DraftKings – Page 33 – FullTime Fantasy

NFL Week 2 TE DFS Breakdown

Shawn Childs previews the Week 2 Tight Ends

Week 2 is here and thus another slate to sort through and decide which stacks to look at for tournaments on DraftKings and FanDuel. Last week the Bengals (Andy Dalton, Joe Mixon, A.J. Green) and Vikings (Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, Stefon Diggs) stacks were solid. The Patriot trio of Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and Chris Hogan was underwhelming mainly due to the ineffectiveness of Hogan. Let’s see what this week has to offer. Washington Redskins Alex Smith, Adrian Peterson, Jamison Crowder Alex Smith, at this point, is a guy that we know what to expect from. He’s generally a guy that has been labeled a “game manager” and thus hasn’t consistently wowed anyone in the fantasy world. With that being said, Smith delivered last week what I would consider a typical Alex Smith game completing 21 of 30 pass attempts with 255 yards and 2 touchdowns. Smith is priced favorably on both sites, especially DK. Jamison Crowder had a letdown effort last week seeing most of his time out of the slot with just three catches and four targets on the day. Good news for him this week, though, is that he gets another good matchup against the Colts’ shitty cornerbacks and by lining up in the slot for the majority of his snaps, the majority of his routes are run in the middle of the field where Smith is most effective. On DK Crowder is just $4,900 and on FD he’s $6,000. He gets an uptick on DK based on the full-point PPR and his cheap salary. Adrian Peterson is not effective these days in the passing game, that role belongs to Chris Thompson. With that being said, Peterson was still able to manage 26 carries for 96 yards and a touchdown last week and added two receptions for 70. The Colts allowed over 100 yards rushing to the Bengals last week along with a touchdown on 19 carries from the running back position. As a home favorite with one of the higher totals on the slate, the Skins should lean on AP late in the game with a lead. I’ll run TY Hilton back after seeing 11 targets last week and catching a touchdown. Carolina Panthers Cam Newton, Christian McCaffrey, Devin Funchess I’ll start by saying that Cam is my cash game QB on DK this week. Pass the bleach. In all seriousness, Cam, for lack of a better term, sucked last week against the Cowboys in one of the biggest piece of shit games you’ll see all year. With that said, Cam still came away with around 18 fantasy points. The Falcons lost two of their best, and in my opinion, most important defenders, especially when facing a team like Carolina. Deion Jones, their best linebacker and Keeanu Neal, one of the better young safeties in football are HUGE losses to Atlanta. With Cam’s rushing ability, I love the floor he brings this week along with his upside due to his rushing ability. Christian McCaffrey will also benefit from the loss of Jones and Neal with his ability to catch passes out of the backfield. The Falcons’ defensive scheme, for a while now, has proven to allow receptions to opposing running backs and rely on the speed and playmaking ability of their defenders to shut the play down. With the speedy Jones and Neal not out there, CMC will have more time and opportunities to catch and run. Devin Funchess’ price on DK is preposterous considering that he’s the team’s number one wide receiver who will benefit from the loss of Greg Olsen. Funchess saw his target share increase by around 25 percent last season with Olsen out. The clear player from the Falcons to run this stack back with is Julio Jones who has destroyed Carolina in his career. In his last eight games against the Panthers from 2014 to 2017, Julio has averaged 10.6 targets per game, 6.6 catches per contest, and 117.6 yards per outing. Detroit Lions Matt Stafford, Golden Tate, Kenny Golladay The Lions looked like absolute trash last week on Monday Night Football against the God Damn Jets (if you haven’t seen the movie Big Daddy, go see it). Anyway, I think the Lions bounce back in a spot where no one expects them to travel to San Francisco to take on Jimmy GQ and the 49ers. Kirk Cousins was able to put forth an efficient game against the Niners last week going 20-36 with 244 yards and two touchdowns. Stafford, who was under pressure all night and was all over the place with the ball should be able to get the ball to his receivers, mainly Golden Tate and Kenny Golladay. Tate operates primarily out of the slot as does the Vikings’ Adam Thielen who had six catches for 102 yards last week. Golladay was the lone bright spot for the Lions last week with 12 targets which he turned into seven targets for 114 yards. He played the most snaps of any Lions receiver suggesting that they’re inclined to make him a focal point of their passing attack. This is an opportunity to take advantage of a late-afternoon kick off and thus a Lions team which should attract hardly any ownership. George Kittle interests me on the other side with Marquise Goodwin’s health clearly in doubt and Kittle being a preferred target for Jimmy G early on. GOOD LUCK!

