The MLB season is on and it’s a great time to get into it DraftKings action. Monday features a main list of 11 games, starting at 7:05 pm, to start the week off right.
Set your own DraftKings formations here: Launch of the MLB $ 350K relay [$100K to 1st]
PITCHER
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Zac Gallen, ARI vs OAK, $ 8,800 – I can barely understand the tone of this chalkboard. With 11 games, how could better beginner pitchers not be available? The options are a complete dumpster fire. This is what brings me to Gallen, who is pitching quite well with strikeouts to the upside early in the season. In four starts, he has an ERA of 2.74 and hits 10.80 batters for nine innings. Unfortunately, his ERA is facing a regression because he is really lucky to have a 93.8% LOB. Hopefully the regression won’t hit today.
Value
Ross Stripling, LAD v SEA, $ 7,900 – Arguably, Stripling is the absolute best pitcher on today’s list. Combine this with a home match against a weak bout in the Mariners and reckon you see massive ownership. Stripling is averaging DKFP 16.7 this season and the only real concern I have with him is his pitch count. He only shot 70 shots in his last outing and has not yet reached the top 100 shots earlier this season. Even so, Stripling should have a safe floor and that’s more important than the ceiling on a whiteboard with such limited throwing choices.
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CATCHER
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Mitch Garver, MIN v KC, $ 5,000 – The start of the season for Garver was extremely disappointing. After hitting the ball all last season, he still hasn’t found that pot rhythm in 2020. Despite that, I can’t look beyond what he did against the left handed pitch last year. After scoring a 198 wRC + against lefties in 2019, a match against Kris Bubic ($ 6,400) could kick off his season.
Value
Travis d’Arnaud, ATL v WAS, $ 2,500 – I don’t understand this price. Not only is Arnaud extremely cheap in a favorable matchup against Anibal Sanchez ($ 7,200), he is doing very well this season. He averages 10 DKFPs per game with success in eight of his last nine games. It’s been two weeks since d’Arnaud was priced under $ 4,000, so seeing its price up to $ 2,500 seems like a mistake.
FIRST BASE
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Freddie Freeman, ATL vs WAS, $ 5,300 – Above I mentioned that d’Arnaud has a favorable matchup against Sanchez. The veteran pitcher opened the season with a 9.69 ERA, a spike in volleyballs and a drop in speed. At 36, he begins to feel that Sanchez could be washed. If that’s the case, we want to stack the Braves and those lineups should include Freeman as the best hitter on the team. He reached the base in seven consecutive starts.
Value
Edwin Encarnacion, CWS vs DET, $ 3,900 – Yesterday, the White Sox experienced a historic moment by hitting back-to-back-back-back homers. I think I wrote the right number of “backs” there, but who knows. Few humans can count that high. Encarnacion was the man who broke the series. This continued the start of a really tough season for the veteran slugger. He scored at least 32 homers in eight straight seasons, so I think a rebound is imminent. There is too much experience of Encarnacion as an elite power hitter to keep fighting. This should be Edwin’s minimum price.
SECOND BASE
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Max Muncy, LAD v SEA, $ 4,800 – After a brief slump, Muncy has averaged DKFP 14.5 in the last two games. This includes a homer from yesterday, so now seems like a good time to jump on Muncy. Mariners starter Justin Dunn ($ 5,000) has a 4.85 ERA although his numbers below indicate he’s faring much worse. He has a 7.21 FIP and is lucky with a .205 BABIP.
Value
Jonathan Schoop, DET at CHW, $ 4,300 – I’ve been targeting Schoop for quite a while this season. Not many cheap second bases have the kind of power he does and so far this season he’s hit five homers. Schoop is better against lefties than rights and gets a nice park improvement playing Chicago today.
THIRD BASE
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Justin Turner, LAD v SEA, $ 4,800 – Like Muncy, Turner is one of many Dodgers bats that we can target against Dunn. The Dodgers are one of the top stacks on the list and correlate well with Stripling. It goes without saying that a great performance from the LA bats means that Stripling receives the win bonus. Turner arrives today with a 10-game winning streak, making it one of the safest plays on the list.
Value
Asdrubal Cabrera, ERA ATL, $ 4,200 – Despite always being low-owned, Cabrera continues to find its way into the best GPP lineups. Last week he played with 20 and 48 DKFPs. Overall, Cabrera averages 8.6 DKFP and it seems that whenever the Nationals offense has a big game, Cabrera plays a pivotal role in the stack.
shortstop
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Fernando Tatis Jr., SD at TEX, $ 5,400 – Rapidly climbing the ranks of the best baseball players, Tatis is most of the time the shortstop I try to pay for unless there’s a game at Coors Field. The young star hit nine homers and is among the favorites to win the National League MVP. All this leads to an average of 12.6 DKFP.
Value
Jonathan Villar, MIA vs NYM, $ 4,200 – Some players are much better at fantasy than in real life and Villar fits that bill. Due to his stolen base advantage, he often has a huge DFS upside despite his blue-collar status in the MLB. In his last four games, Villar has stolen four bags and averaged DKFP 12.25 on this stretch.
OUTFIELD
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Mike Trout, LAA vs SF, $ 6,100 – Rename the stallion outfield section of this article the Mike Trout section in the future. As usual, the American League MVP favorite is ripping cover off the ball. Despite missing matches due to the birth of his son, Trout has already made nine homers for the season, including four in his last six games. Last week he played with 40, 18 and 25 DKFP.
Value
Mike Tauchman, NYY v BOS, $ 3,900 – Tauchman has such a strange career path. Having failed to hit the ball at all early in his Colorado career, he seems to have emerged as a really solid player for the Yankees. It looked like it was a fluke to have put on a 128 wRC + last year, but this season it’s at 147 wRC +. As long as it does not regress and its price remains low, I will continue to let it know.
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I am a promoter of DraftKings and I am also an avid fan and user (my username is gehrenberg) and can sometimes play on my personal account in the games I offer recommendations on. While I’ve expressed my personal opinion on the games and strategies above, they don’t necessarily reflect DraftKings’ point of view and I can also field different players and strategies than the ones I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
