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 |
| W. Buehler | Gurriel | Altuve | Arenado | Correa | Y. Alvarez |
| L. Garcia | Freeman | Muncy | Devers | Bichette | A. Almonte |
| N. Pivetta | Moran | Albies | India | Franco | M. Brantley |
| J. Berrios | Votto | Edman | Turner | Galvis | Santander |
| Davies | Rizzo | Schoop | J. Ramirez | Baez | 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:
Decent sized slate today with a couple solid options, but nothing really catches my eye and screams “Must Play”. I am going to keep it short and sweet and really focus on the Game Theory aspect of the article here.
CASH GAMES:
Walker Buehler/Luis Garcia- I find this to be the safest combo today. Garcia enters this matchup with 4 wins in his last 6 starts on top of two or fewers runs allowed in 5 out of his last 6 starts. He’s brought his ERA down to 2.82 through is 70.1 innings pitched, to go along with a 80:22 K:BB ratio. For Buehler, it is a little bit of a tougher matchup vs the Cubs, who have had their inconsistencies this season. Buehler is going for 8 straight quality starts and 5 straight wins, as he’s trying to break a Dodgers record of 23 straight starts without a loss. He will carry his 7-0 record with a 2.38 ERA and 88:19 K:BB ratio into this home start. He’s second in the league with 12 quality starts this season.
GPP Alternative:
Nick Pivetta- Pivetta flashes a lot of strikeout upside (7 straight starts with more than 6Ks) but has trouble going deep into his starts. He had a strong start to the season but got roughed up vs the Blue Jays two starts ago. He still flashes upside, overall he has a 4.36 ERA, 1.35 WHIP and 86:36 K:BB ratio. The big thing for Pivetta is the walks, if he can keep the basepaths clear, he can definitely be one of the better mid-tier value plays on FanDuel at 7.8K.
Catcher/1B:
On DK I will likely punt my catcher like always. I like a lot of 1B today for cash games-
Freddie Freeman- Hot June. .286/.358/.452 across 22 games to go along with four homers, two steals and 11 RBIs. He’s been tapering off a little towards the end of the month as he just broke an 0-11 skid. He’s a solid pay up option tonight.
Max Muncy- He gets Zach Davies at home tonight. Coming off injury, Muncy already got back on board with two doubles and two runs last night vs the Padres. Despite all the time off due to injuries, Muncy still leads the Dodgers with a .266/.421/.533, and leads the team for OBP and slugging.
Yuli Gurriel- Houston should be a poppin stack tonight vs Jose Urena. Gurriel has three straight multi-hit games along with 7 straight games with a hit. He’s a solid cash option tonight in which should be a chalky stack.
GPP 1B:
Joey Votto- I just love playing Votto for some reason, he’s had a pretty average season, slashing .240/.331/.435 with 8 homers and 30 RBIs, but he’s really cheap and cleaning up for the Reds tonight.
2B:
CASH:
Jose Altuve + Ozzie Albies are my two cash game second basemen. Altuve should be chalky with this Astros stack. Altuve is on an absolute tear, 10 of his 23 hits in June have been home runs, someone drug test this guy! He does a great job of getting on base and if he isn’t homering, he’ll definitely be on the basepaths with his ability and discipline to take walks, he’s second amongst second basemen with 33 walks this season. Albies is also having a great June, slashing .317/.364/.537 with two homers, 11 runs and 18 RBIs through 22 games. Core piece of this Braves stack that I like today.
GPP:
Jonathan India- on a nice little stretch, slashing .355/.474/.484 across his last 8 games to go along with a homer, two steals, three RBIs and four runs. He’s a good source of value tonight, he gets on base and has SB upside.
3B:
Rafael Devers+Nolan Arenado these guys are my cash game 3B today. Devers has an RBI in 7 of his last 9 games and has a hit in 8 of his last 9, with four of them being multi-hit games. Arenado is on a cold streak right now, as he just broke a 0-18 skid but bounced back with two homers in his last four games.
GPP:
Justin Turner- 5 games straight with a hit and 2 of them were multi-hit games. he’s racked up 5 RBIs in the process. I am not scared of Zach Davies at all but Turner is more of a tournament play for me tonight, just due to the fact that if I was going to pay up that much at 3B, might as well go Devers for me.
SS:
Carlos Correa- my main SS tonight to pair with this Astros stack. He is on a tear right now, 4 straight games with a hit with two of them being multi-hit games, 7 of his last 8 games he’s recorded an RBI, he’s just on a mission right now just like Altuve.
Bo Bichette- he is also very nice for cash games tonight, he has three straight games with a stolen base. He has plenty of SB upside and this makes him a great play for not just cash games but tournaments as well.
OF:
In terms of the OF-
Yordan Alvarez is my pay up OF- he has 6 RBIs in his last four games, him along with Altuve and Correa is an expensive stack but it is worth it if you can fit it on DraftKings. On FanDuel it is a bit easier to maneuver. Michael Brantley is a good GPP pivot off of Alvarez, I don’t think he will see the same ownership as Alvarez.
Abraham Almonte- good value play and has been one for the time being. He will likely continue to be in this cleanup spot and although he hasn’t delivered for us over the last week, he’s cheap and cleaning up in a good offense.
Anthony Santander- I know Anthony Kay will probably see some ownership on DK where he is min price, and Santander has been really bad as of late, which is why I marked him as a GPP play. Santander has been dealing with an ankle injury and has had a terrible month, but he’s also cheap and cleaning up in a favorable matchup.
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
