Adam Zibuda What is up everyone, happy Friday! Check out the FanDuel MLB 7/7 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 huge 14 game slate on tap for Friday with no obvious potential weather concerns, although where I am just outside of Boston it has been absolutely pouring all morning. This will be my last article for a few weeks as we hit the all-star break and then I am out on vacation, so let’s make it a good one! With that said, let’s get into the picks!
The Aces
A. This is a strange slate for pitching, because we do not have a single one of the arms that we typically refer to as an “ace” as an option. This will become painfully clear when I write up Alex Cobb ($8,800) as my first “ace” of the slate tonight. Cobb has been serviceable with a solid 3.22 SIERA this season, accompanied by a 27.3% strikeout rate and a 7.1 walk rate. Cobb is a solid pitcher but his numbers will never really scream upside, however he is very safe which is all that we can ask for at this discounted price. The Seattle Mariners are a team and really an entire organization that is in shambles this season after what took place during the offseason with them, so even though the 4th of July is over, I love me some corn on the Cobb Friday night.
B. For my SP2 on FanDuel tonight, I will look to Zach Thompson ($9,600) at a slightly higher price tier than Cobb. Thompson deserves to be priced a bit higher, because he owns a nearly identical SIERA, but also a higher strikeout rate of 32%, and a much lower ERA. The walk rates are also nearly identical between these two pitchers, but Thompson definitely draws the more difficult matchup against the Atlanta Braves. This Braves team obviously has a top three hitter in baseball right now in Ronald Acuna Jr., but with one of the highest strikeout rates on the entire day today, I still have quite a bit of interest in Thompson.
C. The final pitcher that I will be looking to mix into my lineups on this ugly FanDuel pitching slate is shockingly Logan Webb ($8,200). Good thing this is FanDuel where we only need to roster one pitcher, because man these options are bleak for such a massive Friday slate. Webb has a 3.46 SIERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, and a 8.2% walk rate on the season this year. He draws a hit or miss matchup against the Washington Nationals, who have been starting to heat up quite a bit as of late even without the walking homerun Kyle Schwarber. I will likely try to get up to Cobb but if I need $600 salary then I know how to get it.
The Bases
A. As you might expect given the lack of pitching options, we have a plethora of choices when it comes to our bats tonight. To kick things off, the Minnesota Twins find themselves in quite the juicy spot as they take swings against Matt Manning and the Detroit Tigers bullpen. Manning has struggled to keep his ERA below eight, and also has a 5.85 SIERA which is the highest of any pitcher throwing on Friday. With a laughable 7.4% strikeout rate, we certainly do not need to worry about our hitters swinging and missing, and the Twins should be able to pile on the runs while Manning is on the mound.
B. If the Twins bats are not back to full health or you are not a fan of their recent form, then may I interest you in the Philadelphia Phillies. This is a team that has won me a good chunk of change over the last week and I think they can keep the train rolling tonight. The Phillies draw a matchup against Garrett Richards of my Boston Red Sox who has been totally miserable this season. Thus far he sports a 5.10 SIERA, 17.3% strikeout rate, and a high 10.6% walk rate. Richards is one of those arms that, as a Sox fan, you pray Chris Sale can come in and replace sooner rather than later. I will play any team against this arm, but especially a team as white hot as the Phillies in a ballpark as tiny as Fenway.
C. To wrap things up for my last segment before the break, I will look to mix in bats from a team that just came back from an insane 8-0 hole to steal the win from the Nationals, the San Diego Padres. If you did not catch any baseball yesterday, then do yourself a favor and go watch the grand slam hit by Camarena, a triple A relief pitcher call-up, who decided to go yard on Max Scherzer for 4 runs as his first ever major league hit. That must be the most insane and improbable first hit in MLB history and I do not think that is an exaggeration at all. Last night aside, the Padres draw a dream matchup against Kyle Freeland. While Freeland does take a hit by making half of his starts in Coors Field, he also is not a very strong pitcher on the road. He does not have a single pitching metric that is above average outside of his groundball rate, so target these fly ball Padres with confidence 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!
