MLB DFS: Saturday, August 17th gives us a mishmash of afternoon games, depending on your site of choice, but a very interesting nine game “main” slate with Texas and Coors Field both in play on Yahoo, DraftKings, FanDuel and FantasyDraft. Before you lock in your fantasy baseball lineups and MLB picks, make sure to check out Awesemo’s MLB rankings and projections. Not a member? Sign up HERE and use Promo Code: MLBSTACKS for 50% off any one month subscription.
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Greetings Gamers! Welcome to the Saturday slate, with a patchwork afternoon game set depending on your site of choice, but one heck of a tournament slate for the main game set.
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Afternoon Slate
Toronto Blue Jays vs RHP Reggie McClain – 5.0 implied runs
It looks like the Mariners will be looking to a bullpen day lead by recent callup RHP Reggie McClain who should be good for about two innings and change or however far 40 pitches gets him. In an odd twist, he has pitched at all three levels of the Seattle farm system this season and even though he worked as a starter his first couple seasons in Single-A ball, he has been slotted as a reliever this season. This is the first time the slot came up for the recently traded RHP Mike Leake and LHP Yusei Kikuchi is scheduled for Sunday, so this does look like a true bullpen game against one of the WORST bullpens in the league.
Of course we want to look to the legacy crew first with Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr./strong> and Cavan Biggio, but we can also work in Randal Grichuk, Teoscar Hernandez, Rowdy Tellez and whomever is behind the dish for some differentiation.
Late Afternoon Slate
Tampa Bay Devil Rays vs RHP Jordan Zimmermann – 5.5 implied runs
Though the official transaction has not yet taken place as of this writing, the Tigers have indicated that they will be activating RHP Jordan Zimmermann for this start after he spent a dozen days in the injured list with neck spasms. This has been a lost season for the former National who has compiled a 7.13 ERA, 1.60 WHIP and just 52 strikeouts in 72 innings… on a positive note, he has allowed just 11 home runs. On an unfortunate note for Detroit fans, he still has one season left on his five year – $110 MILLION contract.
Over the last three seasons, Zimmermann has allowed a .210+ ISO to hitters from both sides of the plate, so that really opens things up with the Rays and we can target Travis d’Arnaud (I particularly like him on DraftKings where he is C/1B eligible and may be leading off), Austin Meadows (who is arguably the best hitter for Tampa Bay), recent acquisition Jesus Aguilar (who has finally been hitting with the change in teams and we can hope that the power comes along soon) and Tommy Pham (who has been dealing with a hairline fracture in his right hand, but did hit a home run on Wednesday).
Main Slate
New York Mets at RHP Jake Junis – 5.1 implied runs
While the fireworks against the Royals pitching staff did not really get going on Friday night, we can go back to the well in Saturday’s matchup against RHP Jakob Junis who has allowed the tenth most home runs in the league this season with 25 and over the last two years he checks in with 57 which is tied for the second most in that timeframe with 25 to lefties and 32 to righties.
The advanced metrics are not so kind either with Junis allowing a .347 wOBA / .182 ISO to lefties and a .327 wOBA / .202 ISO to righties… just keep in mind that he does a pretty good job of not allowing free passes with a 6.6 BB% and just above league average 21.6 K%. This is more about us concentrating our focus on Peter Alonso, Michael Conforto, J.D. Davis and Todd Frazier as the likely candidates to reward us with home runs. Wilson Ramos is also in play on sites that require us to roster a catcher.
Late Slate
Minnesota Twins at RHP Ariel Jurado – 6.2 implied runs
By all means look to the Coors Field Extravaganza on the main or late slate as it is shaping up once again to be a bountiful situation. For those of you interested in a pivot, then the Minnesota Twins are a fine alternative in their matchup with RHP Ariel Jurado as we should see the mercury falling just shy of triple digits at first pitch.
Jurado is back to his less-than-effective ways after allowing five home runs over his last three appearances spanning 14.2 innings with 15 earned runs, five walks 21 hits and just 11 strikeouts. This season Jurado has allowed five home runs to lefties and ten to righties and based on the number of at bats, it is the same-handed hitters that have been proportionally more productive with the longball. No worries as over his last 302 righty/lefty matchups, the Texas hurler has allowed a .364 wOBA, .188 ISO, 8.3 BB% with a lowly 12.9 K% and against righties it is not much better with 363 TBF, .346 wOBA, .187 ISO, 6.3 BB% and a 15.2 K%.
Look to the big boppers first, even in the absence of Nelson Cruz, with Miguel Sano, C.J. Cron, Max Kepler and if he is in the lineup Mitch Garver. We can spread things out with Jonathan Schoop, Jorge Polanco and Marwin Gonzelez for full stacks and or differentiation plays.
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Good Luck Gamers! ~ EMac
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