Jared Levitt 
Hump Day! Hope you all enjoyed yesterday’s eventful trade deadline! A couple of things have been made very clear. The Marlins have one amazing farm system now and the White Sox may never win another game. Also, adding Jack Flaherty to their rotation, the Dodgers may have a historically good rotation heading into the playoffs. Back to today’s slate, this is a slate that has a bunch of really solid arms. It also has some amazing spots for bats.
Let’s Dig in and make some money!
MLB DFS Aces – Main
Taj Bradley ($9.5k on DK) vs. Miami Marlins
Don’t get me wrong here, Chris Sale is the most talented pitcher on this slate, and by a decent margin. He’s the SP1 on this slate, but I’m more than likely fading him so I can attack the 2 worst lineups in the game. Taj Bradley is going to be my main pitcher today. He’s coming into this game on the heels of 3 straight gems and gems in 4 of his last 5 games. In his 11 starts this season, he’s been below 20 DK points in just 3 of them and he’s been in single-digit DK points just once.
Anything can happen in baseball, but I’m going to take my chances on a pitcher that has a near 11 K/9 vs. a projected lineup that has just a .102 ISO and a .290 wOBA vs. righties this season. While the Marlins stocked up on prospects yesterday, this is a bad lineup that only got worse with trading both Jazz Chisholm and Josh Bell. Bradley is my SP1 today.
Brady Singer ($8.2k on DK) vs. Chicago White Sox
Last night we saw Michael Wacha put together a strong performance against a terrible White Sox team. A White Sox team that now has lost 16 games in a row and is well on pace to shatter the New York Mets record of 120 losses in a season. Against a terrible White Sox lineup, Brady Singer makes for an excellent SP2. He’s coming into this having scored at least 26 DK points in 3 of his last 4 games, with a negative outing in there against a really good Red Sox lineup.
Singer has been very strong over the last month, with a 1.88 ERA and allowing just a 22% hard-hit rate. The White Sox projected lineup today has a nearly 27% K rate vs. righties this season and a .269 wOBA. Just awful stuff. I’m locking in a pitcher that has immense upside today.
I mentioned above that Chris Sale is 100% in play. I’m just going to fade him today because I feel like there are other pitchers that have similar upside thanks to their talent and matchup combined. Other pitchers I like today will be Freddy Peralta vs. Atlanta and Grayson Rodriguez vs. Toronto. That said, I’m not straying from Bradley and Singer today. They are my 2 pitchers.
MLB DFS Stacks – Main
Baltimore Orioles vs. Paolo Espino
The Toronto Blue Jays will turn the ball over to Paolo Espino today to take on the Orioles. This should be music to our ears as he’s just not good and at 37 years old, isn’t going to all of a sudden get better. In the Minors this season in Buffalo, Espino has a 5.09 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP.
Over his Major League career, Espino has a 5.06 ERA and a HR/9 of 1.86. I’m going to focus on that HR number as we can certainly chase some power today for the O’s. I’m not going to be overly concerned about splits with Espino because if we look at his career numbers, both sides of the plate have an OPS over .800 vs. him.
I’m starting my Orioles stack with Anthony Santander. He’s been on fire of late and has 7 homers over the last 2 weeks. Against righties this year he has an OPS of .849 and 23 of his 31 homers have been when hitting lefty. He’s quietly one of the top home run hitters in the league this season as only Judge and Ohtani have hit more. Next up for me will be Colton Cowser.
With him now hitting in the leadoff spot, he’s been on fire. Cowser currently has a 12-game hitting streak and with this matchup this afternoon, should be able to extend it. A leadoff bomb out of him is not out of the question here. This entire lineup is in play today. Both Henderson and Rutschman are in play today as well, I’m just not going to prioritize them as their recent production + price make them both a secondary play. Espino very well could be the slump buster that both of them need though.
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Nestor Cortes
The Phillies get a great matchup vs. a pitcher in Nestor Cortes who is currently struggling. Over his last 6 starts, he’s given up less than 3 ER just once and has given up a combined 15 runs over his last 3. The home run ball is giving him some major heartache as he’s given up at least 1 in 5 of his last 6 games. His last start was the only one where he didn’t give up a bomb, yet he still gave up 4 ER to the Red Sox in just under 5 innings of work.
Where you want to attack Cortes is with righties. 18 of the 19 homers he’s given up this year have been to righties and they also have a .474 slugging percentage vs. him. Thankfully, the Phillies have a slew of righty bats that are crushing it right now, which is going to make for a short day for Cortes.
The Phillies have 4 guys with wOBA’s over .400 vs. lefties over the last month. Here’s the order which I’m going to rank them: Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, Alec Bohm, and Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber is the riskiest of the 4 but also will come in at the lowest ownership thanks to having the l/l matchup. He’s certainly a K risk here, but Schwarber has been amazing vs. lefties this season. He has a .345 AVG and an OPS of 1.041. At home vs. lefties, Schwarber has a 1.150 OPS vs. them. Again, he’s going to be the riskiest of the bunch, but oh boy does he have major upside here.
Turner is the safer of the plays as he has a .500 ISO vs. lefties over the last 30 days. Other bats I’ll look to use here will be Austin Hays (sounds weird not being on the O’s), Edmundo Sosa, and Johan Rojas. JT Realmuto is also in play, but we don’t have endless cash to play with.
Other stacks I like today will be the Cardinals vs. Andrew Heaney, Rays vs. Rodder Munoz, and Royals vs. Mr -17 DK points, Drew Thorpe. nnon and the White Sox pen is also very much in play. As you can see, there are a lot of great options for offense tonight.
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