Sunday, Aug. 23, get your MAIN slate stacking advice courtesy of Awesemo.com right here. Bonus afternoon slate advice follows for the 4:10 p.m. EST action on DraftKings, FanDuel, Yahoo and SuperDraft. Before you lock in your MLB DFS lineups and MLB DFS picks, make sure to check out check out Awesemo’s DFS baseball MLB rankings and projections.
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For Sunday’s MLB Live Before Lock Show click here
Greetings, Gamers! We have a solid seven-game slate beginning at 1:05 p.m. EST. Then, at 4:00 p.m. EST, we get another five, so be sure to tune in to Live Before Lock.
Similar to last year, I will be providing a review of one stack for each of the day’s slates. Some of these short-slate options will be good for the full-game set, others will be more contrarian and better suited for the mini-game sets.
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Main-Slate Picks
Tampa Bay Rays vs. RHP Trent Thornton – 5.0 implied runs
From the looks of things as I write this article on Saturday night, it looks like Thornton will be the leading man on Sunday. He was chased early from his last appearance managing to get just two outs. Philadelphia roughed him up, plating all six of the runners that got on base with only one strikeout.
Across his 31 starts and three relief appearances in The Show, Thornton has suffered a 5.09 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP. Most gamers tend to forget just how pesky the Rays really are against righties. Austin Meadows, Brandon Lowe and Ji-Man Choi are the trio to target on Sunday with their collective .240+ ISO over the last two-plus seasons.
Hunter Renfroe has light tower power against lefties and righties, plus we can look to rookie Yoshi Tsutsugo, particularly on DraftKings where he is just $2,600. Double bonus there as he is eligible at both the hot corner and in the outfield.
Mid-Afternoon-Slate Picks
Minnesota Twins at LHP Kris Bubic – 5.4 implied runs
Welcome to another episode of Small Sample Size Theater. Today’s installment looks at how the Minnesota Twins have managed just six home runs in 294 plate appearances against southpaws this season. They are also last with a .100 ISO. Fortunately we know exactly where their production is going to come from.
Bubic has allowed a 5.12 ERA with four home runs in just 19.1 innings pitched this season. Let’s give him credit for the strikeout per inning, but do you want to side with a talented 23-year old southpaw or a team that set the MLB home run record last season?
Nelson Cruz got the night off on Saturday, but do not worry about the 40-year old slugger. This season he has a .333/.418/.656 triple slash line with nine home runs. In his last 337 righty/lefty matchups, he has posted a .384 ISO. Mitch Garver and Miguel Sano both have topped the .240+ ISO mark against southpaws since the beginning of the 2018 season.
Round things out with Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Luis Arraez and the bat boy and thank me later!
Note: Apologies, it was pointed out to me that I missed Garver and Buxton going on the IL. Add in Marwin Gonzales as he should keep a prime lineup spot and he is reasonably priced across the board.
Related MLB DFS Content
- Spotlight Hitters
- MLB Cram Session Part 1
- MLB Cram Session Part 2
- MLB Cram Session Part 3
- Top MLB DFS Stacks, Quick Hits
- The MLB Strategy Show Live Before Lock
Late-Slate Picks
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. RHP Antonio Senzatela – 5.8 implied runs
For our late slate target, we have Senzatela who has the second worst strikeout and walk rates of the 10 starting pitchers. While he does a good job of keeping the ball on the ground with a 50% ground ball rate over his last 246.0 innings pitched, this is a juggernaut offense going against him.
Behind Senzatela is a pretty shaky bullpen, so we should feel no shame in joining the masses in rostering the boys in blue. Look to the lefties first with Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy, Joc Pederson and Mookie Betts being the desired options. If you want to branch out from there, then Justin Turner and Chris Taylor tend to be above average in righty/righty situations.
As always, you can reach out to me in Awesemo.com Premium Slack or on Twitter @EMacDFS if you have any questions or want to discuss anything MLB DFS related.
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Buxton and Garver are on the IL, how do you list them???
My sincere apologies, those transactions escaped my notice – the article has been updated to reflect the oversight.
Many thanks! EMac
All good my ole pal E-mac!