In this article, I’m going to lay out the groundwork to build off in three to five entry max contests. When playing these types of contests, I find that I have the most success when I have a core, (generally one pitcher on FD and two on DK with a three-player stack and one to two one-off bats) that will find their way into 100% of my lineups. The idea of locking in a core is to limit, for lack of a better term, “randomness” across our lineups. By mixing and matching a few bats around our core across all lineups, we’re able to rule out some tough lineup decisions we may face while not getting completely overwhelmed with a large pool of players.
Below I’ve outlined the pitchers, stacks, and one-offs that I’m considering incorporating into my core for tonight.
Top Pitchers
Carlos Carrasco (CLE)
In a great pitching matchup, I love Carrasco here in a spot where, especially on FD, I expect lower ownership to come in. On FD Carrasco is the second-highest-priced pitcher to Blake Snell (10.8K). Gerrit Cole, who comes in at 10.4K against the Tigers will likely draw more ownership which scares the hell out of me to be honest. Don’t get me wrong, Cole has been great but I like this spot a bit more for Carrasco who’s coming off of a great start against the Blue Jays in which he went 8 innings with 14 strikeouts. In a pitchers duel, I think Carrasco outduels my boy Blake Snell and thus is my top arm on both sites.
Jameson Taillon (PIT)
In his last two starts at St. Louis, Taillon has gone 14 innings, struck out 13, allowed seven hits, and two earned runs. He’s priced up a bit on FD at 9.3K which basically puts him in no-mans land salary-wise. On DK, he’s priced down at 8.5K where he’s also all alone in the mid-price tier. Taillon has been great in five of his last six starts including road starts in Colorado, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. Taillon pitches well today in a spot that I expect no one to go. Sliding him in as an SP2 is feasible on DK.
Core Stacks
Dodgers
Joc Pederson, Cody Bellinger, Matt Kemp
The Dodgers were dominated last night by Luis Castillo, something I don’t see happening today against Anthony DeSclafani. Matt Kemp loves hitting at the Great American Ballpark with a .289 average, 10 home runs, and seven doubles in 36 career games there. He was off last night so look for him in the middle of the lineup today. Joc Pederson has destroyed right-handed pitching including hitting another home run, his 20th of the season against righties, last night. Cody Bellinger fits in here as another lefty to go after DeSclafani with who has allowed a .365 wOBA, 2.58 HR/9, a 42 percent fly-ball rate, and a 22 percent HR/FB rate to left-handed hitters. The ball should be flying in Cinci this afternoon and don’t expect them to be overlooked, but I love the Dodgers here.
Also Consider: Astros (Bregman, Gurriel, Gattis)
Top One-off Bats
More often than not these are value/underpriced high upside bats, otherwise, they could be bats that I simply have to have in all of my lineups. At times they’ll serve as salary relief allowing you to mix and match some exposure with higher-priced bats throughout our lineups.
Corey Dickerson (PIT)
Adam Frazier (PIT)
Scott Schebler (CIN)
GOOD LUCK!!
