Hello everyone, and welcome to the MLB cash academy! I go by nillyJay in the DFS Army where I coach and contribute content for MLB, NASCAR, and all things cash games related (such as proper bankroll management and cash ladders). You can find me on Twitter or in our Slack channels @nillyJay.
The purpose of these articles is to teach you how to find players to use for cash games, as well as giving out a few that my research has put me on (and why I chose them). The idea here isn’t to just say “lock these guys and run an optimizer.” Rather, I want to encourage everyone to work on their research process and dig a little deeper to find players in good spots instead of just settling on players that fit the salary cap.
The basics
In an effort to keep these articles quick and to the point, I’m going to skip the definitions here. You can refer to the original article here if you’re unfamiliar with any of the stats or terminology used in my notes below.
Yesterday’s results
Corey Kluber: 52 FD, 31 DK – Solid performance, solid score. Exactly what we’ve come to expect from Kluber.
Jose Urena: 28 FD, 13.9 DK – Nothing earth-shattering here, but he did enough for a budget cash SP2 on DK.
Eduardo Escobar: 15.5 FD, 12 DK– He gave us more value on FD, but still solid either way.
Adam Jones: 0 FD, 0 DK – Estrada was on fire and the Blue Jays clobbered the O’s early, who seemed to check out shortly after. Jones was taken out after a strikeout and two dinky popouts, so he’ll look to rebound today at home against a guy he has two home runs against.
Yolmer Sanchez: 3.2 FD, 2 DK – I expected more out of him in this matchup but hey, it’s baseball.
Cash players – 6/11/2018
Jose Quintana ($8,500 FD, $8,100 DK) – Quintana has faced the Brewers twice this year and scored 46/52 FD and 26.5/31.95 DK against them. Not only that, but he’s faced a lot these batters over multiple games and most of them don’t have much to show for it. The Brewers’ 28.87% krate pairs up well with Quintana’s 29.90% krate, as well as his .191 wOBA and .025 ISO over his last few starts.
Andrew Heaney ($7,900 FD, $9,100 DK) – Heaney has been solid for a while and sports a .223 wOBA / .080 ISO over his last few starts. He has a nice BvP advantage today, with only Mitch Haniger having any real success against him (who is hitting very cold at the moment). Very solid cash floor on both sites, and he could even rival the scoring against some of the more expensive arms today.
Andrew McCutchen ($3,000 FD, $4,000 DK) – Not counting yesterday’s single at-bat appearance, McCutchen has had 11 hits in his last 6 games with double-digit fantasy scoring in 5 of them. He’ll get to face a struggling Chen today, who is giving up .469 wOBA and .273 ISO to lefties. The train is running hot, so this is a great place to start a cash lineup.
Freddy Galvis ($2,400 FD, $2,700 DK) – Galvis looks to be a solid budget option today with his recent .382 wOBA, .273 ISO, and tiny 8% krate. He’s scored at least 6 FD/5 DK in 8 of his last 11 games, which is a pretty nice floor for the price. On the mound is Jack Flaherty, who has given up a whopping .587 wOBA and .389 ISO to the opposite side of the plate over his last four starts. Great way to save some salary today!
Jose Martinez ($3,900 FD, $4,300 DK) – He’s been crushing the ball lately (.647 wOBA / .636 ISO) and hasn’t been striking out (4.17% krate) over the last 10 days, and he’ll get to face another pitcher who isn’t doing too hot; Lyles is giving up .431 wOBA and .208 ISO to righties. Martinez hasn’t had a scoreless game in the last two weeks, and quite a few of those games had hefty scores. He and Ozuna (who is also running very hot) make a great combo today.
Paul Goldschmidt ($4,200 FD, $5,000 DK) – He was hot when I wrote him up a few days ago and he’s cranked it up even more since then. Don’t worry about this being a righty vs righty matchup; Goldy is hammering the ball no matter where it comes from (.747 wOBA / .762 ISO vs RhP over the last 10 days). He’s among the hottest hitters in the game right now and he’s sure to be popular, so I would recommend just taking him and moving on with your cash lineup. He’s expensive, but that’s why we have value plays like Galvis to make it work.
That’s going to do it for now. Be sure to keep an eye on our MLB page to see the rest of the great content we have coming out today. We also have a big WNBA slate coming up tomorrow, so be sure to check out Blande’s article when it hits tomorrow. And as always, if you want to join up with us for access to everything else we offer, be sure to use promo code NILLY for that 10% discount for the life of your active membership. Good luck today!
