It’s the second week of Period 4 with another three Golden Tickets on the line. Here are some of the players the Touts are counting on to reach the halfway point of the period in good shape.
Todd Zola (Mastersball, @toddzola)
Pitcher: Matt Strahm – In full fledged WTF mode. Strahm and Reynaldo Lopez. Stacking Coors, nothing to lose at this point.
Hitter: Yasmani Grandal – Not a fan of the Coors catchers, but am a fan of a guy batting leadoff in another great hitter’s venue.
Phil Hertz (BaseballHQ, @prhz50)
Pitcher: Joe Musgrove – Kind of a gamble, but the price is really right.
Hitter: Trea Turner – I’m not buying the Gallen hype and Turner could run wild.
Howard Bender (Fantasy Alarm, @RotobuzzGuy)
Pitcher: Reynaldo Lopez – With a Coors game on the slate, I like to really pay down for my second starter. Lopez may get beaten up by the strong lineups, but he’s thrived against the weaker ones this year and the Tigers definitely rate. He’s faced them twice this season and only allowed two earned runs over 12 innings with a whopping 22 strikeouts. I’ll give him a shot at such a low price.
Hitter: Max Kepler – I dig a lot of the lefty bats for the Twins, but Kepler definitely stands out against Daniel Mengden. He got a precautionary day off yesterday with a minor ankle sprain, but is expected to be fine and return to the top of the order Tuesday. His numbers against right-handed pitching look delicious — .927 OPS with a .381 wOBA — and had a pair of two-hit games right before the day off.
Gene McCaffrey (The Athletic, @WiseGuyGene)
Pitcher: Patrick Corbin – According to my data, the Marlins have MLB’s worst OPS vs. groundball pitchers at .601
Hitter: Mike Zunino – Pairing Corbin with Charlie Morton, I need to save salary. Zunino has a decent chance to pop a homer @ $2600.
Derek Carty (RotoGrinders, @DerekCarty)
Pitcher: Reynaldo Lopez – Lopez isn’t a good pitcher, but he’s in a great spot tonight with one of the cheapest salaries on the board. He faces a terrible DET offense that is the best in baseball for pumping up a pitcher’s strikeouts, and Lopez will have an extreme pitchers’ umpire to further help in that regard. There’s blow-up risk, but he’s easily the top point-per-dollar SP on the slate
Hitter: Austin Meadows – Coors will draw the most attention, and for good reason, but the Rays face Asher Wojciechowski and project for the third most runs on the slate. THE BAT projects Woj as the worst SP in a current major league rotation. He projects for a 6.00 context-neutral ERA, just slightly worse than Josh Rogers, who got obliterated by San Diego in a spot start recently. It’s a tough hitting environment, but a good offense against the worst pitcher with solid prices should do more than enough.
Ray Murphy (BaseballHQ, @RayHQ)
Pitcher: Charlie Morton – Far and away HQ’s top-rated pitcher today, for just a shade over 10k. Quite reasonable.
Dan Strafford (FNTSY Radio, @DanStrafford)
Pitcher: Charlie Morton – While the Orioles have not been as bad as they were to start the year, their active roster still strikes out at 23.8% against right handed pitchers. On the year, Morton has been very solid, striking out batters at a 29.9% rate. The game taking place at the Trop is a nice added lift to Morton.
Hitter: Joc Pederson – Taylor Clarke has been allowing over two home runs per nine overall this year and 2.61 per nine against left handed batters. He has an xFIP of 6.52 against left handed battes as well. The Dodgers have a few lefty power hitters I’d be happy going to, but if Joc Pederson leads off, he’ll be my favorite. All 20 of his home runs on the year have come against right handed pitchers.
Jeff Boggis (Fantasy Football Empire, @JeffBoggis)
Pitcher: Patrick Corbin – Corbin seems back on track and the Corbin that we love to insert into our fantasy lineups. After 3 straight losses, he’s bounced back with 2 straight wins and 17 Ks.. He takes on the Miami Marlins at home tonight. I think that he’s priced right. Also rolling with Charlie Morton.
Hitter: Javier Baez – Over the past 5 days, Javier Baez has a Hard Hit Rate of 60%. The league average is 35.5%. Baez is a top 10 hitter over the past 2 weeks.
Jeff Erickson (Rotowire, @Jeff_Erickson)
Pitcher: Matt Strahm – Coming off a big strikeout performance last week, Strahm now gets a home start against the Giants. And as much as the Giants looked good against Logan Allen last night, I’ll keep taking my chances there.
Hitter: Fernando Tatis Jr. – Too bad we can’t used FanDuel’s pricing on Tatis, where he’s only $4,100. But I’m still going to roll with Tatis against Tyler Beede. It’s just might price me out of using Charlie Morton – which is a pretty big debate I’m having. (Narrator: … it did price him out of Morton and into … Joe Musgrove. Yikes.)
Derek VanRiper (Rotowire, @DerekVanRiper)
Pitcher: Reynaldo Lopez – Lopez has two 28+ point games in his last 10, but he’s failed to reach double digits in those other eight turns. While I think it’s possible that his ownership rate will get pushed up with a lot of lineups trying to maximize Coors exposure, my hope is that Matt Strahm will be the cheap pitcher of choice for the largest share of the entries in tournaments, leaving Lopez as a tournament-viable option.
Hitter: Michael Brantley – $4.5K in Colorado for Brantley is very cheap. He’s the most chalky bat in my lineup tonight, and it’s not even close. Overall, I think you can do well on this slate limiting your COL/HOU exposure and taking advantage of several hitter-friendly environments and damage-prone arms on this slate.
Clay Link (Rotowire, @claywlink)
Pitcher: Jack Flaherty – He’s really not “$7600 on DraftKings” bad.
Hitter: Jose Martinez – Matt Carasiti is getting the start but lefty Wade LeBlanc is expected to serve as the bulk reliever for Seattle. Martinez has been a bit of a letdown in season-long leagues but is batting .349/.391/.628 vs. LHP this season and .335/.405/.572 against lefties for his career.