HITTERS:
-Upper Tier
- Bryce Harper, Daniel Murphy & Trea Turner (Washington Nationals vs. Philadelphia Phillies) – This one is going to get ugly, and ugly fast. The Phils are throwing a wet behind the ears rookie tonight who got absolutely rocked after getting the final month call-up last season. It doesn’t appear that much has changed, so this makes it an easy decision to put both of these guys in your lineup tonight.
- Nolan Arenado (Colorado Rockies @ San Diego Padres) – The NL MVP hopeful absolutely crushes the Padres over the course of his career and, against Clayton Richard, we’ll see all these numbers go up just a bit more. Arenado hit his first HR in five games last night, so here’s to an oncoming streak.
- Evan Longoria & Logan Forsythe (Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees) – Longo is hitting .400 lifetime against CC in 70 at-bats and Forsythe is over that mark in 19 career at-bats against him as well. Yankee Stadium is a great setting for hitters so don’t sleep on these two cellar dwellers.
- Robinson Cano (Seattle Mariners vs. Texas Rangers) – Don’t feel threatened by the lefty-on-lefty matchup, instead, embrace it! Cano can hit against anybody in this league, as evidenced by the absolute moonshot he launched against Cole Hamels on Monday. I can guarantee you low ownership in this matchup, but if I tell you and everyone else that Cano is 16-45 with two dingers lifetime against an underwhelming lefty in Derek Holland, maybe more people will hop aboard. ***On the pod, I forgot to mention Nelson Cruz and Franklin Gutierrez as solid plays too.
-Mid Tier
- Andrew McCutchen & Jung Ho Kang (Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Cincinnati Reds) – I really like the way McCutchen been swinging the bat lately and it looks like he’s about to turn the corner into a scorching hot finish. McCutchen has two homers in his last five games and if the Reds can get to Dan Straily early, he’ll have the benefit of facing MLB’s worst bullpen. All of this for a very discounted price, just like his teammate, Kang. All this guy does is hit homers (errr…and get hurt) and I like his chance to do it yet again. Kang has six hits and three bombs in his last two games.
- Ryan Schimpf (San Diego Padres vs. Colorado Rockies) – Always a favorite of mine, Schimpf gets a great matchup against young Jeff Hoffman tonight. If you don’t much about Hoffman, don’t worry, you’re not missing much.
-Value Tier
- The rest of the Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Cincinnati Reds – Take the same McCutchen/Kang rant and apply smaller prices to it.
PITCHERS:
Disclaimer: In the pitcher’s section, there will be no tiers today- just guys that I think are serviceable enough to start tonight…except Taijuan Walker.
- A.J. Cole (Washington Nationals vs. Philadelphia Phillies) – One of my favorite stats in all of daily fantasy baseball, $/PT (dollar per point), says this is the way to go tonight. You’ll get Cole at a ridiculously low price and the Nats offense behind him; the Phils throw Alec Asher tonight and that’s a good thing for our boy here. I really like him on all sites because he checks all the boxes- great win potential, great peripherals, terrible opponent and he’s at home.
- Jaime Garcia (St. Louis Cardinals vs. Milwaukee Brewers) – Gross. I mean, I guess you’re going to feel inclined to play him, as he gets matched up against the Brewers. I think there’s a 100% chance that he’s 100% owned in most contests. On the bright side, Garcia is a little better at home and he’s skilled the Brewers all season long with 22 Ks in 22 innings and a WHIP of 0.82. The current Brewers roster has a .186 average against Garcia over their careers, and their stud, Ryan Braun, has a putrid .179 AVG against him with only one HR and 9 Ks.
- Ivan Nova (Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Cincinnati Reds) – The Pirates finally broke their eight-game losing streak last night and they’ll look to start a new one against the Reds. Since climbing aboard the pirate ship at the deadline, he has a 2.89 ERA and a WHIP of 1.00. The Reds also are a bottom-third offense this season against right-handed pitching.
- C.C. Sabathia (New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays) – Yes, it’s the kind of day where CC makes the list, but he’s actually had quality starts in four of his last five games and the Rays also strike out at an MLB-high rate of 25.4% against southpaws. The Yanks are riding on cloud nine right now after a sweep of the Blue Jays and The House That Jeter Built is alive and rocking once again; expect that to push CC a little harder than usual tonight. The one drawback is the fact that he has to deal with Evan Longoria and Logan Forsythe in an extreme hitter’s park.
- Taijuan Walker (Seattle Mariners vs. Texas Rangers) – I see a lot of projections/rankings liking him today, but they must have the home park factor calculator thing-a-ma-jigger turned all the way up. Walker isn’t a terrible pitcher, but the offense he’s going up against tonight is pretty locked in at the plate. It’s your own funeral, you can attend it if you want.