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!
While you’re here, go check out the NFL Draft Kit, which has you covered for all of your draft day needs!
-> NFL DRAFT KIT <-
CORE 4:
Jack Flaherty (SP) – $10,500
Jack Flaherty is one of the four starting pitchers that is over $10k on this slate and draws a great matchup against the San Francisco Giants. I would like this matchup more if it was in San Francisco, but it’s a good enough spot that I don’t mind it being in St. Louis. Flaherty is on some kind of roll right now, in his last ten games, he is averaging 26.4 Draftkings points per game. He has scored at least 30 Draftkings points in four of his last six games and in his lone outing against the Giants this season he scored 24 Draftkings points. He has a 28.8% strikeout rate on the season, when it comes to selecting pitchers for DFS strikeouts are king, making this a great spot for Flaherty. To go along with his elite strikeout rate, the Giants are striking out at a 24.3% rate against right-handed pitching. He’s a little expensive, but he’s pitching as well as anyone in the big leagues, I like Flaherty here. Nilly’s Carnage Report isn’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 <-
Corey Seager (SS) – $4,000
Seager will likely hit in the top half of the order for this Los Angeles Dodgers team that draws a matchup with Chi Chi Gonzalez and the Rockies. The Dodgers are one of my favorite stacks on the slate and have an implied run total of 6 runs here. Chi Chi Gonzalez is giving up a hard contact percentage of 44.1% this season and Seager is hitting right-handed pitching very well. Against righties on the season, Seager has a .502 slugging percentage, a .357 wOBA, and a .230 ISO compared to his .326 slugging percentage, .288 wOBA, and .092 ISO against lefties. He clearly is hitting far better against right-handed pitching and will see a pretty bad one here. Not only this, but he may be starting to get hot, as he went for 25 Draftkings points last night in a similar matchup.
Kyle Seager (3B) – $4,100
How about the other Seager brother?! Kyle Seager takes up our 3B position which is less than ideal, but I really love this spot for him. Many of you know that I stack against Jon Lester any chance that I get and I won’t be stopping here. Jon Lester will take the mound for the Cubs and is giving up a 38.3% hard contact rate on the season. The big thing that I’m looking at here is the weather, it looks as if the wind will be blowing out to right-field at over 10mph. With Seager being a lefty, if he can get under one or two here, this wind does some crazy things and will take routine fly-balls right over the fence for home runs. Be sure to check the Weather Station before lock to confirm this, but even without the wind, he is a dynamite play. He actually has reverse splits on the season, meaning he is hitting better against left-handed pitchers than righties. Against lefties this season, Seager has a .468 slugging percentage and a .327 wOBA to go with a .250 ISO. I like his odds at a home run here and will be hitting in the middle of the order against Jon Lester in a likely wind game in Chicago.
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.
Eric Hosmer (1B) – $4,400
I normally go a little cheaper than this for my fourth and final member of the core, but we went pretty cheap with our first two batters. So, the final member of the core is Mr. Hosmer. The Padres will travel to Arizona and get a matchup with Merrill Kelly which is a slight ballpark upgrade for the Padres. The Padres currently don’t have an implied run total here, but I’m expecting it to be fairly high. Merrill Kelly has been a gas can as of late, he has a 6.66 era over his last ten games and has a 42.9% hard contact rate on the season. Not only do I not believe in Merrill Kelly and want to stack against him as much as I can before the season is over, but Hosmer is on the right side of the splits. Against righties this season Hosmer has a .529 slugging percentage, a .381 wOBA, and a .213 ISO. Hosmer has been very good as of late averaging 8.9 Draftkings points per game over his last ten. I love Hosmer to round out the core!
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?!