MLB DFS: Rob Geriak’s Building Blocks – 9/12 – Early Slate

MLB DFS: Rob Geriak’s Building Blocks – 9/10

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 Jacob deGrom (NYM) deGrom was scheduled to pitch yesterday but was pushed back due to the weather concerns. The Mets’ ace magical season continues as he has now allowed two or fewer earned runs in eight straight starts while striking out 10 or more batters in five of his last seven outings. There’s no reason for me to think deGrom doesn’t keep rolling along and mow down the Marlins. Weather may come into play here, so that will need to be monitored. Corey Kluber (CLE) After an “un-like Kluber” stretch of two starts toward the end of August, he’s bounced back in his last two outings, one of which came against these Rays. In that start, he went seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and now faces them in a better pitching environment in Tampa. The Rays come in as winners of eight of their last ten after a weekend sweep of the Orioles. Expect them to come back down to earth and Kluber to take care of business. Sean Newcomb (ATL) After two bad starts in a row, Newcomb gets a matchup against the Braves and their poor offense in a great pitching environment. The Giants have really been struggling losing each of their last eight games while scoring just 13 runs in their last five games. Newcomb is cheap on both sites and I expect him to attract some ownership in a good spot, especially as an SP2 on DK. Core Stacks Phillies Rhys Hoskins, Carlos Santana, Asdrubal Cabrera Erick Fedde starts for the Nationals and he’s allowed 12 earned runs over his last three starts spanning 16 innings. Over his short career, Fedde has allowed a .442 wOBA to right-handed hitters which plays directly into the hand of Rhys Hoskins who destroys right-handed pitching. Furthermore, Hoskins comes in hot with two hits in each of his last two games and a home run in three straight contests. Santana has been in the leadoff spot of late and has homered in three of his last five games during his current 11-game hitting streak. Cabrera had his six-game hitting streak broken yesterday, a streak in which he had three doubles and two home runs. He’s reasonably priced and will have the platoon advantage all game being a switch hitter sandwiched in between Santana and Hoskins. Pirates Starling Marte, Gregory Polanco, Josh Bell Adam Wainwright makes his first start since May and faces a Pirates team that has won five straight and scored 25 runs over that span. Starling Marte has hits in four straight games with a double and a home run over that span. He also has stolen base upside with Wainwright who is a bit slow to the plate. Polanco has hits in seven straight games with two doubles and two home runs over that span. Josh Bell has shown the power of late as well with a home run in each of his last two games. 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. Matt Carpenter (STL) Carpenter has a 51 percent hard-hit rate and a 45 percent fly-ball rate over his last 11 games. He’s been carrying the Cardinals for the majority of the season offensively and gets a chance to add to his numbers against Trevor Williams who he’s seven for 16 with a double and three home runs against lifetime. Jay Bruce (NYM) Bruce is a great value option on FD (2.3K) as a one-off and even at 3.8K on DK. Over his last 11 games, Bruce has a 46 percent hard-hit rate and a 50 percent fly-ball rate. He’s a modest five for 15 with two home runs against Jose Urena. GOOD LUCK!

