Adam Zibuda What is up everyone, happy Wednesday! Check out the FanDuel MLB 6/23 breakdown below.
As usual, I will be going over 3 pitchers and 3 teams that we should be looking to stack in our FanDuel lineups. There are quite a few early MLB games sprinkled throughout the day today, leaving us with a very solid seven game slate. The weather looks totally clear so we do not have to worry about that, which is always nice. With that said, let’s get into the picks!
The Aces
A. We have a battle of the aces tonight for the late night game between Joe Musgrove and Trevor Bauer as the Padres face the Dodgers. While Bauer has the slight edge in strikeout rate, he is also much more expensive and will carry much higher ownership. I will easily side with Joe Musgrove ($7,900) in this spot at this insane discount. I am thinking that FanDuel must have given him a matchup discount since he is facing the LA Dodgers, but regardless of the reason this price is way too cheap for the arm with the lowest SIERA of the entire day. Add to this the fact that the Padres have been hotter at the plate than the Dodgers lately and we have all of the signs pointing at us to take the savings and run.
B. While I do still think that Bauer is a perfectly fine play every time that he takes the mound, (including tonight) I will continue the savings at SP2 by looking to Trevor Rogers ($9,400). Rogers owns a respectable 3.61 SIERA, a very solid strikeout rate approaching 30%, and a mediocre walk rate of 8.7%. While the Blue Jays do have some scary bats in their lineup and Springer is back, the bottom half is pretty brutal and we will also get the potential free strikeout from the opposing pitcher Robbie Ray. Even with all of that said, I would likely prefer the savings my SP1 provides, which is why Rogers slots in at SP2.
C. For my final pitcher on FanDuel Wednesday night, I will be looking to James Kaprielian ($9,000) of the Oakland Athletics. While JK is not really a household name at this point, he still enters this game as a pretty sizeable favorite over the Rangers and Mike Foltynewicz. Folty has been nothing short of completely awful, so it is not that impressive to be favored over him, however Kaprielian is actually very solid. He owns a 26.4% strikeout rate, and while the free passes are a definite concern, he has still been able to limit the run damage against him. The best part about this is the matchup against the Rangers, as we all know this team strikes out at a very high clip.
The Bases
A. The first team that I will be stacking up today will make our founder proud, as it is his very own New York Mets. The Mets get the pleasure of taking swings against Kyle Wright and his 5.66 SIERA, 18.4% strikeout rate, and massive 13.7% walk rate. If we want to talk a quick walk down narrative street, it was just announced today that Pete Alonso will once again be participating in the homerun derby, so he may have some extra motivation to show off that power tonight. He should not have to try too hard to get that opportunity, as Wright is a gas can that the Mets should be able to tee off on.
B. My second favorite stack has been a very popular team to target both recently and throughout this season, as they have been tearing the cover off the baseball and lead the MLB in nearly every offensive category. I am of course talking about the Houston Astros, and they are really showing how dumb they were for cheating because clearly they did not need to cheat to be good. So we have the best offense in the league facing off against one of the worst pitchers on the day in Tom Eshelman. These bats are expensive as usual and will likely be popular, but I am hoping that their disappointing game last night will suppress ownership ever so slightly.
C. If you read my SP3 section above, then you probably know that I will be going right back to the well with the Oakland Athletics as my final stack of the night. The Athletics absolutely went off last night and now draw a matchup against one of the worst pitchers in the majors that really does not do anything very well in Mike Foltynewicz. No offense to Mike, as I am sure that he is a pretty nice guy, but his pitching metrics over the last two seasons are extremely sub par across the board. The lone highlight is that he does not give up many walks, but as we saw last night, these Oakland bats do not need free base passes to score runs. I expect the A’s to keep it rolling Wednesday night and it is going to be tough to narrow down my batters on FanDuel tonight!
That is it for me today! Please also check out our projection model by clicking here. If you have any questions, I will be in our expert chat in Discord leading up to lock, so feel free to shoot me a DM or @ me in chat!
