Welcome back to the Saturday edition of “Covering All the Bases,” which should be where you start your research for any weekend MLB DFS slate. I’m ready to break down today’s 6-game afternoon slate on both sites and the 8-game main slate. Whether you are playing on Fanduel and Draftkings, I’ve got some thoughts to get your lineup-building process started.
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Afternoon Slate (6 games) 4:05 Lock
Pitchers
Jack Flaherty should be the chalk pitcher on this early slate. He is the most expensive arm on both sites and faces a mediocre Detroit offense on the road. It’s not to like the talented rookie today and I’m probably paying up for him in cash games. He finally hit a road bump in his last start, going only five innings against the Nationals mainly because he walked a season-high five batters. If he gets his control back today, he should be fine, and I like him to have a solid outing.
Eduardo Rodriguez makes for a nice GPP pivot off Flaherty. He returned from 6 weeks on the DL last week and promptly struck out 12 White Sox in only 5.2 innings while only walking one and allowing three hits. The matchup with the Astros is a tough one, as they have a bevy of good right-handed bats who could take E-Rod over the Green Monstah, but the strikeout upside is still there and I’m willing to take a shot on him today.
There’s really no one else I’d recommend playing after these two. On Draftkings you could consider Ryan Yarborough of Tampa against the Orioles, as he should be the “starter” that gets most of the middle innings after Diego Castillo pitches the first few innings.
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Hitters
If there’s not much pitching to count on, then it’s safe to say there’s a lot of bats you could target. Cleveland has the largest team total against Toronto rookie Sean Reid-Foley, but they really let us down last night against Estrada and Reid-Foley is coming off his best MLB start. I’d prefer to stack up the Rays again (14 runs last night, thank you for the grand-salami Choi!) against Baltimore starter David Hess, 0r use some Blue Jays bats against the Indians worst starter Adam Plutko.
The Oakland right-handed bats are in an elite spot against Texas rookie lefty Yohander Mendez who has allowed a .473 wOBA to righties! I would also consider some Reds righties (Suarez for sure) and Padres lefties in that game at Great American “Smallpark.”
Main Slate (8 games) 6:15 Lock on FD, 7:10 on DK
*****NOTE***** Game 2 of the Cubs-Nats double-header is now set for 6:15 PM and is included on the FD slate but not on the DK slate.
Pitchers
Tonight’s slate is really interesting with a couple guys I really like on the mound. Noah Syndergaard is tonight’s most expensive option and while I have been fading him most of the year he makes a pretty solid GPP option considering he is coming off his best outing of the year – a complete game two-hitter with 11 strikeouts against the Giants. If the Mets are willing to let him and DeGrom pitch deep into the games here in September, I’m very interested in Thor against the strikeout-prone Phillies tonight. Syndy does have a problem holding baserunners, and the Phillies have stolen 11 bases off him in 11 attempts during his career, so it is a risky spot if he ends up walking guys or giving up a bunch of singles an doubles. He’s still our highest rated pitcher this evening and likely brings the highest ceiling to the table.
Walker Buehler bounced back nicely in his last outing against the D-backs, allowing only one run over 6 innings with 9 strikeouts. He had a small hiccup against Texas the start before that but had been cruising the second half of the season. I love Buehler tonight against the Rockies in Coors. Some won’t play him simply because they don’t use pitchers in Coors, but I never subscribe to that logic. He just pitched 7 shutout innings in the exact same spot only a month ago and his price is very affordable on both sites. He’s my number one target in GPPs.
Jose Berrios has been bad in his last two starts and continues to be pretty unreliable on a nightly basis in his sophomore season. However, he gets an excellent matchup against the Royals at home tonight and is capable of putting up a big score on any given night. He’s had a lot of success against the Royals this season and is priced at a nice discount on both sites tonight. He’s my second favorite GPP option.
Matt Shoemaker returned from the DL last week and pitched a solid five innings against the Rangers, holding them scoreless while only allowing three hits and a walk. He threw 62 pitches in that game and hopefully will have his pitch count raised to 75-80 pitches tonight (not confirmed, just speculating) and if that is the case then I have a lot of interest in him at his price, especially as an SP2 on DK. The matchup with the White Sox is about as good as it gets, and we saw Felix Pena absolutely crush in this spot last night (in my column, by the way!) Definitely check on the pitch count before rolling him out, but he should be able to make value in only 5-6 innings if he’s throwing strikes.
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Hitters
My two favorite stacks come from the great Midwest today. I like the Minnesota bats against Royals rookie Jorge Lopez. The Twins are hot, putting up a 10-spot last night and while Lopez pitched really well in his last start, he has still shown the tendency to give up a lot of hard contact this season. The best part of using the Twins is their prices, it’s pretty easy to fit them in with Thor or Buehler on FD. My other favorite stack is the Milwaukee Brewers against Giants pitcher Chris Stratton. Anytime you can get the Brewers at home against a bad pitcher, you should do it. And while Stratton has pitched much better in his last three starts, consider that two of those were against the Mets offense. His overall numbers are still BAD and I think it’s much more likely that the Brewers get the best of him tonight than the other way around.
Good luck today in your contests! Thanks as always for reading! It’s early, so things might change throughout the day. Our VIPs can check in with me and our other MLB coaches in Slack. Everyone else hit me up on twitter @ThunderDanDFS
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