MLB DFS: Rob Geriak’s Building Blocks – 9/8 – Early Slate

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 Jack Flaherty (STL) Jack saw his pitch count grow on him in his last start completing five innings with five strikeouts and just one earned run allowed but throwing 100 pitches in the process. In his previous six starts he had exceeded five innings in all six outings and more than five strikeouts five times. I see him getting back to that type of line against this Tigers team today, even though he’s on the road in an AL park. I’m locked in on Jack on FD and as my SP1 on DK. Matt Harvey (CIN) The park shift isn’t ideal but the matchup is against the lowly Padres who’ve scored enough runs for the rest of the year (12) over their last two games. Harvey’s faces the Pirates and Brewers in his last two starts, two stingy lineups and it did not go well. His three previous outings against the Cubs, Giants, and Diamondbacks were sharp with a combined 18.2 innings, 18 strikeouts, and three earned runs allowed. At just 6.6K on DK he’s the first arm that comes to mind as an SP2 play this afternoon. Other SP2 Options on DK: David Hess (DK), Adam Plutko (CLE) Core Stacks Cardinals Marcell Ozuna, Matt Carpenter, Harrison Bader I love all things Cardinals today. First Jack on the mound and now the bats which have been swinging well. The Red Birds have scored 21 runs in their last three games and part of the charge has been led by offseason acquisition Marcell Ozuna. He’s eight for his last 14 with four home runs over that span and has a nice salary attached to him on both sites. Harrison Bader has made an impression since getting regular playing time including producing against left-handed pitching. He has a 42 percent hard-hit rate and 42 percent fly-ball rate over his last 12 games. Matt Carpenter has been a monster which goes without saying and is a serious NL MVP candidate. After cooling off a bit, Carp has picked it right back up with a 48 percent hard-hit rate and 95 mile-per-hour average exit velocity over his last 11 games and has a modest three-game hitting streak going. Others to Stack: Athletics (Chapman, K. Davis, Lowrie) 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. Eugenio Suarez (CIN) Give me all of the Geno today at home against Robbie Erlin. The Padres lefty has allowed four earned runs in each of his last two starts and surrendered a home run in each of his last three outings. Geno has destroyed lefties this season to the tune of a .459 wOBA, .317 ISO, 57 percent hard-hit rate, and 30.3 percent HR/FB rate. Lock him in at the hot corner. Nomar Mazara (TEX) Mazara and the Rangers take on Edwin Jackson and the A’s today in a game that is, at this point, irrelevant to Texas. However, their young players, like Mazara are looking to end the campaign on a high note and he’s been producing of late. The 21-year-old outfielder has a 50 percent hard-hit rate and 95 mile-per-hour average exit velocity of his last 11 games while logging multiple hits in three of his last five contests with three doubles and two home runs over that stretch. GOOD LUCK!

