Scott Engel 
Fortonight, I am going to go with a contrarian stack that could give me or you anadvantage in a tournament. You have to take big chances to win big, and withhow things are going for one Mets pitcher, this may not seem like such a majorleap, anyway.
I’mstacking Cincinnati Reds tonight against Jacob deGrom. Sure, this seems like aprime matchup for the struggling defending Cy Young winner to get right, butuntil I actually see him show signs of a turnaround, I am going to attack himin DFS. There is hardly a guarantee that tonight is the night when he startsbouncing back. He has allowed 14 earned runs in his last three starts, withmore than five yielded in two of them. He has a 4.85 ERA and 1.36 WHIP.
deGromis 0-2 with a 12.38 ERA in two home starts this season. He has a 6.30 ERA innight games. Opponents are batting .375 the second time through the lineup, soeven if he starts well, he could fall apart again in the middle innings. He alreadyhas five HRs allowed, half of his entire total from last year.
Yes,the Reds are 25th in team batting, but they are middle of the packin HRs. Because of that first number, their hitters will be very lowly owned,maybe at about three percent on average. Plus, they will be lower priced and Ican then frontload some of the rest of my lineup with other high priced players.
Meanwhile,deGrom could be about 40 percent owned, and I would take out a good chunk ofthe field in a tournament even if he simply allows four runs or so. I can seethat happening. So give me some Joey Votto, Eugenio Suarez, Yasiel Puig andeven Derek Dietrich or Jesse Winker.
Manynights, you lose with the chalk plays. So go against convention here and I havea hunch things will go your way tonight.
