Greetings Gamers! Get ready for our first truly heavy Saturday MAIN slate featuring TWENTY teams in action with an EIGHT team appetizer beginning at the EVERYONE SLEEPS IN hour of 4pm ET.
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EARLY SLATE
Kansas City Royals at RHP Tyson Ross – 4.1 implied runs
Yes, the Kansas City Royals are not going to be confused as a power laden team, though they do boast the sixth best power numbers with a surprising .196 ISO against right handed pitchers. RHP Tyson Ross has allowed only a 1.1 HR/9 over his last 1,000 batters faced – but he can be had with steals which do not show up in most metrics. While he has been better over his last 200ish innings with just 20 stolen bases allowed, it has been a while since Ross has faced a team with as many accomplished runners as he will on Saturday with the Royals who lead the league with 33 steals on the season with Seattle and Texas tied for second with 25 each.
Looking at the Kansas City roster, Adalberto Mondesi has 10 steals, Billy Hamilton 8, Whit Merrifield 6 and Chris Owings/Terrance Gore checking in at four apiece. For perspective they rank #1, #4, #12 and #21 respectively through the first five weeks of the season.
The first three listed in the last paragraph also are solid options to at least put the ball in play with the addition of Hunter Dozier and Jorge Soler for some pop and we could get some leverage against the field on this four game slate.
The “sneaky” hope for us is that Ryan O’Hearn will be in the lineup as his lefty lumber carries some serious thunder against right-handed pitchers, though he is hitless in his last three starts and has actually not been in the starting lineup since May 1st, though he did have a pinch hit double against RHP Shane Greene on Friday night – fingers crossed he is on the lineup card for Saturday’s tilt.
MAIN SLATE
Cincinnati Reds vs RHP Dereck Rodriguez – 4.8 implied runs
We simply have to take notice of this total for the Reds who seemingly have been in purgatory with sub-4.0 implied run totals for the better part of a week.
RHP Dereck Rodriguez has been fortunate to have AT&T Oracle Park as his home field which is definitely to his advantage.
Though he has allowed just nine home runs in his 118.1 career innings, this is not a place where we want to consider Rodriquez. On the other hand, the Reds lineup does not pack a lot of wallop, but we know that Joey Votto, Yasiel Puig and Derek Dietrich at least have gap power and Jesse Winker has been coming on strong this season with some power that was absent last year.
The Cincinnati Batsmen are not going to break the bank and they are in play as a complimentary stack or mini-stack on Saturday.
LATE SLATE
Colorado Rockies vs RHP Luke Weaver – 5.6 implied runs
Hey, semantics here as this game is also on the MAIN slate and we always want to pay attention when the Coors Field Extravaganza is pushing 11 implied runs!
RHP Luke Weaver isn’t in Kansas Missouri anymore and his .361 wOBA and .171 ISO against lefties in his career with an 18.7 K% and woeful 9.7 BB% are not going to do him any favors at altitude, so look to Charlie Blackmon and David Dahl as key cogs in a Colorado stack and any righties with power can round things out for us on Saturday.
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
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