NFL DFS: Week 1 Top Stacks

With week 1 here and one game in the books, I’ve gone through the Sunday main slate and found some stacks that I’m looking at using in tournaments. Some of these guys will be popular plays in most contests, however, their teammates may not attract as much attention. These stacks are in play on both DraftKings and FanDuel. Cincinnati Bengals Andy Dalton, Joe Mixon, A.J. Green Andy Dalton lines up as a very good value option at the QB spot against the Colts indoors on Sunday. The Colts were middle of the pack in terms of fantasy numbers allowed to the quarterback last year and Dalton, who took a bit of a step back overall last season should take advantage of their vulnerability in the secondary. Joe Mixon was up and down in his rookie season last year coming out of Oklahoma with off-the-field issues leading into training camp. Now, with that seemingly behind him, Mixon figures to play a big role in a Bengals offense that could prove to be potent this season. The Colts allowed 15 rushing touchdowns to running backs last season and with Mixon’s salary on both sites being in the neighborhood of some potentially higher owned runnings backs, this is a good opportunity to get the former Sooner in a spot where he won’t have much attention. A.J. Green and Dalton have been tagging with each other for a number of years now and Green, who’s known to be a better road performer, should be able to get open with regularity against a mediocre Colts secondary. The former Georgia Bulldog figures to be a popular play at the wide receiver position with a more than manageable salary on both sites in what figures to be a game that features a good deal of offense. I love the idea of running this Bengals stack back with T.Y. Hilton who will benefit greatly from having Andrew Luck back. Hilton has massive upside in this spot, especially with his ability to make big plays down the field. New England Patriots Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Chris Hogan The last time Brady saw the Texans he lit them up for 378 yards and five touchdowns. Houston was gashed by the quarterback last season but figure to bounce back with a healthy J.J. Watt in the fold. Brady is an expensive play under center on both sites which could work in our favor ownership wise with not many looking to pay up at QB. Gronk is Gronk and will continue to dominate pretty much everyone in his path until he gets hurt and misses a significant amount of time, which isn’t an “if” as much as it is a “when”. Julian Edelman will miss the first four games of the season because he’s a fraud-cheater (bitter Jet fan). In all seriousness, Edelman’s absence for PED’s opens the door up for Chris Hogan who’s formed a more than formidable connection with Brady in his time in New England since the Buffalo Bills cut him. A lot of people will look to the value of Phil Dorsett (he went to The U so I can’t blame them) but with Phil yet to prove much of anything in NFL to this point, I’ll lean on the steady play in Hogan here. Hogan went 4/68/2 last year against the Texans. Deandre Hopkins is the clear-cut option to run this stack back with on the opposite side, but at a hefty salary. Minnesota Vikings Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, Stefon Diggs Outside of Diggs, this is a stack that has some question marks within. I’ll get to Diggs shortly. As far as Kirk goes, I’m a big fan and have been for a while now. In my opinion, he’s a very good fit with the Vikings, a team that features talent at the skill positions that, quite frankly, he didn’t have in Washington while still being able to put up good numbers. With that said, will the 49ers, led by Jimmy G be able to score enough for Kirk to have to throw? That’s where I find myself leaning on Dalvin Cook here as the pushback from the Niners is somewhat in doubt, but so is the workload of the former Seminole. Cook is coming back from a season-ending knee injury and, according to most involved, is good to go. Stefon Diggs is the play that I feel most comfortable with and the guy out of this trio that I expect to garner the most ownership. The 49ers secondary is not that imposing, even with the acquisition of Richard Sherman who still thinks he’s the best, I’m sure if you asked him he’d say so. The younger, more athletic Diggs should have no problem with the Niners secondary. I’m in favor of running this stack back with Marquise Goodwin on the Niners who as the most upside of San Francisco’s receiving corps. GOOD LUCK!

MLB DFS: Rob Geriak’s Building Blocks – 9/7

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 Blake Snell (TB) It’s no secret by now that Snell has had a great season and that he’s been dominant at home. It’s also not a secret that the Orioles’ lineup is not intimidating, especially against power lefties. Over his last three starts, Snell has gone 6.2, 6, and 6 innings with 9, 8, and 11 strikeouts respectively while allowing a combined three earned runs against the Indians, Red Sox, and lowly Royals. Snell should and will be the most popular play on the high-end salary wise tonight. Aaron Nola (PHI) Nola is in the middle of a three-horse race for the NL Cy Young award and takes on the Mets whom he has dominated the last three time he’s seen them. In his last three outings against the putrid Metropolitans, Nola has gone 7, 7, and 6 innings with 11, 10, and 4 strikeouts respectively. Nola had a dominant August and has had a great year, so one sub-par start his last time out against the Cubs isn’t going to scare me off of him. There isn’t one SP2 play I’m locked in with on DK tonight but here are the guys I’m considering: Chris Archer, Chase Anderson, Felix Pena Core Stacks Athletics Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Khris Davis The A’s offense is lethal at times and should beat the piss out of Yovani Gallardo tonight. Khris Davis – noted Ranger-killer has a .302 average with three doubles and nine home runs against Texas this season. Matt Chapman has had a very good offensive season and has hit righties especially well on the campaign. He’s swinging the bat well with five extra-base hits in his last four games. Matt Olson is slumping a bit with just one hit over his last six games, but he’s been hitting the ball well. Over his last 13 games, Olson has a 41 percent hard-hit rate and a 48 percent fly-ball rate. Indians Edwin Encarnacion, Jason Kipnis, Melky Cabrera Marco Estrada has been hit around a bit of late with six, five, three, four, and five earned runs allowed respectively over his last five starts. Edwin Encarnacion has always hit righties very well and Estrada has allowed 17 home runs (2.25 HR/9) to righties this season. Jason Kipnis has hit in three straight games including a home run and a double. Melky Cabrera slides in as a good value option in the five or six holes of the Indians lineup which has scored 21 runs in their last three games. 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. Ian Happ (CHC) Happ gets a matchup with Joe Ross from the Nationals who has struggled over his career against left-handed hitters. Happ, being a switch hitter, will have the platoon advantage all night against the Nats. Ross has allowed a .364 wOBA and 1.40 HR/9 to lefties lifetime and with a .350 wOBA and .204 ISO, Happ has shown that he can handle righties with authority. David Peralta (ARI) Peralta is destroying right-handed pitching this season with a .404 wOBA and s .254 ISO along with launching 19 of his 26 home runs against the platoon. Kevin Gausman is a good pitcher, but Peralta has shown the ability to consistently hit good pitching over the past two seasons with success against Max Scherzer, Madison Bumgarner, Gerrit Cole, and Jon Gray among others. Also, I don’t worry about Peralta against the Braves bullpen, notably against any lefties he may face, as he’s thrived in high leverage situations and hit seven home runs against lefties. GOOD LUCK!

