Jared Levitt 
TGIF! It’s Friday and that means we’ll have a big slate. Tonight, we’ll have an 11-game slate of MLB DFS. This slate brings us the potential NL ROY/Cy Young favorite in Shota Imanaga. It also brings us the hottest team in the league heading to Coors Field where they are certain to put up a big number. This slate will have a little bit of everything for us.
Let’s Dig in and make some money!
MLB DFS Aces – Main
Shota Imanaga ($11k on DK) vs. St. Louis Cardinals
While the Cardinals are starting to play a little bit better, they’re still an aging team with many flaws. It’s taken an 8-2 run over the last 10 to get to 3 games under .500. They are still a team that we should be attacking, and we’ll attack them with a pitcher who has been outstanding in his rookie season. The Cubs rookie has been dealing, as evidenced by his .84 ERA. While that isn’t sustainable, he does still have a fairly low xFIP at 3.14. He’s due for some minor regression, but I doubt it comes tonight.
He’s now made 9 starts at the Major League level and has only given up runs in 3 of the games. He hasn’t had the easiest of schedules either as he’s shut down teams like the Braves, Padres, Red Sox, and Dodgers. It’s baseball and there’s always a ton of variance, but this matchup doesn’t scare me off Imanaga. Lock and load as your SP1.
Christopher Sanchez ($7.2k on DK) vs. Colorado Rockies
Yes, using a pitcher in Coor’s isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s as tough of a place to pitch in as there is. That said, he’s cheap and pitching well. Christopher Sanchez is known as a groundball pitcher and when I opt to use a pitcher in Coors, that’s the profile I look for. His GB rate over the last month is a staggering 56%, compared to just a 17% FB rate. As long as he can continue to keep the ball on the ground, he should be able to pay off his salary tonight, providing us much-needed relief after spending up for Imanaga.
Sanchez has averaged nearly 15k points this season and if he can get up to that number again tonight, 2x will be nice. If he can manage to get into the 20s like he’s done in 2 of his last 3 outings, that will be even sweeter for us. It’s not out of the question, especially against a team that blew 2 extra inning leads yesterday and is more than likely feeling down.
Other pitchers that will be in my pool today will be Justin Verlander (very cheap) vs. Oakland Athletics and Zac Gallen vs. Miami Marlins.
MLB DFS Stacks – Main
I’m not going to write up the Phillies as one of my top stacks today. They are far and away in the best spot of any team tonight. They are facing a pitcher that has an ERA of 5.4 over the last month and they are in Coors. You don’t need me to tell you they are in play. They are the obvious play of the day. I’ll give you some other options in the event you want to be different. I want to be different.
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Braxton Garrett
Braxton Garrett has only thrown 2 games so far this season, and they’ve been terrible. He’s given up 11 ER across his 2 outings, with one coming against my lowly New York Mets. In just the 2 outings, he’s allowed a massive 43% hard-hit rate and has allowed 15 base runners across the 9 innings of work. It’s going to be some tough sledding for him tonight as he’s facing off against a team that has crushed lefties this season.
Against lefties, the Dbacks have a .810 OPS and a .353 wOBA. They’ve been great and face a very beatable lefties. I’m going to favor the righties here as Garrett has historically struggled vs. righties as they have a .337 wOBA vs. him throughout his career.
Core Bats: Ketel Marte, Christian Walker, Lourdes Gurriel
Secondary Bats: Corbin Carroll
Value Bats: Blaze Alexander, Randal Grichuk, Gabriel Moreno
Houston Astros vs. Ross Stripling
Houston, we have a problem. That’s what it is going to be going through the minds of the A’s tonight. After struggling to start the season, the Astros are finally playing some better baseball, winning 7 of their last 10 games. A lot of this had been due to the stellar play of their 2 lefties in Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker. Both of them have been tremendous of late and get a phenomenal matchup today vs. Ross Stripling.
Stripling just isn’t a very good pitcher. He’s now started 10 games this season and has only allowed less than 3 ER 3 times. He’s allowed 4 or more runs in 4 of the starts. Stripling is someone that we can always count on to give up some runs. Tonight will be no different. He just doesn’t miss enough bats to have any level of success anymore. I’m not going to be overly concerned about splits here as he’s pretty terrible vs. both sides of the plate.
Core Bats: Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve
Secondary Bats: Alex Bregman, Jeremy Pena
Value Bats: Jake Meyers, Jon Singleton
Other stacks I like tonight will be the Orioles vs. Chris Flexen, Cubs vs. Miles Mikolas, and Angels vs. Logan Allen.
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