WEATHER – All Games Play
PITCHERS
STUDS
Carlos ‘Cookie’ Carrasco … Carrasco on the road and Carrasco against the Orioles. A dominant combination of history here. Every Oriole named Manny Machado is white hot and every Oriole not named Manny Machado is ice cold. Carrasco should be 100% owned tonight but he won’t be because people will wanna get cute. Don’t get cute, leave that to someone else. Play the Cookie Monster.
Gerrit Cole … I am on Cookie over Cole tonight but if you wanna get safe in DK you can definitely build a lineup with value bats from the Athletics, White Sox and Twins to get both of these studs in on DK tonight. Cole’s been lights out since coming to Houston. This is a statement series for the Angels against the Astros however and I have a feeling we see a close game and Cole doesn’t win.
SP2
Jarlin Garcia … Okay, I’m gonna bite here on the guy who’s gotta be a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. However, the kid has done nothing but ball out in his first four starts averaging 5+ innings and only giving up a total of 2 ER in that span. He’s not getting a ton of swing and misses but we can’t complain about him not facing good offenses so far. He’s done his damage against the Cubs, Phillies, Mets and Yankees. Not exactly cake walk teams. Despite being so good I think he’ll slide under the radar still because of the opponent but the Dodgers are also rolling Walker Buehler** so gimme Garcia as an SP2 on DK.
** … About Walker Buehler… You’re gonna hear all the hype associated with him. Remove the name and think about the team and the situation. He’s not gonna go deep into the game. I trust Garcia more and love this kid to shutdown the Dodgers for 5 IP. I dont need him to win at his price. Meanwhile, you’re likely shocked I refrained from a Beuhler, Buehler GIF arent you? … **
Mike Leake … I’m not a big Leake fan, he’s up and down but this is more picking on a White Sox team who simply hasn’t gotten it going yet. The lineup has a few spots in it that can be scary, but NOTHING is coming from the bottom of the lineup and he should give you decent SP2 value with one of the studs above.
POSITIONAL PLAYERS
New (old) format here. This may look familiar to some who recall my old original write-ups from a couple years back and now I’ve added another twist to it with the positional players. I do not begin my lineup construction by stacking, so why should I convey my write-up like that to you? I shouldn’t. I wanna make you smarter and better players breaking down the positional plays and that’s the intention here.
All players are listed in order of my preference or ranking, but that doesn’t mean the second or third guy listed is necessarily a bad play. Read the context behind the plays to help formulate where you should be spending and where you can get different. Anyone listed with a * is a contrarian play in my mind
CATCHERS
- Jonathan Lucroy
- Austin Hedges
- Gary Sanchez
Lucroy is historically great versus lefties. He is in the EXACT same spot he was in at the start of last year where he started off cold against LHP and then quickly turned it on around late April. I noted his hot streak last year in May and expect to see it again here shortly. He starts off tonight with a great matchup against Matt Moore and should benefit from the top offense of the night in Oakland.
FIRST BASE
- Joey Gallo
- Eric Hosmer
- Logan Morrison
This is not a bad night to skip 1st base for catcher on FanDuel. I expect Gallo and Hosmer to be the chalk as Hosmer is just too cheap for a 3/4 hitter in Coors field and homered there a week ago while Gallo gets a nice matchup against Cahill at home.
SECOND BASE
- Jose Altuve
- Jed Lowrie
- Robinson Cano
- Gleyber Torres
This position is a good reason why we can spend down elsewhere tonight Altuve has a matchup vs a 6’5 lefty and Lowrie is on fire to start the season and on my top team (Oakland) today. Mentioning Torres in case you wanna get weird here and take a cheap guy who will be owned too much simply because he’s the new toy. I’m not going there tonight.
THIRD BASE
- Luis Valbuena — Roof is open in Houston, good punt position today for me.
- Yolmer Sanchez
- Kyle Seager
- Matt Chapman
I can’t justify 5k for Nolan here today and overall I don’t love the position so if value shows up then look to take it. This is alot like yesterday where I’d lock in third base last today but the difference is there’s really no Jose Ramirez today (in reference to his double dong Sunday).