MLB DFS: Rob Geriak’s Building Blocks – 9/5

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 Jameson Taillon (PIT) Taillon pitches against the Reds tonight at home in a good park shift and has pitched well in three of his last four starts (at Atlanta, at Milwaukee, vs the Cubs, and at Colorado). Taillon is a top play for me on both sites on a night that there is no clear-cut stud up top. Nick Pivetta (PHI) Outside of J.T. Realmuto and Starlin Castro, the Marlins were shut down over 7.1 innings against Jake Arrieta who struck out 11 along the way. Pivetta bounced back nicely in his last start against the Cubs and should have no trouble mowing down the Marlins who he’s seen twice this season and combined to throw 11.2 innings, strike out 16, and allow just two earned runs. There isn’t one SP2 play I’m locked in with on DK tonight but here are the guys I’m considering: Jose Quintana (CHC), Aaron Sanchez (TOR), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) Core Stacks Pirates Starling Marte, Corey Dickerson, Gregory Polanco Last week, Donger Bailey’s last start, I said that he sucked and to attack him. This isn’t breaking news, once again, I just figured I would remind you all of that. In that outing, Bailey allowed seven runs, I know only three of them were earned, but in his five innings, he allowed nine hits and two home runs. Gregory Polanco is seven for his last 15 with a double and two home runs, Starling Marte bounced back after two hit-less games with two hits, including a home run last night, and had the day off yesterday which, as you all know, I love playing guys after a day off. The Pirates have scored 12 runs in their last two games and look to be heating up offensively. Mariners Mitch Haniger, Kyle Seager, Nelson Cruz The Mariners should beat up on the gas can that is Andrew Cashner. Over his last three starts, Cashner has totaled 18.1 innings with 12 earned runs and four home runs. Over his last two starts, he’s allowed a 93 mile-per-hour average exit velocity and a 48 percent fly-ball rate. Mitch Haniger has hit in 16 straight games with four home runs, four doubles, and a triple over that span. In his last 12 games, he has a 43 percent hard-hit rate which his teammate Nelson Cruz can relate to with a 48 percent hard-hit rate over his last nine games. Kyle Seager has a 96 mile-per-hour average exit velocity and a 45 percent fly-ball rate over his last 12 games and is seven for 23 with two home runs against Cashner. The M’s tee off tonight. 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. Rhys Hoskins (PHI) Hoskins faces young righty Sandy Alcantara, a guy that has barely had a cup of coffee to this point in the majors. Facing the Phillies lineup isn’t an easy task these days, and specifically, Hoskins who crushes right-handed pitching. On the season Hoskins has a .373 wOBA, .272 ISO, and a 37.3 percent hard-hit rate while hitting 24 of his 27 home runs against righties. Kole Calhoun (LAA) Calhoun had last night off and faces a righty in Bartolo Colon. Against righties, Calhoun has hit 15 of his 18 home runs with a .209 ISO. In Texas, Calhoun has a .311 average with eight doubles, three triples, and eight home runs over his career and is expected to be back in the leadoff spot tonight. Yuli Gurriel (HOU) Gurriel has homered in two straight games and is facing Jake Odorizzi who has had trouble with righties over the course of his career. Rostering Gurriel is a great way to get exposure to an explosive Houston offense that is always on the verge of going off. GOOD LUCK!

