The following Spotlight Pitchers, Hitters & Stacks were selected by Awesemo.com writer Jake Hari. For more analysis on the slate, check out Awesemo’s Rankings and Ownership Projections.
Pitchers
Jacob deGrom ($13,500 DK/$11,800 FD)
After getting his start pushed back 2 times in a row, the weather looks like it will cooperate enough to get this game in. deGrom will get a Marlins team that he is more than familiar with, as he’s faced off against them 3 times in 2018, going 19 innings and striking out 20 in those starts. We should see more of the same here for deGrom, who looks to be in prime form despite his team seemingly unable to provide him with any sort of run support. The win points are important, but with complete-game, 10+K upside, deGrom is a fine spend up in GPPs, especially if we get word that Chris Sale will have an abbreviated outing.
Nick Pivetta ($7,400 DK/$7,500 FD)
**Pivetta will not be on the main slate on DraftKings or FanDuel**
Anytime Pivetta is both at home and at a reasonable price tag on DraftKings, I’m willing to look his way in GPPs. He’s shown the ability to break slates when he’s priced this low as he can rack up the strikeouts in bunches. The results have been so-so over his last few starts, but he has still getting swinging-strikes and chases at decent rates against formidable opponents like the Cubs and Red Sox. His home/road splits are very pronounced and he’ll get a Nats team that has struck out near league-average (21.2%) against righties on the road in 2018. This certainly isn’t a perfect matchup, but on a slate with very little to like outside of the top dogs, I’ll gladly take the talent with Pivetta in GPPs at a discount.
Miles Mikolas ($7,600 DK/$7,100 FD)
Mikolas is at an oddly-low price tag despite being a sizable (-140) home favorite with decent pitching weather, so he’ll be a target of mine in all formats. While he may not have the highest upside of the guys in this range, he’s shown the ability to go over 100 pitches and get deep into games. The Pirates’ projected lineup has them penciled in for 5 righties including the pitching slot, so a guy like Mikolas who has had a tough time striking out lefties should benefit from this. He’s done a great job limiting power this entire season as well (32.6% hard-hit rate, 14 HRs allowed), so I’ll take the safety for a mid-tier price if it allows me to load up on bats, which Mikolas does.
Stacks
Red Sox (vs. Ryan Borucki)
Borucki has very little to offer in terms of swings and misses, so going up against a team that’s filled with solid righties is going to be a very tough test for him. He has the highest xFIP against righties of any player on the slate with a 1.53 WHIP and .334 wOBA against them on the season and going into hitter-friendly Fenway is a great opportunity to have a blowup. Betts, Martinez, Pearce, Bogaerts, and Kinsler all stick out as fantastic plays tonight in all formats.
Yankees (vs. Kohl Stewart)
The Yankees get the pleasure of teeing off on Twins pitcher Kohl Stewart, who has just a 6.4% Swinging-Strike rate and a 5.09 xFIP on the year. Similar to Borucki’s matchup against the Red Sox, Stewart will allow a lot of balls to be put in play against some very powerful Yankee bats. Aaron Hicks grades out as one of the best plays on the slate for me, but Sanchez, Stanton, and Gregorious make for great additions to a Yankee stack, and it’s not even that expensive on DraftKings. There will be parts of this stack that are chalky, but on a 13-game slate, we can get away with low double-digit ownership in what is a great spot.
Athletics (vs. Mike Fiers)
I’m eating all the chalk hitting tonight it appears, but the Athletics are my favorite stack right now on DraftKings. They won’t go overlooked, but I think they may go under-owned because of the two stacks listed above and because they are priced up compared to the Yankees especially. Alex Cobb has made improvements, but he’s still not missing bats, and the Athletics aren’t allowing pitchers to miss bats either. The A’s rank #1 in wRC+ against righties on the road this year, posting a .211 ISO and .327 OBP in that same split. I love Olson, Davis, Lowrie, and Chapman, but you can easily find a way to make a full stack with Laureano hitting leadoff and solid bats like Piscotty and Semien near the bottom of the order.
One-offs
Ryan Braun (vs. Jose Quintana)
Matt Carpenter (vs. Joe Musgrove)
Daniel Palka (vs. Brad Keller)
