Hello everyone, and welcome back 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 show an easy way to identify players to use MLB cash game lineups. While I do provide some player names, the idea is to show what I’m looking for so that you can use some of that same thinking to help aid your research for building lineups.
The basics
Please refer to the original article here if you’re unfamiliar with any of the stats or terminology used in the notes below.
Yesterday’s results
CC Sabathia: 25 FD, 11.4 DK
Chris Stratton: 25 FD, 10.10 DK
Nolan Arenado: 31.2 FD, 24 DK
Jurickson Profar: Did not play
Carlos Santana: 44.6 FD, 31 DK
Javier Baez: 12.7 FD, 9 DK
Miguel Rojas: 6 FD, 6 DK
These two pitchers didn’t do what I was hoping they would, but those bats (along with Choo and Mazara) more than made up for it for cash purposes.
We find a lot of cash game success in Pick’Em, too!
Cash players – 6/22/2018
We’ve got another big split today with the slates, so you know what that means…it’s bonus Saturday!
Early slate
Andrew Suarez ($7,300 FD, $7,900 DK) – I liked him against Miami earlier this week and I like him against the Padres today. He offers a very solid .251 wOBA and .083 ISO, while none of the Padres are running hot (or even warm) at the moment; only two have higher than .300 wOBA against lefties, and only Pirela has an ISO above zero against them…that’s really cold! Suarez has plenty of Vegas love (-160 moneyline with a 3.54 implied total for the Padres) and my model likes him to get about 6 strikeouts today, so he could return plenty of value today for his price. Did I mention he has the best carnage rating on the slate? It’s a 1.58, and it doesn’t get much lower than that.
Sonny Gray ($8,300 FD, $6,900 DK) – I don’t go out of my way to find cheaper pitchers to fit the bill, but when they’re there, why not take them? Sonny has been performing well and seems a bit underpriced considering his recent success and matchup today. He has all the stats in his favor (.277 wOBA, .122 ISO, 2.32 carnage rating, and a decent 25.9% strikeout rate), while the Rays’ bats have been just as cold as the Padres’ have been.
Jason Heyward ($3,000 FD, $4,100 DK) – He’s a solid option on either site, but I really like him on FanDuel with that huge price reduction. His recent .357 wOBA and .250 ISO against righties matches up well against DeSclafani who has given up .418 wOBA and .357 ISO to righties over his latest 5-6 starts. Add in the fact that Heyward has only been striking out 7.41% of the time recently, and we have ourselves a solid start to our batter selection.
Odubel Herrera ($3,900 FD, $4,900 DK) – I probably don’t need to say much more other than “he’s hit a home run in 5 straight games” but I’ll throw some numbers out there anyway; a .551 wOBA and .538 ISO batter meets a .471 wOBA and .438 ISO pitcher in this lefty vs righty matchup, and I don’t see it ending well for the latter. When the train is running this hot, you just keep on riding it in cash until it derails. Will that be today? Probably not.
Adam Duvall ($3,000 FD, $3,700 DK) – Duvall has been running pretty hot lately and has been smashing righties in the process. His .492 wOBA and .500 ISO against them matches up very well against Farrell and his .358 wOBA and .238 ISO to righties. Farrell has only been throwing for about an inning or so recently, which means this could turn into a bullpen game. If that happens, they’ll probably throw righties at Duvall, which is just fine for us because we know he’s hitting them just fine.
Main slate
Lance McCullers ($9,200 FD, $10,200 DK) – There aren’t many “safe” options on this small slate, but Vegas is telling us to go here. His -328 moneyline is by far the best today, and the Royals’ 2.65 implied total is the lowest as well. This same matchup played out earlier in the week where Lance struck out 9 on his way to a 43 FD / 22.7 DK performance. His .309 wOBA and .191 ISO aren’t ideal, but sometimes we just have to take what the slate gives us.
Dee Gordon ($3,000 FD, $3,900 DK) – Gordon has the “trifecta” today with good recent numbers (.667 wOBA and a 10-game hitting streak), a good matchup (E-Rod is giving up .367 wOBA to lefties), and is 4 for 5 (one home run) against him. This is a solid place to start a cash lineup for this tiny slate.
J.D. Martinez ($4,500 FD, $5,400 DK) – He looked like he might have started to slow down a little bit, but he put that to rest last night with a massive 4-hit game. He’ll take his .408 wOBA against Leake, who he’s 4 for 11 (with a home run) against. He’s sure to be chalky on this small slate, especially after what he did last night. Since we’re talking cash games, this is the kind of good chalk we want to just take and move on.
Randal Grichuk ($3,100 FD, $3,700 DK) – There aren’t many gems on this slate, but Grichuk looks to be one we can go to. His .596 wOBA and .615 ISO against righties are among the highest on this slate, while Barria is giving up .364 wOBA and .407 ISO to righties. He’s only striking out 15% of the time as of late, so today looks like a good day for him to start another hitting streak.
That’s going to do it for today! Be sure to check out the rest of our MLB content coming out today, and stay tuned for my NASCAR VIP article that will come out tonight/early morning for the race tomorrow. If you aren’t signed up with us yet, I’d really encourage you to do so before our prices start to go back up once NFL rolls around, because it’ll be here before you know it. Just be sure to use promo code NILLY to get that 10% discount. Good luck today!
