I know you don’t care about my personal life, and I don’t really have any “Jack Handy” Deep Thoughts for you this morning, so I’ll get with it shortly. I am a landscaper by trade and decided to help a friend lay mulch yesterday……13 yards worth. So, I’m kind of beat this morning and popping Advil like Pez. In short, my brain is absolute mush right now.
I hope you woke up in better shape and are ready to get cracking on this slate. I know it’s my beloved Cardinals, but I’m not talking about them today being they are the only day game on this, honestly, 10-game slate. I believe whole-heartedly that playing the “All Day” slates when there is only one day game is just begging to have your butt whipped. There’s just no way to know the later lineups and who will even be in them on FanDuel. On DraftKings, with late swap, you might have my interest. But, in general, I just stay far, far away.
I haven’t yet mentioned it’s Cinco de Mayo. I love this little Americanized holiday. I feel like we Americans are just looking for any excuse to justify getting ripped, and this one definitely fits the bill. I have a long story about a Cinco de Mayo I won’t share here, but let’s just say it was one of my first dates with my wife and we both wound up tossing tequila in a parking lot of a Jimmy Buffet concert after we “stumbled” across a VIP tent that didn’t ask us our names when we walked in. #GoodTimes
Looky there, I found a way to drop my personal life into this anyway. As I chuckle, you can fasten your seat buckle. This is hopefully a pretty speedy ride down this slate of games from here…..
Weather Concerns: Nothing significant. Rejoice in the tranquility!
DET@CLE – Neither Fulmer nor Trevor Bauer are on my pitching list today. In fact, both are bottom ranked pitchers that we can target. DET has some bats swinging well right now. I’d be looking to roster quite a few of them in a game that could be lower owned and higher scoring. Anthony Gose might be your off the radar play and JD Martinez isn’t going well yet, but can get hot with the best of them. CLE is in play, too. Lindor is a staple in a lot of LUs and the rest are more GPP targets, but it looks like some runs will come from this game.
NYY@BAL – Tanaka and Gusman don’t excite me either but I’m not necessarily targeting them with bats tonight. NY woke up a little and I’d be considering sprinkling a few in my lineups. Castro is still playing well and Ellsbury might be heating up. On the BAL side, I’m not stacking them but they do have power. Machado and Davis are daily elite plays against non-ace pitching and the ballpark gives a little boost to their power. There is some value in the outfield with guys like Rickard at the top and Reimold just below the middle of the order. Again, I’m not going crazy here.
TEX@TOR – This might be more frustrating right now than the girl that said “not tonight” every night in college. When will these Blue Jays bats wake the hell up? Yeh yeh I know Encarnacion is underpriced and he hit a bomb last night, but those that were on him in cash/conservative formats were gambling instead of using skill…..and they got rewarded. Joey Bats and Josh Donaldson along with whoever bats leadoff are where I’d look….maybe a small glance to Kevin Pillar. On the TEX side, Odor is hotter than Texas Chili right now and he’s hard to fade in any circumstance. I’m sort of waiting for other Rangers bats to poke their heads up with any kind of consistency. That sucks, too, because Rogers Centre is a great park to launch. I’m certainly not on the pitching. If anything I’m trying to muster up the balls to target Derek Holland with those Jays bats. I just don’t know I can do it in earnest. I’ll have a little exposure but will likely talk myself out of a full on stack.
ARI@MIA – You want a SP2 for DK, look to Aaron Conley. It doesn’t look great but he’s favored to win and he’s cheap. ARI has really sort of hit some skids the past week or 10 days, so you might catch them cold with a pitcher. I’m not rostering Robby Ray because the MIA bats are alive and swinging. I could see stacking Marlins here. Stanton, Ozuna, Prado are good options and Realmuto at the top of the order will certainly be chalky. I might find it hard to fade him up there tonight personally. I’m off D’Back bats for sure.
MIL@CIN – I’m off the pitching here because I’m squarely on the hitting. Both sides of the plate will carry value. I’m looking here first with deGrom pitching at his price point. Villar up top and the other guys around him could do damage. It’s not Miller Park, but it’s close….really close. We saw the Brew Crew score in their own park, somewhere over these few games I expect to see some nice numbers continue. The mediocre pitching for MIL also means the Reds bats are in play. I can see a lot of exposure to this game tonight and you are going to be hard-pressed to talk me out of it. These are two of the worst pitchers on the slate.
WAS@CHC – I don’t like games like this. Ross and Hendricks are both fairly competent pitchers. When they face off, you often see lower scoring games. That’s not good for fantasy. I can’t really pick one to roster, either, as my pitcher because the other might snuff out my run support and cost me the win. I know it’s the Cubs and I know the Nats had a nice game yesterday, but I see no reason to chase this game today with the others on the slate. I can be proven wrong if Rizzo or Harper hits their usual home run, but I just see an increased chance of not paying off those salaries in this spot. I’m after lower hanging fruit.
BOS@CWS – This is another bat-heavy game featuring two of the worst pitchers on the slate. If you wanted to solely target the MIL/CIN game and this one, you might find me with a lot of the same players. Boston will be pricey, and chalky, but you might want to grab some exposure to them if you want to compete. The White Sox side of things carries a couple hot hitters right now in Abreu and Lawrie, too. Todd Frazier can also always run into one. Picking the right guys is going to be your challenge tonight.
SEA@HOU – I’m not targeting a pitcher here in this park. HOU will be popular after hanging 16 runs on the board last night. But, they are pretty much GPP picks based on their boom/bust natures. However, I am willing to give serious consideration to any lefty in the SEA order. Seager, Cano, Smith, Martin…..all playable. Thunder bats and nasty pitching often lead to fireworks.
NYM@SDP – deGrom is your chalk pitcher for cash. Just pay up and roster him. Looking elsewhere is being too cute. Be that as it may, you won’t find him in any GPP lineup I put out there. While I don’t see San Diego hitting him hard, if he doesn’t whiff a lot of hitters and somehow doesn’t come out with the win, you can get the same production for much cheaper elsewhere……and afford bigger bats from BOS or HOU/SEA games. I am interested in Mets bats, but they are pricey and in San Diego. I like other games better but won’t fault you for plugging some of these guys in. If I were you, I’d lean on Conforto or Cespedes. Duda is stupid cheap and can hit the ball to Japan. I’d be off Neil Walker and his boom/bust nature in this park. I’d be more focused on guys that hit line drives and doubles instead of the feast/famine nature of home runs or strikeouts. Padres? No need.
COL@SFG – This is another game I’m likely taking a pass on. I just can’t get excited about that air in the Bay Area. I can see plenty of reasons to roster up Rockies since they are facing a pretty bad pitcher tonight. But, it’s a GPP play at best for me. Giants bats, too. I do like Brandon Crawford as some cheaper power that no one will be on since it’s lefty/lefty. Brandon Belt isn’t the worst either. But, I’m not likely going here at all tonight because I’m simply focused elsewhere. I’m off the pitching here, of course.
Tear it up, soldiers! I’ll see you back here tomorrow morning at 0900….