Adam Zibuda What is up everyone, happy Wednesday and happy NFL eve! Check out the FanDuel MLB 9/8 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 quite a few early games taking place across the majors today, which leaves us with a manageable nine game main slate that locks at 7:05. It looks like we have some weather to keep an eye on at the Baltimore and Atlanta ballparks, so make sure to keep that in mind. With that said, let’s get into the picks!
The Aces
A. This is a very interesting slate for pitching because some of the typical arms that we would look to plug into our lineups have big question marks surrounding them. Yu Darvish draws a great matchup but has been getting lit up by awful teams lately so can we trust him? Freddy Peralta is on an unknown pitch count and is basically unplayable at that price. Shane McClanahan draws a difficult matchup against the Red Sox in Fenway park. So, this leaves us with Nathan Eovaldi ($9,700) as our last man standing for a potential SP1 option. Eovaldi owns a solid 3.64 SIERA and a 24.9% strikeout rate, but the best part about this is that he does not have a ton of red flags like most of our other options. The Rays also strikeout at very high rates, so Nathan is the arm I feel safest about on FanDuel tonight.
B. Another safe pitcher that usually throws close to (or over) 100 pitches every single outing is Frankie Montas ($9,000). Montas will be throwing against a White Sox lineup that is pretty solid, so this is far from a cakewalk type of matchup. He owns a 3.74 SIERA, 26.7% strikeout rate, and a 6.9% walk rate. While none of the metrics for my top pitchers tonight will exactly blow us out of the water, I prefer to save some salary and play the arms that do not have red flags. Interestingly, Montas is the exact same price on FanDuel as he is on DraftKings, even though we have more salary per position on DraftKings. This is a tricky comparison though since we do have to roster two pitchers over on DK, but I still wanted to point this out since I do not remember a single other instance of this happening this season. Montas is a great play on both sites tonight as one of the few safe, yet solid, arms on the board.
C. The pickings are extremely slim down here for my SP3, so I would only go here in GPPs if building multiple lineups. Alek Manoah ($9,600) has shown promising signs at times this season, but has also struggled at times. He will be throwing against a formidable New York Yankees offense, which is never a matchup that I love to target pitchers in. However, Manoah has the exact same swinging strike rate as Eovaldi (12.2%), and this Yankees team is very boom or bust in that most of them either hit for power or strikeout swinging. Let’s hope this is a bust scenario tonight where Manoah can rack up the K’s and limited the R’s.
The Bases
A. Whenever there is a game in Wrigley, we always have to check the winds. It looks like the winds will be whipping in Chicago this evening, however they will mostly be blowing across the field. Wind direction is pretty tough to predict and can change on a dime, so if you want to take shots on either offense due to that, be my guest. I will be taking shots on the Chicago Cubs more for their matchup than any potential wind assistance. The Cubs will be taking swings against Vladimir Gutierrez, who owns the highest SIERA of any pitcher on the main slate. Yes, this Cubs lineup is rough and this team gave up on the season long ago, but that does not mean that they cannot string together some hits and runs tonight.
B. There is a reason that the Oakland Athletics are such massive favorites this evening, as I really like both their pitcher and their hitters tonight. The bats draw a matchup against washed up Dallas Keuchel and his 4.89 SIERA, which is only slightly lower than Vlad’s. He owns a 13.7% strikeout rate this season with an 8% walk rate, which will not get it done against a strong A’s offense. These bats should be Frankie in line for the win, and I love that we are able to four stack this team while still playing their pitcher now, since that was not always the case on FanDuel.
C. I will be out this Friday, so to close things out for MLB this week, I will be going back to a team that I stacked in the $777 last night on DraftKings, the Kansas City Royals. KC really did not get it done for me last night, and Salvador Perez was a very expense dumpster fire at the catcher position. Santana did homer, but the Mondesi goose egg and Perez five just did not get the job done. We have to have a short memory in MLB, as tonight the Royals draw a matchup against notorious gas can Matt Harvey. I have been targeting hitters against Harvey all season, and I certainly will not be stopping now. This is the ultimate recency bias play, as the Royals should be low owned after letting us down so badly in such a solid spot last night.
That will do it for me today! Please also check out our projection model by clicking here, and if you have any questions, I will be in our expert chat in Discord leading up to lock. Feel free to shoot me a DM or @ me in the MLB chat! Lastly, do not forget to subscribe to the WinDaily YouTube channel and follow me on Twitter: @AThr0ughZ!
