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 stay 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 coach’s outlooks on the slate. With that said, let’s jump in!
I just want to give a quick shoutout to BoomersDaddy for the Nick Ahmed core call last night, the man ended with 25 Draftkings points at just $4.3k on Draftkings and $3.5k on FanDuel. —-> Coaches Notes/Player Picks
CORE 4:
Matt Boyd (SP) – $10,300
My initial thoughts were to have Clayton Kershaw in this spot, but after some further digging, I do like Boyd more and think he will be less chalky. With Boyd, you get a $1.5k discount on Kershaw and a similarly good matchup. Boyd draws the Seattle Mariners offense who have an implied run total of 4 runs here. The Mariners are striking out at a massive 25.9% rate on the season. Boyd matches this with a great strikeout rate of 31.9% and gets a Mariners lineup that really isn’t all that great right now. Moyd has one start against the Mariners this season in which he scored 28.7 Draftkings points. I think this is a good spot to take the savings from Kershaw and Lynn and get a guy with similar upside and a similar floor. Nilly’s Carnage Reportisn’t out at the time I’m writing this, but be sure to give it a look and check out where he ranks!
-> NILLY’S CARNAGE REPORT <-
Fernando Tatis Jr. (SS) – $5,400
He’s expensive, yes, but for good reason. Tatis is easily one of the best you hitters in all of baseball right now. He draws a matchup with rookie pitcher Brendan McKay who has a 4.55 era on the season to go along with two home runs given up in each of his last two starts. Against lefties this season Tatis has a .705 slugging percentage, .520 wOBA, and a .311 ISO. To go along with this, Tatis crushes McKay’s favorite pitch, the fastball. McKay throws a fastball around 56.4% of the time to righties. Against these left-handed fastballs, Tatis has a .547 wOBA and a .231 ISO. I’m hoping our savings at Boyd help us fit in Tatis because I love this spot for him even in a pitchers ballpark.
Josh Bell (1B) – $4,600
Bell has been on a bit of a cold streak ever since the all-star break but has come on as of late. He has at least 21 Draftkings points in each of his last two games and has double-digit outings in three of his last four. The matchup with Griffin Canning in Los Angeles will likely draw ownership down because it’s not necessarily an ideal matchup. That said, Canning is certainly susceptible to giving up big outings. He has a 4.77 era on the season and a 42.3% hard contact rate on the season. Bell’s price is getting up there, but it hasn’t caught up to where it should be so there is still some meat on the bone 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.
Adam Frazier (2B) – $3,300
Many of you know the routine here, I like having my last guy be a value guy especially with three more expensive plays with the first three core pieces. It feels a bit weird having two Pirates on this list against a fairly average matchup against Griffin Canning on the road. With that said, Frazier will likely be hitting leadoff here and really correlates well with the Josh Bell pick. Against righties on the season Frazier has a .434 slugging percentage to go along with a .333 wOBA and .160 ISO. These numbers aren’t quite as great as the other two batters on this list, but that is baked into the price. Frazier has also been heating up as of late, scoring at least 10 Draftkings points in his last two games. He’s a great cash game play given his floor and really has upside to be playable in GPPs. I like getting Frazier here to jam in the other core guys on this list.
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. Let’s win some cash, whaddya say?!
