Welcome to the Core 4! My name is Michael aka @MadnessDFS on Twitter, make sure to give me a follow as I’ll occasionally make updates to the article throughout the day as news breaks and lineups come out. But, you’ll mostly find me in our VIP coaching forums where I provide detailed lineup maneuvers and answer all lineup questions. With that said, let’s get it started!
Purpose of the Core 4: These four players are guys that I want to get high exposure to in my cash game lineups and if doing multi-entry, using the Domination Station to either lock them in or set high exposure percentages to them. These are players that I see as underpriced, in great matchups, good conditions, or simply just have a hunch. I also need to mention that these plays are normally geared toward Draftkings pricing and scoring, however the stats and reasoning behind liking them stays true no matter the site. Be sure to compare this article with the players mentioned on our Coaches Notes/Player Picks every night to get a sense of where you stand and to get multiple coache’s outlooks on the slate. With that said, let’s jump in!
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Griffin Canning (SP) – $7,900
I’ll start by saying, yes I know he has not been good lately and is coming off of a very rough outing against a bad Orioles team, so bear with me. The first thing that I love about this matchup for Canning is that the Tigers are legitimately pathetic from an offensive standpoint. The Tigers are dead last in the league in runs scored this season, even behind the Marlins who everyone loves to stream pitchers against. They are striking out at a 26.4% rate on the season which is higher than the league average. Along with this, Canning has a very respectable 25.2% strikeout rate as well. He has faced the Tigers once this season and went 5.1 innings with 7 strikeouts on his way to 23 Draftkings points. At $7.9k he is more than in play here and I’m hoping his recent outings keep the ownership down on him because this is a great spot for the young kid.
Ketel Marte (2B/OF) – $5,000
Yes, he’s expensive but for good reason. He gets a massive ballpark upgrade by going on the road to Yankee Stadium against a left-handed pitcher in J.A. Happ. Happ has not been what he use to be this season, he enters tonight’s game with a 5.23 ERA on the season. He is giving up a 38.1% hard contact rate this season, and in a small ballpark like Yankee Stadium, it won’t end well. Happ throws a 91 mph fastball 51.1% of the time to right-handed hitting, which is the side of the plate Marte will be on in this matchup. In the past two seasons against this fastball, Marte has a .522 ISO and a .585 wOBA in 23 at-bats. I do wish the sample size was bigger, but we do see him hitting a .622 slugging percentage against lefties on the season. It’s hard not to like Marte here.
I’m going to continue to drive home the coaches notes/player picks here, these are something you need to look at before submitting your lineups! Often times we don’t have enough time to write big long write-ups on every single player on our coaching sheets, but trust me the research is there behind every pick! The Coaches Notes have a little bit of everything no matter what type of player you are. They have Draftkings notes, FanDuel notes, Showdown slate notes, and CashKeg’s Main Slate cash notes (see results below). Take these and compare them to the rest of the tools we offer on the site and you have already strengthened your chances of doing something like bobbywow did here when he won $50,000.
Josh Bell (1B) – $4,800
The post-home run derby slump has been mumbled around the fantasy industry over the past couple of weeks, but I refuse to believe that Josh Bell will be held down like this for the rest of the season. I particularly love him in this spot against Tanner Roark in Cincinnati’s Great American Smallpark. Tanner Roark struggles with left-handed power like Josh Bell and is only striking them out at an 18% rate compared to 27% against righties. Roark throws a 92 mph fastball around 40% of the time against left-handed hitting, and let me tell you, Bell mashes this pitch. Against such fastballs, Bell has a .532 ISO and a .564 wOBA. If you’re not sold yet, I’ll throw in some BvP for you, against Roark in his career, Bell is 4 for 9 with 2 home runs and a .889 ISO.
Travis Shaw (3B) – $2,200
I’m going to try and get a cheap value option on here when making the Core 4, especially when I have two high priced guys like Marte and Bell as two of the four. When I say cheap, man is Travis Shaw cheap. He spent some time in the minors recently but started to come around. Before coming back up to the bigs, Shaw hit 9 home runs in 28 minor league games and will likely crack the lineup against a right-handed pitcher in Oakland so it allows Milwaukee to use a DH. Shaw is hitting much better against righties than lefties on the season. Against right-handed pitching, he has a .413 slugging percentage to go along with a .325 wOBA and a .208 ISO. Are those numbers that you want to write home about? No. But this is more of a pricing play than anything. If you throw Shaw in at 3B along with the other three core plays, you leave yourself with $5,016 per player to fill out the rest of your roster.
Simple Coaching = Simple Results
Our coaches build their sheets with their own “Core” plays in them (blue in color). You can use these to form your own foundations, or as a consensus across coaches to solidify your own thoughts. However, I definitely recommend upgrading to a Full VIP member so you can access our coaching discussions in rooms like, #cash-keg-allsports where our coaches explain when and why they change some of their thoughts based on late lineup confirmations. These pivots dramatically increase your edge as a player!
As always I appreciate everyone who gave the article a read! Feel free to mix it up with me in our coaching forums as news breaks and lock approaches. At this time of they year be very careful with who is in your lineup, guys will get scratched because of trades, so keep an eye on those lineups! Let’s win some cash, whaddya say?
