Joel Dorcas |May 30th, 2019
We have a seven-game slate on the docket for Thursday night. A quick glance over at ESPN’s Power Rankings as of May 27th brings to light of a few things. The Minnesota Twins appear to be for real as they are right there with heavyweights Houston Astros and L.A. Dodgers at the top. The Oakland Athletics have kicked it up a notch with a lengthy winning streak of late and have bumped up the ranks significantly. The Cleveland Indians, due to injuries and a thinner depth chart, are struggling, while the Atlanta Braves have really turned it on of late winning 12 of their last 18 games. DraftKings has got seven games for the main slate so let’s build some lineups!
Pitcher
Hyun-Jin Ryu LAD $11,200
Two pitchers really have my attention for tonight. Carlos Carrasco and Hyun-Jin Ryu. Because of his overall consistent season to date, my slight lean goes towards Ryu despite the fact that Carrasco has handled the White Sox very well. In his two previous outings, he is 2-0 without a single earned run given up as well as punching out 12 in 12 innings pitched. As for Ryu, he has at least 30 DKpts in his last three home starts. His opponent, the New York Metropolitans, are hitting a collective .179 in 39 combined career at-bats with a meager .502 OPS against Ryu. The Mets have a long list of star players on the shelf with injuries making Ryu even more appealing.
Infield
David Freese LAD 1B $3,900
Freese is a matchup nightmare for opposing handedness pitchers. Freese will be a great value play if he gets the nod in this particular matchup. The Mets are scheduled to start lefty Jason Vargas so it is highly likely he gets at-bats tonight. Freese was featured in the Dodgers lineup on the 28th against the Mets and lefty Steven Mets going 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored. Career-wise Freese is hitting .571 with a 1,886 OPS, with 3 big-flies in 14-lifetime at-bats off Vargas.
Asdrubal Cabrera TEX 3B $4,000
The Texas Rangers are perhaps playing above this season’s projections and find themselves at a very respectable 27-26 record. They rank 5th in the Majors in slugging(.462) and in wOBA(.338) all while hitting a very respectable .255. Tonight they have a juicy matchup versus right-handed starter Jakob Junis. Junis like many Royals pitchers has struggled this season to the tune of a 5.58 ERA and a 3-5 record. The Rangers have a fairly deep lineup, Cabrera seems like a fine play at $4,000 as he is hitting .57 points higher when matched up against righties. He has also knocked eight of his nine big-flies off the handedness.
Outfield
Nomar Mazara TEX $4,400
Continuing on with our theme of exploiting the Royals pitching staff we can fill some of our outfield slots with Rangers outfielder Nomar Mazara. Mazara has made some very good improvements this season given his .267 batting average, eight points higher than his career mark. Mazara is 7-for-13 with a 1.292 OPS off the Royals in three games this season. He is also averaging 15.3 DKpts in his last three games.
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