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
Chris Sale: 70 DK, 42.75 DK
Domingo German: -3 FD, -7.25 DK
Jace Peterson: Did not start
David Peralta: 22.2 FD, 16 DK
Eddie Rosario: 9.2 FD, 8 DK
Hernan Perez: 6.5 FD, 5 DK
Javier Baez: 15.7 FD, 12 DK
Every dog has its day, even those Rays…
Cash players – 6/25/2018
Justin Verlander ($11,700 FD, $13,300 DK) – As usual, we want to go straight to the top for our cash game lineups, and Verlander is our guy today. His massive -240 moneyline and 2.69 implied total for Toronto is a great start, while his 3.01 carnage rating, .265 xWOBA, and 29.9% strikeout rate help to back up their claims. He hasn’t had a bad game all season (even his subpar game against Boston was manageable), and I don’t see Toronto breaking that trend today.
Mike Clevinger ($9,800 FD, $11,100) – If you don’t want to pay all the way up for Verlander, Clevinger is a good alternative. His 3.93 carnage rating is plenty low, and his .261 wOBA / .117 ISO are among the lowest on the slate today. Nobody on the Cardinals roster has ever faced him before, which is not only good in general but also because we know they haven’t done well this year against pitchers they don’t have much experience with. Clevinger has been pretty solid most of the season, and I see him putting another good game under his belt today.
Matt Duffy ($2,800 FD, $3,800 DK) – Duffy has been on a tear this past month, and hasn’t had a zero since May 28th. He’s been smashing lefties (.796 wOBA and .375 ISO) and has only been striking out 9.52% of the time over the last 10 days. Gio has been struggling lately, especially to righties. He’s giving up a whopping .672 wOBA and .875 ISO to them over his last 5 starts, and his strikeout rate is down to a mere 17%.
Ryon Healy ($2,800 FD, $4,100 DK) – Healy has a 5-game hitting streak going, and I’m pretty confident that he’ll make that 6 games today. He’s had a lot of success lately against righties with his .371 wOBA and .190 ISO, while Cashner has been getting hammered by them (.672 wOBA / .875 ISO). He’s also not striking anybody out (14.9% strikeout rate), and Vegas likes the Mariners for just under 5 implied runs. This game could easily go to the over, so be sure to have exposure to it in your cash lineups.
Nelson Cruz ($3,900 FD, $5,200 DK) – I would normally just include him as a bonus to his teammate, but these numbers are just too hot not to share. Cruz takes his .559 wOBA and .455 ISO against Cashner’s .479 wOBA and .400 ISO today. There’s not much strikeout potential here either (15.38% for Cruz, 14.9% for Cashner), but we’re not through yet1 Cruz has solid BvP in this matchup as well; He’s 6 for 13 with 4 extra base hits and a home run against Cashner. I see double-digit scoring coming from Boomstick today.
Robinson Chirinos ($2,700 FD, $3,300 DK) – I love finding catchers that are running hot because unless they’re a Yankee, they never seem to get priced up. Enter Chirinos and his .719 wOBA against lefties, as well as his impressive string of fantasy production in 16 out of his last 18 games (one of those zeroes was a pinch-hit game, so that barely even counts). Lucchesi has been getting blown up by righties to the tune of .672 wOBA / .875 ISO, so I think Chirinos will have another solid game today.
Bonus time!
Since this is the last Cash Academy until Friday, I wanted to end this one with something a little extra and show you guys on the outside one of the many things you’re missing out on. Do you like Pick’Em, but don’t really like researching so many batters? I’ll admit it can be a little tedious, but that’s where I come in! I put together a chart that shows the important stats for every batter in each tier. They show what that batter is doing against the hand they are facing, as well as what the opposing pitcher is doing against their own handedness.
I also include a chart of every batter running hot that’s facing soft pitching (for the classic slates), which is basically showing more batters like I put in these articles. The end result is being able to quickly identify players we can use for cash games, especially when we’re crunched for time. So without further ado, here’s what Tier 4 on Pick’Em looks like today:
Click me, I expand!
We can easily see that Ender Inciarte and Jon Jay have the best matchups, so that’s where I would look for cash games. Trea Turner has a massive xwOBA but only an average wOBA, as well as a fairly high strikeout rate, so I would be sure to include him in some GPP lineups in case he goes off. 10 seconds later I’m moving on to the next tier, and that’s the beauty of this chart.
That’s going to wrap it up for now. The Cash Academy will be back on Friday, but be sure to check out our other MLB content in the meantime. We have lots of goodies out today and plenty more on the way, such as more World Cup and PGA coverage. If you like what you’re seeing here, I’d encourage you to come join us and get all of the other goodies we keep locked away (such as the research station and Domination Station lineup optimizer). Until then, have a great week, and good luck today!
