Dave Gloeckner 
It’s a Sunday Funday at the Sweet Spot here at WinDaily Sports. As we get closer to fall, we have to now compete with the NFL on our Funday’s. But it also gives us really good spots to cash as not as much time will be spent on research. Last night, for example, we had two sub $8K pitchers lead the slate in scoring last night in Grayson Rodriguez and Sawyer Gipson-Long.
As a reminder, this article will focus on Pitchers, from aces to value, and Hitters, from team stacks to studs to value plays. Prop bets are provided in the Gophers and Gas article.
There are many tools available, but I hope you’re using the Win Daily Projections Model as that has been very helpful in rostering key players each night.
For DFS, the featured card today begins at 1:35 p.m. with 10 games on the slate. All DFS plays below will come from those 10 games and any later games will be captured in Discord.
PITCHERS – DRAFTKINGS
CLASSIC SLATE – 1:35 PM Start
BRANDON WOODRUFF ($10,800 DK)
Woodruff at home. Woodruff at home. It’s worth repeating because Brewers SP Brandon Woodruff is a must play at home. And 2023 hasn’t been any different as Woodruff is 3-1 with a 1.06 ERA in Milwaukee this season. In is last start, he threw a complete game shutout against the Marlins.
Today he gets the Nationals who are a scrappy offense. However, they’ve been less efficient in September as they are batting 0.227 as a team which is good for 28th in the league. Looking at a more recent sample size, they are batting 0.217 over the past week. So, it’s obvious that it’s safe to attack the Nats and especially with a pitcher with a sub 2.00 ERA.
FRAMBER VALDEZ ($9900 DK)
Valdez is as reliable an SP as you can get in the MLB. He’s had a few ups and downs this season but still has a top 10 ERA (3.32) and is T-4 in quality starts (19). And he’s been good of late, stringing together four consecutive quality starts and averaging 24 DK points per outing in that span.
The Royals are his opponent on today’s slate. Valdez has faced the NL Central four times and has allowed just 2 ERs in 28 innings. While the Royals weren’t one of those opponents, Kansas City does struggle against LHP’s. On the season, they are 23rd in batting, 25th in wOBA and 28th in wRC+ versus southpaws.
DYLAN CEASE ($8600 DK)
It has been an underwhelming season for Dylan Cease. Coming off his stellar 2022, where he finished 2nd in AL Cy Young voting, he was expected to be one of the top five pitchers in the league. However, he turned into an average pitcher by posting a 4.87 ERA and 7-7 record. Some of that has been due to poor luck, as his BABIP is 50 points above MLB average (0.335). And some has been due to a high walk rate, 4.19 BB/9.
The reason I do like him today is because he faces a familiar opponent in the Minnesota Twins. He faced them four times this season, and has a 3.16 ERA with 21 K’s in 16 innings. Minnesota leads the league in K rate which adds to the luster of Cease. As always, his floor can be low but based on his recent form and opponent, his ceiling is also high.
KOOL-AIDE MAN (SWEET SPOT VALUE PITCHER UNDER $7K)
CARLOS RODON ($6900 DK)
The Yankees prize free agent has been a bust. Part of that is due to injury but even since his return, the performance on the mound has been bad as well. But the LHP is coming off his best start of the season last week versus Boston where he went 5 innings with 1 ER. More importantly though, he struck out a season high 9 batters. As we all know, my target in value territory is high K potential pitchers which Rodon can be. So we have a potential ace, in the value range, that is facing a weak offense in the Pittsburgh Pirates who own a 25% K rate in September.
BONUS PICKS
I also like HYUN JIN RYU ($8500 DK) and DEAN KREMER ($8400 DK) today.
HITTERS – DRAFTKINGS
CLASSIC SLATE – 1:35 PM
SWEET SPOT STACK ATTACK: The stacks I like today are the BREWERS (vs. Milwaukee), the YANKEES (vs Pittsburgh), the ASTROS (vs. KC), the PHILLIES (vs. STL), and the ORIOLES (vs. Tampa).
CORE BATTERS
YORDAN ALVAREZ ($6200 DK)
The Astros get the fortunate opportunity to face Jordan Lyles today. Lyles is 4-16 with a 6.44 ERA. He’s allowed a home run in 8 straight outings and totaled 14 dingers allowed in that span. I’ll take Alvarez as my building block as he’s batting 0.348 with a 1.174 OPS in the month of September.
For stacking, I like JOSE ALTUVE, JOSE ABREU, JEREMY PENA, MAURICIO DUBON, and KYLE TUCKER.
MARK CANHA ($3100 DK)
Our other favorite gas can to attack is on the bump today in Patrick Corbin. Corbin has an ERA of 5.00 for the 3rd consecutive season. In those years, he has a 25-48 record and a 5.78 ERA. I’ll take Canha today as he’s starting to take form in his new threads. The Brewers OF has hits in 11 of his last 13 games. And he’s coming off an outing last night where he hit a grand slam and posted 28 DK points.
For stacking, I like WILLY ADAMES, WILLIAM CONTRERAS, SAL FRELICK and CARLOS SANTANA.
SLAP HITTER (SWEET SPOT VALUE BATTER) – LESS THAN $3K
TBD
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