Welcome to another edition of Sriracha’s MLB Game Theory. In this article, I will outline my favorite plays at each position for the MLB Slate. You can find all of Karma staff’s cores through our MLB Premium Package. Without further ado, here are my favorite plays at each position:
| Pitcher | 1B/C | 2B | 3B | SS | OF |
| Giolito | Abreu | Altuve | LeMahieu | Story | Ohtani |
| Scherzer | L. Voit | E. White | Kiner-Falefa | Bogaerts | Carlson |
| Cole | Y. Diaz | Edman | Moncada | Anderson | Goodwin |
| Alcantara | J. Schoop | Albies | K. Seager | Chisholm | D. Santana |
| Kershaw | Hoskins | Semien | J. Ramirez | Turner | Harper |
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*If you don’t already play 3 lineups and 3-max entry contests daily, try using the teams provided in the stacks above to maximize upside and correlation in your MLB lineups.
Welcome to another MLB DFS Game Theory for the 2021 season! This year we have a good amount of overlap between the NBA & MLB season, so there is lots of money to be made. This article will highlight my top plays at each position, and in the analysis portion of the article, we will highlight my top pitchers and stacks for the day.
Top Pitchers:
Huge slate today with a ton of talent on the mound. I want to focus on four main pitchers tonight and I will definitely be paying up here. First off, I want to focus on Lucas Giolito as my SP1 on both sites tonight for cash games. Giolito has logged a quality start in 5 of his last 6 outings and has 3 wins during the stretch. He takes his 103:27 K:BB ratio across 14 starts into this matchup vs the Pirates, whom he no hit just a year ago. Another pitcher I really like tonight especially on DraftKings where you are forced to play two pitchers is Mad Max Scherzer. He is dealing with a minor groin injury which kept him out for 10 days, but he shouldn’t deal with any restrictions as he’s only missed just a single turn in the rotation. Expect him to carry on with his stellar numbers right now, riding a career-best 36.0% Strikeout rate, with a 2.21 ERA in 13 starts. Other than the last game where he recorded just one out, he’s had 3 straight quality starts and 4 games straight with 8 strikeouts and less than 2 runs given up. I would love to pair Giolito and Scherzer together tonight in my cash games. GPP Pivot: Gerrit Cole, Low Owned GPP Gem: Sandy Alcantara
Catcher/1B:
Odd spot here today, on DK I will just have to punt my catcher for the salary, and just hope for any points possible. I find myself doing this a lot in my tournaments especially when I double pay up at pitcher. In terms of 1B, I like Luke Voit who is returning from the injured list after about a month there with an oblique injury. Another great value play here is Andrew Vaughn who bats fifth in the CWS lineup today vs lefty Tyler Anderson. The other guy I mentioned Jose Abreu is my favorite play at this position as Anderson has his struggles.
2B/3B/SS
We need to find value on this slate since we are paying up at pitcher, and this will open up with Eli White bats second in the Rangers lineup tonight vs lefty Cole Irvin. White doesn’t play too much but he’s been getting a few more starts as of late. He is great value here at min price on FanDuel. I also like Jazz Chisholm vs Ross Stripling- Chisholm brings a dynamic playstyle perfect for fantasy, as he is slashing .264/.333/.449 with 8 homers and 24 RBIs, to go along with his speed on the basepaths with 10 robberies. I really like Yoan Moncada and Tim Anderson from CWS tonight as well, like stated before Tyler Anderson has struggled vs righties throughout his career and although the numbers can be inflated from Coors, Anderson’s numbers as a Pittsburgh Pirate this year haven’t been all that great. He is 3-7 with just 4 quality starts on the year. I expect it to be a big day for the Chicago White Sox, and lead our pitcher Lucas Giolito to the W.
OF:
In terms of the OF, I am liking the value we have presented to us tonight-
Dylan Carlson- his OBP is extremely high, as it sits at .351 thanks in part to a career-high 10.4 percent walk rate and .339 BABIP. I just wish he had some speed to make his fantasy upside even higher with swiped bags, but ultimately we like that he is cheap and in the 2 hole in a decent matchup tonight.
Brian Goodwin- Another CWS I like that has been getting more playing time due to injuries. He also posts up in the 2 hole tonight and is a very pesky hitter. I like his value tonight we have at OF a lot, which might even open the door up for us to fit in the best all around player in baseball right now other than Jacob DeGrom- Shohei Ohtani.
Sho’TIME! Ohtani has been on an absolute tear. He has 6 homers in 6 games and has had an MVP like season. He is a man on a mission right now and he is putting up these numbers all while also pitching his turn in the rotation. He is slashing a .272/.356/.643 with 23 homers and 54 RBIs, and also has swiped 10 bags this season. The man can do it all. I’m going to use the value we have at OF and try to fit in Ohtani tonight along with paying up at pitcher.
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