MLB DFS: Rob Geriak’s Building Blocks – 9/3

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 Max Scherzer (WAS) Max is the highest priced pitcher on both sites early and faces the Cardinals who he hasn’t seen since last year but dominated them in the two starts in which he faced them. The common makeup of the team from last year is still there with a few pieces new and some departed, but in those two outings against St. Louis Max totaled 13 innings, 22 strikeouts, and one earned run. He’ll be looking to bounce back from his last start which came against the Phillies when he was the victim of a couple of deep home runs and was outpitched by Aaron Nola. Vinnie Velasquez (PHI) I love Vinnie as an SP2 play on DK and will also consider rostering him on FD at just 6.6K against the Marlins. Over the last month, the Fish have a team wOBA of .285, an ISO of .126, and a team full of guys you’ve never heard of, for good reason. Vinnie has faced them twice this season, before they unloaded most of the talent that they had, and has totaled 12.1 innings pitched 13 strikeouts, and one earned run. He’s coming off of a good start his last time out against the Blue Jays in which he went five innings with six strikeouts and three earned runs. Trevor Williams (PIT) Williams benefits from a positive park shift against the Reds who will be playing for the seventh straight day with their last four coming on the road against the Cardinals. Williams has been pitching well over his last four starts going at least six innings in each outing while allowing two earned runs total. His strikeout upside isn’t sky high, but it does get aided by the Reds, a team that has some strikeouts in their lineup. He’s a mid-priced option on FD for me if you don’t feel great about paying down for Vinnie and would rather save some salary by pivoting off of Max. Core Stacks Cubs Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Ben Zobrist Zach Davies is making his first start since the end of May after missing the majority of the season with an injury. Davies has never loved pitching at home over his career with a 4.40 FIP and a 36 percent hard-contact rate against. The Cubs come in scoring 15 runs in their last two games as this crucial division series kicks off tonight. Kris Bryant is three for seven with a double in his first two games back after missing over a month of action and is 13/33 with two doubles, a triple, and a home run against Davies. Kyle Schwarber has a 39 percent hard-hit rate over his last 10 games with two home runs and two triples over that span. He has a .356 wOBA, .269 ISO, and all 24 of his home runs this season against righties. Ben Zobrist slides in as a nice value and should hit near the top part of the lineup. He’s had multiple hits in four of his last seven games with three doubles over that span. Pirates Starling Marte, Corey Dickerson, Colin Moran The Pirates are criminally underpriced on FanDuel against Matt Harvey and the shitty Reds bullpen and on DK they’re reasonably priced as well. Marte, Dickerson, and Moran are the three bats that I have settled on here but there are a number of ways to go, including pivoting Moran out for a more expensive Polanco and playing a full outfield stack. Sticking with this plan, though, Marte offers a power and speed combo with hits in eight of his last nine games and seven knocks in his last 17 at-bats. Dickerson had a very quiet August but will look to pick things up in September and facing Matt Harvey works well in his favor. Harvey has allowed 1.87 HR/9 to lefties to go along with a 42 percent hard-contact rate while Dickerson has a .340 wOBA and .190 ISO against righties. Moran is a “2k special” on FD and just 3.6K on DK and getting the majority of the playing time at third base now with David Freese traded away. Moran has an average exit velocity of 93 miles-per-hour over his last 10 games and is another lefty to attack Harvey with. 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. Yoan Moncada (CWS) Moncada has a 93 mile-per-hour average exit velocity, 53 percent fly-ball rate, and a 40 percent hard-hit rate over his last 13 games. Now, we know that the issue with Moncada very often is making contact as he strikes out a shit load. Michael Fulmer isn’t a high-volume strikeout pitcher and he’s been tagged to the tune of a 46 percent hard-hit rate over his last two starts with two home runs allowed in his last outing. Odubel Herrera (PHI) Willie is still dirt cheap on FD and reasonably priced on DK

