Adam Zibuda What is up everyone, happy Monday and happy Labor Day! Check out the FanDuel MLB 9/6 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 strange setup due to the holiday, so I will be writing about the five games that start with the 4:10 slate. There are zero weather concerns to worry about throughout the entire day today, which is always nice. With that said, let’s get into the picks!
The Aces
A. Since the slate is a bit weird, I will be highlighting my favorite players in the late afternoon games without regard to when their game is or which slate you would play them on. Lucky for us, the pitcher with the lowest SIERA of the entire day falls into this group of games, as Max Scherzer $(11,500) will be throwing against the St. Louis Cardinals. While the price is really starting to get up there, Scherzer would be in play at $12K so he is definitely still in play here. While there are some aces to be had in the earlier games, Mad Max is the best of them all (Sorry, Chris Sale).
B. If we are unable to afford Scherzer on the three game slate, then Kevin Gausman ($9,700) can save us some salary cap while also providing a solid floor/ceiling combination. This season KG owns a solid 3.56 SIERA, 29% strikeout rate, and a 7.4% walk rate. While I do not typically ever target a pitcher that is throwing in Coors Field, this is a decent time to do so because we not only have limited options, but we can also target a strong arm against a weak Rockies offense that has long since given up. I expect Gausman to carry miniscule ownership and he will help open up a few more bats than we could get with Scherzer.
C. Thankfully we only need to roster one pitcher on FanDuel, because after those two it really goes down quickly for these later games. For my SP3 I will be rolling with Lance McCullers ($9,000) as he takes the mound against the Seattle Mariners. Seattle is not a team that scares me and Lance has a strikeout rate that sits just a hair outside the elite levels of the arms that we typically refer to as aces. While the 11% walk rate continues to be a major thorn in his side, Lance is firmly in play depending on the options on the slate that you are playing.
The Bases
A. Two offenses in the best spots this evening are both in the final game of the evening, the Texas Rangers vs. the LA Angels. If choosing between the two, I would try to get exposure to the Los Angeles Angels first. The Angels will be taking swings against A.J. Alexy, who owns a 6.76 SIERA, albeit from a small sample size in the majors. He has not surrendered any earned runs yet, but boy are they definitely coming. He has allowed fly balls at an alarming rate and those will eventually be leaving the park so I will be making sure that I have plenty of exposure to Ohtani when that starts to happen.
B. The Texas Rangers draw a matchup against Jaime Barria, who owns a 5.56 SIERA with only a 12.4% strikeout rate and an 8.9% walk rate. The Rangers are strangely listed as slight favorites in this spot, but that speaks more to the low quality of the starting pitcher that they are rolling out than to their offense being a powerhouse. We do really need to start to question motivation down the stretch of September here, but in a matchup like this I will not let potentially incorrect narratives steer me away.
C. To close things out on this Labor Day Monday as we start wrapping up the summer of 2021, I will be looking to Minnesota Twins bats to provide some salary relief with potential upside this evening. The Twins will be facing off against Logan Allen, who is only a very small improvement over the previous two pitchers that I mentioned in this section. With a 5.29 SIERA and a walk rate that is almost as high as his brutally low strikeout rate, we should not expect Allen to have much success pitching in the majors. The Twins have been underpriced on FanDuel for quite some time now, so we should look to keep taking advantage until these salaries come back up to reasonable levels.
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!
