We have a nice eight-game afternoon slate on tap today! There are some really nice options across the board, so finding the right values will be crucial! Let’s dive in!
Both Sites
Starlin Castro , 2B/3B WAS ($2,300 FD / $3,200 DK) – Castro is way too cheap on both sites today. He has been amazing against lefties this season, slashing .407/.429/.481 against them through 27 at-bats and has a .301/.348/.438 slash against southpaws for his career. On top of that, he’s been much better at home this season, slashing .278/.298/.426 across 15 games at home, compared to .227/.255/.250 through 11 games on the road. Smyly has an 8.05 ERA, 8.47 FIP, and 4.3 HR/9 through 19.0 innings pitched. Righties are slashing .283/.353/.633 against him so far this season and have already hit six long balls against him. This is pretty easy play to plug into your lineups and save some money while getting nice upside.
Kevin Pillar , OF NYM ($2,700 FD / $2,400 DK) – Pillar is taking full advantage of being the Mets everyday centerfielder while Nimmo is on IL. Over the last four games (when he became the fill-in starter) he has gone 8-16 (.500) with two home runs, five RBI, and four runs scored. His price is starting to creep up, but he’s still close to the minimum on DK and a better play over there, but still a fine play on FD as well. He has hit fourth and fifth in the Mets lineup the last two games, which is of course is beneficial in comparison to where he had been hitting (seventh or eighth). Gant has pretty even splits against him, so the fact that this is a righty vs. righty matchup isn’t a downgrade for Pillar as a play today.
DraftKings
Michael Pineda , SP MIN ($7,500) – Pineda has been very good this season; pitching to a 2.30 ERA, 2-1 record, a 0.92 WHIP, and an 8.9 K/9. The Twins are massive favorites with the moneyline sitting at -196, meaning Vegas really likes their chances of winning today, which also means Pineda has a pretty good chance of grabbing a win. Today he gets to face the Rangers and they have the third highest strikeout rate in baseball at 27.4-percent and they have the highest strikeout rate in baseball against right-handed pitchers with a mark of 29.8-percent. He is a pretty safe play today, but also has a lot of upside and at this price tag, I expect him to see a pretty decent ownership percentage.
Andrew Benintendi , OF KC ($3,000) – Benintendi is very hot right now, hitting .425 (17-40) with three home runs, two steals, and 10 runs scored over his last 11 games, bringing his average for the year up to .287. He has already stolen five bags and he’s running at a career high rate. McKenzie has not been good this year, pitching to a 6.27 ERA, 6.37 FIP, 1.71 WHIP, and 2.4 HR/9 through his first five outings (18.2 innings). Lefties have really done the damage against McKenzie too, slashing .300/.462/.633 against him this season, compared to righties who have posted a mark of just .139/.304/.306, which isn’t all that surprising considering they also had far more success him last season as well, hitting for nearly an .080 point higher average and a near doubled SLG percentage.
FanDuel
Teoscar Hernández , OF TOR ($2,800) – Hernandez has returned off IL in a hot way, hitting .292 (7-24) with a home run, three runs scored, and seven RBI over six games since making his return. He has major reverse splits so far this season, slashing .267/.283/.400 against righties with both of his home runs and all of his RBI, compared to .125/.222/.125 thus far against lefties. Which works out even better because Fiers also has reverse splits against him in his career with righties slashing .258/.317/.453 against him while averaging a home run once every 21.9 at-bats, compared to lefties who have slashed .247/.305/.411 and averaged a home run just once every 27.2 at-bats. Hernandez has a major price difference between DK and FD today and we need to take advantage of it on FD.