Happy Friday and welcome to another day of DFS! It has been a crazy and wild season so far, with now another team in the New York Mets contracting COVID-19, forcing them to postpone their weekend series versus the New York Yankees. With that in mind, there are still 13 games for the main slate at 7:05 pm est. Let’s roll out some of the best options for pitchers, hitters, and stacks. I will give you one top-tier option, one middle-tier option, and one value option for both hitters and pitchers. All pricing is from DraftKings.
Pitchers
Top Tier
Aaron Nola ($9,900)
The ace of the Phillies has been pure filth so far, as Nola already has 37 strikeouts through 26.1 innings to just four base on balls. He hasn’t scored less than 32.8 points on DraftKings over his last three starts and he has had at least seven strikeouts in all four of his starts. His second-to-last start was against the Braves who he faces again tonight, in which he went eight strong, surrendering just two hits, one run (HR), and one walk while striking out ten. Nola has also been pretty dominant against the Braves hitters in the past even prior to that start. The Braves are also third-worst in strikeout percentage so far this season at 26.7%.
Middle Tier
Adrian Houser ($8,400)
Houser faces Pittsburgh for the second time this season after starting against them in his first start. In that start, he went five innings while surrendering just one hit (HR), one run, and three walks with four strikeouts. The Pirates don’t have a scary lineup and Houser’s pitch count has been going up since then, where he only had 68 pitches. He doesn’t have the best strikeout numbers with an 18/9 K/BB rate, but he should be able to shut down a pretty porous lineup.
Value
Chad Kuhl ($6,900)
Kuhl has only started two games this season, as he has also made two appearances out of the bullpen. In those appearances, over 14 innings, he has been very good with 18 strikeouts and four walks. Against Milwaukee on July 27, he went 3.2 shutout innings while striking out four and giving up three hits and two walks. In his last start, he struck out six to just one walk but did take the loss as he gave up three runs in five innings.
Hitters
Top Tier
Cody Bellinger ($5,300)
Belli has hit a homer in two straight games while hitting four in the last ten games. Over those two games, he has scored 21 and 14 DraftKings points, respectively. Tonight he faces Jon Gray, who he mashes, 10-for-16 with four doubles, a triple, and four RBI in his career. It is never a bad idea to go with the reigning MVP Bellinger, especially against a pitcher like Gray.
Middle Tier
Alex Verdugo ($4,400)
The big piece the Red Sox received in the Mookie Betts trade, Verdugo, has been on fire of late. He currently has an 11-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 15 of his last 16 games. Verdugo has also hit an extra-base hit in seven straight contests. He has scored at least seven DraftKings points eight games in a row and faces an Orioles pitching staff who hasn’t been very good.
Value
Evan Longoria ($3,400)
Longoria, who is often mistaken for actress Eva Longoria, has been hitting well of late, going 8-for-33 with a homer over his last six.
Not me https://t.co/Tt4DI1ibn2
— Evan Longoria (@Evan3Longoria) August 19, 2020
The baseball player Longoria faces a struggling Robbie Ray who he is 6-for-12 with a homer against in his career. Ray has just a 27/20 K/BB rate in 22 innings, while he has surrendered 2.9 HR/9 and a 32.7% Hard Hit rate. Longoria has a 48.3% HH% this season.
Stacks
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Max Fried, Atlanta Braves
With the way Fried ($8,900) has pitched so far, his ownership will be up and most DFS players will not want to attack him. But the Phillies saw him just two starts ago, and while he shut them down, no runs over five innings with six strikeouts and one walk, they could make some adjustments today. Some of their hitters have also done well against him, Bryce Harper ($5,900) is 3-for-10 with two homers, Scott Kingery ($2,500) is 4-for-11 with two homers, and J.T. Realmuto ($5,000) is 5-for-14 with two homers. Another stack option is Andrew McCutchen ($3,800) who went 4-for-8 with a double, four RBIs, and one run scored in the doubleheader against the Blue Jays yesterday. He currently has a five-game hit streak, three of those being multi-hit games. This should be more of a counter stack to the Max Fried ownership, but it could definitely pay off.
Home run call: Bryce Harper
For more DFS advice and discussion check out the latest Too Much Pod Tar episode as well.
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