Hello everyone, and welcome back to the MLB cash academy at the DFS Army! 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.
Before we get into our cash game stuff, I want to first congratulate our big winner from last’s NASCAR race. DFS Army member hall-d pulled in a massive $105,000 win last night, and we had several others bring home some nice wins. Great job everybody!
^ Click me to see even more of our big winners from other sports! ^
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
James Paxton: 36 FD | 20.95 DK
Charlie Morton: 32 FD | 18.55 DK
Colin Moran: 6.5 FD | 5 DK
Nick Hundley: 3 FD | 3 DK
Nick Markakis: 21.7 FD | 16 DK
Rhys Hoskins: 3 FD | 3 DK
Not bad, though I did expect a bit more from Rhys. Markakis gave us that double-digit scoring effort though, so that was nice.
Cash players – 7/8/2018
Dallas Keuchel (HOU P: $9,600 FD | $9,200 DK) – One of the first things I do when selecting cash pitchers is to see who has the most Vegas love, then see if their recent stats match up well with what Vegas thinks. Fortunately for Keuchel, we have a winner! His massive -317 moneyline and the White Sox 2.87 implied run total pair up very well with his 3.03 carnage rating and combined .272 wOBA. This has been a solid place to attack the last three games with Houston’s strong starting rotation, and I think Keuchel makes it 4 for 4 today.
Nathan Eovaldi (TBR P: $6,800 FD | $8,000 DK) – Eovaldi has been a solid value option and gets a $700 discount on DraftKings today. He has a fair amount of Vegas love (-139 moneyline and 3.47 implied runs for the Mets) and sports a 2.94 carnage rating, which is the 4th best on the slate today. His combined wOBA of .324 is mostly average, but he also survived 6 difficult matchups in a row without getting shelled. There’s only one batter on the Mats that would give me any real concerns (Bruce), but he’s been sidelined for a couple of weeks now. I don’t think he has tournament-winning upside, but I like him as a solid cash play today.
Sandy Leon (BOS C: $2,300 FD | $3,000 DK) – You could take just about anybody from the Boston lineup and be good to go, but I wanted to point out one of the few cheap options that also happens to be hitting well right now. Leon has solid fantasy production in 9 of his last 10 games and brings a respectable .348 wOBA against Junis and his .440 wOBA / .295 ISO to the left side of the plate. You can stack Leon with Mookie, JD, Xander, or just about any other Boston batter today for a solid two-batter cash stack.
Starlin Castro (MIA 2B $3,400 FD | $4,200 DK) – Roark has been getting smashed from righties recently, giving up a whopping .500 wOBA and .333 ISO to them over his last 5 starts with a strikeout rate of only 17.3%. Castro has been running hot lately, especially against right-handed pitching where he has a .650 wOBA and a very low 9.68% strikeout rate. I actually like Miami for tournament stacking today, but Castro is consistent enough to deploy for cash game use as well.
Jesse Winker (CIN OF: $3,200 FD | $3,800 DK) – Jesse is another reasonably-priced batter that offers both consistency and a good matchup today. He’s had fantasy production in 15 of his last 16 games (10 of which had 9+ FanDuel points) and has an extremely low strikeout rate of 6.67% in the last week. His massive .880 wOBA against lefties looks great against Lester’s .496 wOBA and .444 ISO to lefties, and his strikeout rate is also pretty low at 14.8%. If Jesse doesn’t start, Suarez makes a fine option too, or you can take them together if they both play today.
Andrew Knapp (PHI C: $2,200 FD | $3,200 DK) – I love finding hot-hitting catchers because if they aren’t on a big-name team, they’re generally underpriced. Such is the case for Knapp, who not only has 10 hits in his last 6 starts, but has only stuck out 18.18% of the time and sports a .610 wOBA / .750 ISO against righties. Kingham missed most of June, but he was blown up for .839 wOBA and 1.125 ISO in his first start since then. It won’t take much for Knapp to return value at his price, but I think he will exceed it by a fair amount today.
Sunday bonus!
I follow my formula for cash games pretty religiously, but some of you may be wondering how you can quickly find all of these batter VS pitcher (hand vs hand) matchups. Those who join me for cash games in my Slack channel have it pretty easy, as I upload a list every day (along with the Pick’Em sheet that I’ve previewed here before) that narrows down all of the batters in matchups that I look for in cash games. I can then check for other things (BvP, weather, etc) and quickly build a cash lineup full of batters in good matchups, rather than just throwing in guys who fit the salary cap but might be in the middle of a slump.
Since we had another massive winner last night, I decided to share some love and give a big freebie today. The list has 38 players on it today, and I’m going to give 14 of them here. The rest, of course, will be available to my fellow DFS Army members in my Slack channel #nillys-garage-nas-mlb.
Click me, I expand!
So how do I use it? Well, it’s pretty simple. Once I have a player position in mind (i.e. catcher, outfielder), I look to see which of them are in good spots (and fit any salary constraints I may have). I look for the best combination of high wOBA/ISO on both sides with the lowest strikeout rates I can get. I can also use carnage rating and the implied runs total to help act as a tie-breaker if I find multiple batters (in the same fielding position) that are all in good spots.
Everything on this chart is looking at things from a batter’s perspective, so I’m simply looking for as much green/blue/purple as I can find. It all boils down to one thing; consistently have exposure to hot batters going up against bad/soft pitching and put yourself in a position to succeed with every spot in your lineup. That’s what cash games are all about, and tools like these make it easier for our members to succeed. Of course, if they have any questions, they can always find us in our Slack channels to get help narrowing down their selection.
On that note, that’s going to do it for today. Remember to check out the rest of our MLB content coming out today, as well as some other sports like WNBA. Also, for those of you on the outside looking in, keep in mind that NFL season is fast approaching, and our prices will be going up once that happens. I’d rather see you guys get in the door at a cheaper price, so now’s the time to join up if you haven’t already. Even when our prices do go up, they will stay the same for active members! Just be sure to use promo code NILLY to get that 10% discount, which will also remain for the life of your active membership. Until then, good luck today!