MLB DFS: Rob Geriak’s Building Blocks – 9/1

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 Jon Gray (COL) Gray has seen the Padres quite a bit being an NL West Division foe and has had success against them, especially in San Diego. Over six starts, spanning 35 innings pitched, Gray has 47 strikeouts and a 2.57 ERA. The Padres offense has been a disaster all year long and Gray, who went seven innings with seven strikeouts and no earned runs allowed in his last start in San Diego should bounce back after a rough outing his last time out. Dylan Bundy (BAL) Bundy has been a fucking disaster in his last four starts and quite frankly hasn’t had a good year at all. However, at 6.2K on FD and 7K on DK you’re getting great value here if none of the guys in the upper echelon of salaries excite you. The Royals offense has not been good all season, Bundy sees a positive park shift, and I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten how the Royals demolished him earlier this season (don’t look at this box score). Bundy pitches well tonight and lets you pay up for bats on FD and slides in as an SP2 option on DK. Kevin Gausman (ATL) Gausman is in play on both FD and DK against the Pirates who simply are just not hitting right now, and quite frankly I think they’ve run out of gas. Gausman, who the Braves fleeced the Orioles for at the trade deadline for as far as I’m concerned, has pitched well in three of his last four starts, one of which came against the Pirates. In that outing, he went eight innings with five strikeouts, four hits against, and no earned runs allowed. The Pirates have a team wOBA of .288 (sixth-worst in baseball) and a .101 ISO (third-worst) over the last two weeks. Core Stacks Twins Jorge Polanco, Miguel Sano, Max Kepler The Twins take on Yovani Gallardo and the Rangers in Texas again tonight where the warm weather should help put runs on the board as it did last night as these two teams combined for 17 runs. Sano, who hits righties well, should feast on Gallardo who allows a .393 wOBA to right-handed hitters. Kepler has hit 13 of his 18 home runs against righties to go along with a 39 percent hard-hit rate. Polanco will have the benefit of the platoon-split for the duration of the game being a switch hitter putting him in a good spot, especially while Gallardo is in the game with his .373 wOBA against righties. Cardinals Matt Carpenter, Yadier Molina, Paul DeJong Yes, I’m going back to the well tonight as I LOVE this spot for the Cardinals. Luis Castillo has given up five earned runs in two of his last three starts and has been throttled by left-handed hitters. Insert, Matt Carpenter. He homered last night, he homers tonight, next player. Yadi Molina. One for five last night, but he’s generally as steady as they come in the two-spot for the Cardinals right behind Carpenter. DeJong hit a home run last night against Donger Bailey (shocker) as he continues to hammer right-handed pitching. Castillo has struggled, the Reds bullpen has been trash, the Cards put up the runs against tonight. 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. Trey Mancini (BAL) Mancini, who hits righties well with 16 of his 20 home runs coming against the reverse-split faces Heath Fillmyer who has allowed 2.39 HR/9 and a .357 wOBA against righties. Mancini has multiple hits in four of his last six games with four doubles, a triple, and three home runs over that span. Kole Calhoun (LAA) Calhoun started off this season horribly but has started to pick up the pace a bit in the second half. On the season he has just a .305 wOBA against righties but has a .204 ISO and an 18.4 HR/FB rate to go along with a 44 percent hard-hit rate. Calhoun has multiple hits in two of his last four games and at 2.4K on FD and 3.8K on DK he stands out as a value bat to look at. GOOD LUCK!

Tag: DraftKings