Joey Ricotta | April 30th, 2019
A huge slate of games tonight, 15 to be exact. There are some games that look to be in trouble weather-wise, so 15 games barring postponements. There will be a ton of variance and spread out ownership. This is what makes DFS fun. Along with the making money part. That’s kind of the best part. Without further ado let’s get right into some players I will be targeting in hopes of cashing in.
Pitching
Trevor Bauer ($10.9K on DK and $11.4K on FD)
On single pitcher sites where other stud pitchers like Gerrit Cole are quite a bit cheaper, I might prefer to go another route. But Bauer has been lights out this season and is getting a matchup in a good pitchers park against the lowly Marlins. Fire up Bauer and feel good about it.
Vince Velasquez ($8.7K on DK and $8.2K on FD)
Velasquez has been stellar so far this year. He has an ERA just under two and has given up no more than two runs in any outing. It is pretty well documented how much better Velasquez has been in his career against right-handed batters than lefties. He struck out 28.8% of righties and held them to a .211 AVG last season. The Detroit Tigers lineup should be filled with right-handed bats, putting Velasquez in a great spot.
Griffin Canning ($7.8K on DK and 6.1K on FD)
This is a tournament play only, but Canning is a promising young prospect that will be making his major league debut against the Toronto Blue Jays. He has been very good in the Minors and I expect him to be low owned. Canning has a 28.3% K rate and only a 3.3% BB rate in Triple-A so far this season. There is a layer of risk, but this will allow you to fit the more expensive stacks in for tournaments.
Other Targets: Walker Buehler, Luis Castillo, Julio Teheran, and Zack Greinke.
Batting
C Curt Casali ($3.5K on DK and $2.1K on FD)
Casali will be hitting fifth in the order against Jason Vargas and the Mets. He seems like one of the only decent cheap options at the catcher position tonight. He doesn’t get to play every day, but when he does, at this price we should take advantage of it. He’s hitting .306 on the year and went 3 for 5 with four RBI in his last game.
1B Kendrys Morales ($3.4K on DK and $2.2K on FD)
Rick Porcello has a career .340 wOBA against left-handed batters and he has really struggled against them this year, with a 8.23 FIP and 7.22 x FIP. Morales has hit two career home runs off Porcello and has a career .201 ISO against right-handed pitchers. He’s dirt cheap on DK. I’ll be using Morales because of his salary and upside.
2B/SS Jose Peraza ($3.3K on DK and $2.5K on FD)
Peraza will be leading off for the Reds and we’ll be getting him at a discount. Jason Vargas is one of the pitchers I’ll be looking to attack and Peraza has hits in each of his last four games.
OF Mookie Betts ($5K on DK and $4.4K on FD)
If you can fit him in with his salary I think it is a fine play. He’ll be going up against Aaron Brooks at home and he is really starting to heat up. Betts has hits in five straight games and multi-hits in four of those five. The MVP magic from a year ago seems to be coming back.
Stacks
CIN vs Jason Vargas
They seem to be the most reasonably priced and easiest team to stack with the expensive pitchers I like tonight. The top five in the order are all in play for cash games and GPP’s.
PIT @ TEX
Keep a close eye on the weather situation for this game. The only reason I didn’t pinpoint a particular player is because of the weather concern. Maybe locking in some other players from other games and late swapping some of these guys in makes a lot of sense. If they play this game through, there should be a lot of runs scored on both sides.
OAK @ BOS
It’s cold in Boston and that usually favors pitching, but given the weather concerns and lack of ideal hitting matchups otherwise, I’m liking this spot for both teams. Porcello doesn’t strike fear into anyone and Aaron Brooks is average on his best day.
ARI vs CC Sabathia
If Sabathia is garnering ownership tonight, I’ll absolutely take the other side in some tournaments. The D backs have been hitting the ball well, and Adam Jones has 90 at-bats versus Sabathia, hitting .289 with 5 home runs.
Joe Ricotta has been playing fantasy sports for a little over 10 years. Ricotta began playing daily fantasy shortly after its inception. He has taken down a few large field tournaments and regularly cashes in his head to head matchups. This is not to say that he always will, but he always has a reason behind his lineup constructions. Fanduel pricing has been included but for all intents and purposes, the article was based on DraftKings research. The main slate of games beginning at 7:05 EST were the ones addressed. Recheck starting lineups and weather concerns before the games start and make changes accordingly.
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