RADIO
I was on a roll this past week. I’ve been cashing in tournaments and winning my head-to-heads (you can find me @BellRoto on Twitter and FanDuel and challenge me to a game). Then, Tuesday night hit. I missed with the majority of my hitters, and of course it was on a night when I felt great about my current hot streak. I tried to redeem myself during the day on Wednesday, but I struggled there too, making lineups with Chris Sale, Cole Hamels, and terrible hitters. Ugh.
Luckily, there’s always tomorrow. Unfortunately, the slate on Thursday, June 25th is an interesting one. I’m not sure quite how to handle this set of games, as most people are unable to participate in the early games. However, there are only three late games. So, if you are playing Thursday, it’s probably going to be early or all day. No one likes a three-game slate (and by that I mean I don’t).
I’ll break things down in narrative form, assuming that you’re playing an all-day match. It’s different, and I feel like I’m not doing this day of baseball justice, but I think it’s the best route to take for Thursday. As much as I despise playing in an all-day format because of the inability to view starting lineups, I don’t see another efficient way of doing this. So, take this advice as you will, and use it to the best of your ability. Good luck!
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Offenses to Target for FanDuel DFS
As far as stacking goes, we always have to start at Coors Field. We have the distinct pleasure of watching the De La Rosa brothers have a “who can do it worse” contest (they’re not really brothers). Rubby has the harder matchup, as he is dealing with a more potent Rockies offense. Jorge’s job will be tough as well, however. Hitters like Paul Goldschmidt, A.J. Pollock, and David Peralta are very enticing. If you are able to check the starting lineup before this game starts, that’s going to be the key in finding the real Coors value.
Away from Coors we have a couple of potential duds to pick on. I could definitely see reason in stacking some Athletics against right hander Colby Lewis. I also would love to stack the Mets against Taylor Jungmann at Miller Park, but I don’t know who else I would take on that team besides Lucas Duda. Maybe Curtis Granderson will continue his hot hitting. Lastly we have Anthony DeSclafani against the Pirates. Andrew McCutchen is really heating up, and you could certainly throw some cheap bats like Gregory Polanco, Pedro Alvarez, and Francisco Cervelli in there around him to make a decent stack.
Whichever slate you’re dealing with, try to find the worst pitcher available and work backwards from there. Plenty of runs should be scored tomorrow even if the Rockies game is not included within your limitations. One tactic I recently have been keeping in mind is not to completely avoid hitters in the bottom half of a lineup. Sure, they're not idea plays. But, if there is value there, a cheap seven or eight hitter could be the difference in a tournament, as he will likely be very under owned.
DFS Starting Pitchers to Target for FanDuel
Jacob DeGrom is my go-to guy for Thursday’s slate. He has an afternoon game, but he gets the Brewers. When good pitchers play the Brewers, you have to at least give it a look. Dallas Keuchel against the Yankees and Sonny Gray against the Rangers are also decent cash game choices for Thursday. Keuchel is the only night-game pitcher of the three.
As far as tournaments go, A.J. Burnett has proven to be a solid pitcher time and time again. The Reds are not an intimidating offense by any means this year (despite the fact that they've scored 11 runs in the past two games against the Pirates), so he could end up with another solid start under his belt come Friday morning. James Shields against the injury-riddled Giants could be another gem waiting to happen. If you want to go even deeper and cheaper than that, Doug Fister against the Freddie Freeman-less Braves and Eduardo Rodriguez against the O’s should be fairly under owned due to recent struggles. Both pitchers have good enough stuff and a decent opportunity to put up a serviceable game and get a win.
DFS Hitters That Standout on FanDuel
Once again, I will reiterate that the announcing of the starting lineups at Coors Field will lend a huge helping hand in finding value bats on Thursday. Any cheap players that find themselves in the top half of the lineup have an opportunity for a huge game. Players off of the top of my head that could be involved in such a scenario include Nick Ahmed, Jake Lamb, David Peralta, Welington Castillo, Ben Paulsen, Wilin Rosario, Rafael Ynoa, and Brandon Barnes. If you’re able to wait until lineups are posted, that will be a huge advantage in selecting Coors hitters.
For the rest of the field, there are a handful of players that could provide great value due to lefty/right splits, park factors, and recent hot streaks. Those players include:
Jason Heyward (OF, STL), Gregory Polanco (OF, PIT), Lucas Duda (1B, NYM), Ben Zobrist (SS, OAK), Neil Walker (2B, PIT).
That’s about all I have for you today. Like I said, it’s almost impossible for me to throw together sound advice for your specific slate of games when there is such a spread out schedule. However, I hope you were able to extract something helpful from this article. I can guarantee that Friday’s article will be much more in depth. For those of you choosing to play MLB DFS on Thursday, I wish you the best of luck!
Good luck with your FanDuel and DFS lineups RotoBallers!
