Logan Gilbert: Planting my flag on the Seattle Mariners #1 prospect today. Gilbert and Kelenic will make their debuts for the Mariners on the same day. Really exciting stuff for all of the Mariner fans out there. Gilbert started last week and threw 5 innings and 67 pitches. The best part about Gilbert is the price! We get to play a min-price, #1 prospect at minimum price. I am excited to play 100% Gilbert today. Gilbert allows us to pay up for all of the premium bats on this slate!
Christian Javier: Javier is on the slate every time I am writing up the breakdown. As I have said the past few weeks until his K-rate stabilizes and shows some regression he is a target. The price has caught up to Javier but with Gilbert we have money to spend! Texas has been good offensively this year but they’ve also continued to strike out at a high rate and have some real letdown games. if Javier can navigate the power in the middle of the Rangers order, then he can succeed.
Other GPP Targets: Trevor Rogers, Jameson Taillon
MLB Top Batters
Batters
C
Tucker Barnhart: Barnhart hits near the bottom of the Reds order but he is playing in Coors in an elite matchup. He got priced up after his most recent impressive performance. We have money on this slate so I am okay paying a premium for Barnhart.
Carson Kelly: I don’t really like to target Rogers, but we can’t overlook what Kelly is doing at the plate this season, specifically vs left-handed pitching.. Kelly is one of the most underrated hitters in baseball this year and I want to be in on him if he is going to be low-owned. I think Rogers will gain some ownership today, so Kelly is a great way to get some leverage on the field.
1B
Michael Chavez: I currently have Chavez projected to lead off today vs a lefty for the Red Sox. This is a position we will need to get lineups before we know which cheap direction we are going. These are some elite values so we should have someone to pay down with here at first. Chavez has been mashing lefties over the course of his career.
Connor Joe: With CJ Cron going on the IL, Joe could step up in his absence, we will have to monitor him and make sure that he is in the lineup. If Joe starts and has a reasonable spot in the order, he would be extremely popular at minimum price in Coors. Castillo is a great pitcher and I don’t love to target him but it’s very difficult to ignore a min-priced, middle of the order, player in Coors.
2B
Nick Senzel: Senzel is the only Red who didn’t get a massive price bump in Coors. You can still get Senzel for sub 4K which is extremely appealing. I expect Senzel to be popular but for good reason. Senzel has a lot of protection behind him if he is indeed the leadoff guy.
Jose Altuve: I will keep writing up Altuve if people continue not to play him. Altuve homered for us again last night, he is on fire and now gets to pick on some Rangers pitching this week. I don’t suspect this to be the last time I write up Altuve this week.
3B
Mike Moustakas: Moustakas in Coors! He has finally gotten going at the plate and it’s the perfect time with a trip to Coors upcoming. I want to be aggressive on the Reds today. Moustakas could go under-owned if the cheap value 1B/3B plays open up.
Alex Bregman: Bregman continues to stay hot, he has finally gotten the price jump he deserves, but because of the cheap pitching options I am looking for some premium bats to spend on. Bregman is one of m favorite players in baseball and one of my favorite targets on this slate. The Astros could go overlooked today.
SS
Eugenio Suarez: I am sensing a theme today. More Reds! I expect them to show up in my 5 man stacks at the bottom as well. Just an incredible spot. Don’t think Suarez is a must-have today, but he is very appealing and will be popular for his power upside.
Trevor Story/Carlos Correa: By playing one of these two guys you are instantly getting contrarian to the field. Story won’t command ownership vs Castillo despite being in Coors, he is always owned vs a lefty but doesn’t garner the same attention vs right-handed pitching. Correa has struggled this season but has shown signs of the breakout. You could say he’s probably overpriced right now, but at low ownership, I am okay investing in him.
OF
Reds OF- Jesse Winker has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball over the last 12 months, he has an extremely high barrell% and does not get the credit he deserves. He’s finally over 5k, but it’s justified and I want to be invested in him even at these prices. Castellanos started the year on fire, he has cooled off a bit but a trip to Coors cures all ailments!
Yordan Alvarez- Yordan is one of the best young hitters in baseball and he gets a tasty matchup vs Folty today. Historically he has struggled with left-handed power hitters due to his high fly ball rate. Well, that is a recipe for success for Yordan. He is my favorite Astros hitter and the one I am most likely to one-off.
Rockies OF- As I said earlier, I don’t love targeting Castillo but he’s not perfect. It’s not like we are talking about Degrom or Cole here. If Castillo is going to get hit around then it is going to be at the hands of these Rockies lefties. Tapia should lead off and Blackmon will be in the middle of the order. If Castillo doesn’t have that elite changeup working, they will be able to find success vs him.
Stacks
“Team Batting Score” – A metric that quickly highlights overall team batting based on Runs Created (RC+) by team and comparing it to the average and standard deviation of all other MLB Teams
“Opp. Pitcher SP Score” – A weighted metric that evaluates today’s starting pitchers based on xFIP and Games Started (currently using partial end of 2020 data blended with the 2021 season)
“Opp. BP Score” – Similar to SP Score but weights the xFIP for the team’s bullpen
Team Batting vs. Opp. Pitch
DK MLB Stacks
“T2” (and T3/T4/T5) represents the Top 2 projected hitters for the team on the left (not necessarily the top 2 hitters in the batting order)
Stacking is an extremely important element to MLB DFS. In MLB, all of your players are correlated to each other. Outside of solo homeruns, they need each other to succeed. If you look at the top of all of the big GPPs every night you will see stacks dominating the leaderboard.
When using our stacks chart, we want to identify teams that are projecting well but the ownership does not reflect their chance of success.
As I said above the Reds are my favorite stack. If you are looking to get different then I like the Astros as a stack or a mini-stack. Yordan is my preferred Astros play with the Reds.
How we can gain leverage on the field is by going after either side of the As and Red Sox game. They both have similar team totals and going this route will make you unique to the field.
DraftKings 5-Man Stack Ideas
REDS- Any combination of 5, the optimal is 1-5
HOU- Altuve-Brantley-Bregman-Yordan-Yuli
DraftKings 3-Man Stack Ideas
COL- Tapia-Joe-Blackmon
OAK- Moreland-Laureano-Olson