Adam Zibuda What is up everyone, happy Friday and welcome to July! Check out the FanDuel MLB 7/2 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. We have a massive 14 game slate tonight that locks at 7:05 with weather concerns mainly in the area of the Rays vs. Jays game. With that said, let’s get into the picks!
The Aces
A. We have a clear number one pitching option on the main slate today and that is of course Max Scherzer ($11,000). FanDuel really makes it pretty easy to fit these $11K pitchers into our lineups with some of the minimum salary bats that they roll out on every slate. I do not have to go over Max’s pitching metrics since we all know they are elite, but there is definitely a case to fade him given that he is facing the Dodgers. This is one of the top three offenses in baseball but with pitching options tanking quite a bit lately, the strikeout upside safety that Max provides is tough to pass on.
B. Further solidifying the case for Mad Max is the fact that the next best pitching option that we have tonight is Sony Gray ($7,000). Sony owns a 3.71 SIERA, 30.4% strikeout rate, and a 10.2% walk rate. While that walk rate is definitely a concern, his matchup against the Cubs helps negate that a bit as they are not a very patient team at the plate. This price and matchup is much better than what Max draws, and the strikeout upside is still there so I do not mind dropping down to Sony to afford more expensive bats.
C. For my SP3 Friday night I will be rolling with Logan Gilbert ($7,200) as he faces off against the strikeout happy Texas Rangers. Gilbert does own slightly worse pitching metrics than Sony Gray and is $200 more expensive so I will likely end up with much more Sony tonight, but we should still have some interest in any pitcher facing the Rangers. Gilbert owns a 3.74 SIERA, 26.2% strikeout rate, and only a 5.4% walk rate, making him a solid GPP option on FanDuel for tonight.
The Bases
A. I stacked up the Cardinals heavily last night and they put up an absolutely pathetic performance in Coors Field, but I will be looking to the other side of this matchup tonight by stacking the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies will not only be in Coors, they also draw a matchup against Johan Oviedo. Johan is the worst pitcher on this massive slate with a 5.40 SIERA and only a 16.5% strikeout rate. His walk rate is nearly as high as his K rate and the Rockies should be able to launch some bombs off of him in that thin Denver air.
B. Even though they burned me last night, the St. Louis Cardinals are also in an amazing spot again tonight, but I will not write up two Coors teams for 2/3 of my stacks. Instead, I will look to differentiate a bit and stack the Kansas City Royals. The Royals got absolutely embarrassed by the Red Sox last night, but they will look to bounce back on Friday evening. This team was swinging some pretty hot bats against the brutal Boston pitching staff, and I expect that to continue against JA Happ. Happ is long past his prime and he catches this team at the wrong time. I expect the Royals to generate some serious run production and want to have as much exposure to them as possible.
C. For my final team of the night, I will mix in some Cincinnati Reds bats into my lineups. This Reds team got to Joe Musgrove very easily on Wednesday and if they are able to attack a pitcher of his caliber, then just imagine what we can expect them to do against Alec Mills. Mills sports a 4.68 SIERA, 17.2% strikeout rate, and a 7.9% walk rate. While those numbers are not necessarily gas can territory, they are definitely indicative of a pitcher that this solid offense can attack. Castellanos is really starting to heat up and is one of the best one-off options of the slate.
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!
