Greetings MLB Gamers! Let’s enjoy a SUNDAY FUNDAY with a healthy 10 game “main” slate and a very solid four game “afternoon” game set on our day of rest! Keep an eye on the weather for the OAK at DET game whish should be decently warm with an upper-70s temperature at first pitch with 60% humidity and the TOR at CHW game which also has some potential weather concerns.
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MAIN SLATE
St Louis Cardinals at LHP Drew Smyly – 6.5 implied runs
We have a gift on Sunday with both DraftKings and FanDuel including the 3pm game between the Cardinals at the Rangers on the main slate and for those of you who have played MLB DFS for the last two seasons should very well know that rarely are the Texas and Colorado Sunday home games included on the “main” slate for either site – shout out to both FantasyDraft and Yahoo! who do typically roll through the 3 o’clock hour.
After Saturday’s rain, we get a glorious hitting environment with a first pitch temperature in the mid-80s and no precipitation issues. The current projected total runs for this tilt is nearly an even dozen which is eye-popping for a non-Coors Field Extravaganza.
While I do typically focus on the “not so obvious” game totals in this space as I try to provide alternative options which are breaking away from The Masses, we want to load up with hitters in this game.
LHP Drew Smyly generally does not strike out the opposition with a 10 K% over his last 300 batters faced and there is no real reason to candy coat anything here and the key will be to look to the righty-heavy Redbirds lineup which will also feature a designated hitter as this game is in an American League park.
Our preferred order of preference considering price, popularity and potential production along with position eligibility will be to target Paul Goldschmidt, Marcel Ozuna, Paul DeJong, Jose Martinez, Harrison Bader and if he is in the lineup which he usually is catcher Yadier Molina. Matt Carpenter and Kolten Wong make for nice differentiation plays… though pretty much any St Louis batsmen will be in play and popular.
Texas Rangers vs RHP Jack Flaherty is a solid pitcher, but he too will be facing a designated hitter instead of a pitcher on Sunday and while he generally does not allow a lot of power, we can look to the Rangers on Sunday who are mostly carrying a reasonable price tag outside of Joey Gallo for obvious reasons as he is sitting in third with 13 home runs on the American League leaderboard. Our focus should be on the batters swinging the stick from the left-side of the plate and Texas can run out a mostly lefty lineup.
AFTERNOON SLATE
Arizona Diamondbacks vs LHP Drew Pomeranz – 4.6 implied runs
Keep in mind that the roof is scheduled to be closed in Arizona and that also accentuates the effect of the humidor which was employed for the first time last season similar to what we have seen for the better part of a decade in Colorado.
LHP Drew Pomeranz is not anywhere close to even today’s version of Madison Bumgarner so we will want to target against his 5.18 xFIP over his last 500 batters faced and look to the righties from the Diamondbacks.
While Paul Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollack are no longer with the franchise, we can consider the bottom of third of the order which should have Carson Kelly, Nick Ahmed and Wilmer Flores for some salary relief depending on your site of choice along with stalwarts such as Ketel Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Christian Walker who are all above average in righty/lefty situations.
As always, you can reach out to me in Awesemo.com Premium Slack or on Twitter @EMacDFS if you have any questions.
Good Luck Gamers! ~ EMac
