PITCHING – Top Tier
Jacob deGrom … The Phillies have been kind to deGrom mostly and deGrom has been very good at home. His price is affordable and he should give us one of his better Jake performances today. There’s no hot take here from me on him today. He’s solid, but with 80 degree temps and some cooler games elsewhere, I definitely think you can fade him and laugh when Hoskins takes him deep…. That said, he will still produce fine.
Danny Salazar … Sally is way underpriced for his match-up dueo to a DL stint and thus we will get to consider Salazar today. Cooler temps but with wind blowing out today, Moncada is back but the Steak remains out and Rob fricken Brantly is batting 5th. He won’t go deep, so we don’t want to bother with the QS risk on FD, but I love him on DK.
Kyle Hendricks … He is going to do what he does. Pitch 6 innings, give up a run or two, strikeout 5 or 6 guys. Blaaaaaaaaaah.
My Guys
Zach Davies … Putting him in my top tier because I wanna roll with him that much! His numbers on the road have been dominant — yes, I said DOMINANT. 84 IP, 2.13 ERA, .228 BA 51 K. For DK where the strikeouts matter a little less than efficiency I will gladly take him as my top SP2 today.
Eduardo Rodriguez … Holy shit, it’s a miracle. I am on the E-Rod train tonight. I have watched far too many Blue Jays at bats over the last 4-5 days and they have innings where they appear to have completely mailed it in. Jose Bautista is and remains a punk and Donaldson was just giving away AB’s last night after having a nice weekend in Baltimore. E-Rod has pitched fantastic versus Toronto and will get overlooked because of some wind conditions today.
Jason Vargas … The Tigers blow
Longshot
Ben Lively … In the most shocking outcome of the night, the Phillies win a low scoring game 3-2.
FAVORITE STACKS
Houston … I love Houston tonight in SafeCo where they have raked. I feel like the Astros got a wake-up call with the hurricane and then the JV trade and they’re energized again and will go back to raking on the road like they have all season long. Springer-Altuve-JD Davis
Anaheim … Pujols is 12 for 28 against Gravemen…. Trout is 10 for 26…. Simba is 4 for 13…. Valbuena is 6 for 16 with a cycle… Cliff Pennington. CLIFF FRICKEN PENNINGTON is 3 for 8 with a homer. OK, so that’s small sample size. Anyways. They own Graveman and it’s 72 degrees with 71% humidity and wind blowing out to right field. All aboard the Angels again.
Texas … Atlanta was starting Julio Teheran, now they are starting someone named Gonorrhea today. Newsflash, I, nor anyone else who isnt a diehard Braves fan, knows much about this kid. He’s got great K/9 stats in the minors but he also hasn’t thrown many innings. He wont last long and the Braves bullpen will then come into play.
SNEAKY STACKS
Seattle … I never like pitchers making their first start with a new team.
Tampa … Guys (and gals). The Twins are not good. They should not be in this wild card race and now is the time for them to exit stage left. It was a nice story with Buxton’s run and the Polanco/Escobar hot streak, but all things will die and tonight we will see the final Bartolo Colon start. Tonight it ends.
TOP POSITIONAL PLAYS
CATCHER
- Stephen Vogt
- Yadier Molina
- Yasmani Grandal
- Wilson Ramos – Would you like a Water Buffalo? I would too….
FIRST BASE
- Albert Pujols – See BvP. Playing for his last playoff shot….
- Eric Hosmer
- Joey Gallo – He’ll get a RHP from the pen
- Freddie Freeman – Miguel Gonzalez 1st start with Texas.
- Hanley – Gut feel, hasn’t hit anything right handed all year.
SECOND BASE
- Jose Altuve
- Cliff Fricken Pennington
- Eduardo Nunez
- Neil Walker
THIRD BASE
- Kyle Seager
- Travis Shaw
- Nick Castellanos
- JD Davis / Alex Bregman – Pending lineup …..
SHORTSTOP
- Trea Turner – Facing a righty and the only National I like tonight.
- Elvis Andrus
- Carlos Correa
- Corey Seager – Dodgers need to punk Greinke
OUTFIELD – Tier 1
- Trout, Mike
- George Springer
- Shin-Soo Choo (Weather issues)
- Ryan Braun
- JD Martinez – Such a donkey tout write up putting him in the top Tier. But here we are….
Tier 2
- Brett Gardner
- Ender Inciarte
- Marcell Ozuna
- Nick Williams
- Corey Dickerson
- Rhys Hoskins
- Kole Calhoun
- Mookie Betts – Has murdered Toronto pitching this year but is 3 for 20 against Estrada. Then again, Elvis Andrus had 1 hit in 60 pitches versus RA Dickey before last night.
Value
- Mitch Haniger
- Melky Cabrera – 18 for 42 off Anibal. If you stack KC, it starts with him and Hosmer.
- Matt Holliday (Weather issues)
- Matt Kemp
DONGERS CLUB
- Joey Gallo – 1B – Chairman
- Robinson Chirinos – C
- Corey Dickerson – OF
- Mike Trout – OF
- Shin-Soo Choo – OF
- Travis Shaw – 3B
- Carlos Correa – SS
- Jose Altuve – 2B
- BONUS ………….. Eric Hosmer – 1B