SHORTSTOP
- Eduardo Escobar
- Marcus Semien
- Trea Turner*
- Trevor Story*
Escobar gets a great park shift as do most of the Twins and we know Tanaka is gonna give up 1-2 HR tonight. Semien has the splits matchup batting, plus the upside of being at the top of that Oakland lineup. Trea Turner against a RHP in a huge ballpark where he can either rack up doubles and triples or steal all day long (because its vs a RHP) is high on my radar too. Story believe it or not is contrarian as others will look at Didi, Lindor and Correa. Story beats those guys tonight.
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- Charlie Blackmon
- Wil Myers
- Khris Davis
- Aaron Judge
Yep. Going to Coors here. Blackmon has not homered at home yet… That’s gonna change. Wil Myers rakes in Coors and seems to annually have a game where he either gets or comes close to getting the cycle. You would think Khris Davis versus a lefty in Arlington, TX would be a lock right? Well, what if I told you Khrush Davis had 1 home run on the road versus a lefty in 2017 in 122 At Bats? Proceed with caution.
OUTFIELD Tier 2
- Mitch Haniger
- Jose Pirela
- Eddie Rosario
- Justin Upton
I feel you gotta get one or two value outfielders from this tier and the tier below tonight (dont forget Myers is cheap too). Nobody will have Upton tonight. He’s your leverage play if fading Cole and wanna get some Angels bats against Cole.
OUTFIELD Value
- Manny Margot … Margot is gonna be the chalk value play on FD leading off in Coors.
- Jake Marisnick
- Chad Pinder
STACKS / TEAMS TO TARGET
Because I gotta feed the trolls what they want….
Oakland Athletics … Everyone will have a hard time fading Khris Davis in this stack and while we may not expect a HR out of him here based on those weird road vs lefty stats we can rely on him being up with men on base. The Athletics have mashed on the road so no reason to go away from them tonight in Texas against a bad lefty and with that Rangers bullpen. Oakland is legit probably the best team against lefties this year. Lucroy, Semien, Pinder and Lowrie or Davis. If you want to be contrarian, fade Khris Davis.
Seattle Mariners … No pitching staff is worse than the White Sox right now. Shocker, Wellington Castillo is catching the worst staff in baseball. I don’t love the weather here but guys like Seager, Cano and Mitch Haniger should do well tonight.
Update … The White Sox have placed Miguel Gonzalez on the DL and will be starting Carson Fulmer. Fulmer hasn’t really been much better this year but the kid has shown some signs of improvement overall and the former first round pick is someone that I’m less likely to attack given other options tonight.
Houston Astros … They heated up against the White Sox but everyone is heating up against the White Sox these days. I love Altuve tonight and Marisnick, but I’m never going heavy Astros at home.
Coors Field … This is the perfect spot to get a little exposure from both sides of Coors Field. The Pads and Rocks typically will play some decent scoring games in Coors and I love Blackmon/Myers tonight. The entire Padres team remains criminally underpriced. Myers/Hosmer for the Padres Blackmon/Story for the Rockies. Dahl will be popular as he is being called back up. Don’t go full Coors. Just Coors lite.
SNEAKY
The Sneaky Stack is one that you play as a second line-up on most nights or ride it in a spot where we think that there’s plenty of volatility with other chalky stacks on a given slate.
TWINS … Nobody is on them tonight because of the Vegas line in this game, but even with temps only in the 50’s this is a great spot to jump on a good offense early. The Twins, like the Royals who I noted last week, have had a bunch of games either in terrible parks or bad weather so far this season so they’re sliding under the radar. Logan Morrison is a cheap option at a bad position today, along with Eddie Rosario, Eduardo Escobar and either Dozier/Sano you can get a lineup with lots of power potential off Tanaka who we know will give up 1 to 2 HR. I hate going full 4 man stack against the Yankees who have a great bullpen but the HR upside is good tonight.
DONGERS CLUB
- Charlie Blackmon – OF – Chairman … Josie’s Away
- Wil Myers – OF
- Jonathan Lucroy – C
- Eddie Rosario – OF
- Logan Morrison – 1B
- Jose Altuve – 2B
- Trevor Story – SS
- Kyle Seager – 3B
- BONUS …………….. Justin Upton – OF
SP to use with Dongers Club $4 and a dream lineup — Kevin Gausman
