Kansas City Royals

DRAFTKINGS 3/28/19 MLB –  Written by Jared ContestabileThe long wait for baseball has finally come to an end and we get a juicy 9 game slate to open the season, what could be better? We have arms like Carlos Rodón, Brad Keller and Mike Minor who are clear target options for me on this slate. Whit Merrifield – Kansas City Royals – 2B/OF – $4,500 As I had stated above Carlos Rodón is definitely someone I would love to attack here. Getting the Royals best hitter at the top of the order is definitely a route I am taking. In September/October alone Rodón had a 9.22 ERA in 27.1 with batters hitting at a .336 clip off of him, as well as a .435 wOBA. With Whit being a more difficult player to strikeout (14.4% at home) and Rodón strikeouts declining drastically as the season went on last year, we should see many hard-hit balls in this one and Merrifield will be a huge part of it. As your true lefty killer, at home verse lefties last year (Merrifield) had hit .354 and also swiped 13 bags to add on. As well, he holds a 41.8 hard hit % against lefties last year pairs well against a pitcher who gets hit hard on the road versus righties (36.1%). He is sitting at a perfect price point for me to start my lines, another plus is he is 2B and OF eligible. Jam him in your line. Javier Baez – Chicago Cubs – SS – $4,800 Ah, the beautiful Texas heat paired with a terrible pitcher, what could possibly go wrong? Javier Baez just had the breakout season not many were expecting, finishing tops in the MVP voting. All season long he mashed lefties, home and away, hitting to the tune of a .306 average. Though Javy strikes out at a very alarming rate on the road (26.8%), Mike Minor has pretty solid strikeout numbers at home but, he has never been that strikeout pitcher we fear. The huge plus for Javy is, Mike Minor gets hit HARD at home (42.4%), as well as Javy hits the ball just as hard on the road (42.3%) and even harder versus lefties (48.1%). Traveling to Texas where the ball always seems to fly out of the park is a dream scenario for Javy. Hitting clean up for a dangerous Cubs lineup will give him all the RBI opportunities he needs to give a great return on your investment. Wilson Contreras – Chicago Cubs – C – $4,400 I want to double down here and get the 4 and 5 hole hitters against Mike Minor. Contreras, even after a down year for him last year, is a way better hitter against lefties (.276) than he is against righties (.262). With the way the ball flies out of the park here, I donʼt see why he wonʼt be the highest scoring catcher on the slate. Contreras hits the ball the hardest on the road versus lefties (43.2% hard-hit rate) and the bodes well with Minor being hit really hard at home especially versus righties (42.5% hard-hit rate). The 1-2 punch of Javy and Contreras will be very popular for me in most of my lineups. Corey Dickerson – Pittsburgh Pirates – OF – $3,800 One of my favorite plays on this slate who I feel will go very under-owned. Dickerson, who is one of the most consistent hitters who is always over looked, ended last season in September hitting .324. Going up against Luis Castillo, even though he is drastically better at home than away, he struggles mightily against left-handed bats with a .285 average against him and also a .373 wOBA. Not to mention how hard he gets hit at home, (40.8%). This pairs perfectly as Dickerson hits righties very hard on the road at a 44% hard hit rate. We all know the strikeout stuff is there for Castillo but the good thing about Dickerson is he doesnʼt strikeout too much away from home, at only a 15.8% clip. Aldaberto Mondesi – Kansas City Royals – SS – $4,500 This is my favorite player to stack Whit Merrifield with and I will have many of these two stacks with them. Going back to the target of Carlos Rodón with this one. The only problem I do have with Mondesi is that he does strikeout a ton BUT, Rodóns K ability, as I said before, had declined as the reason went on so who knows what is going on there. Mondesi has one stat that has me very intrigued, that is his 60.6% hard-hit rate versus lefties at home. I know itʼs a small season sample size as he didnʼt play the whole season but, that is very high. He cleaned up left-handed pitchers last season batting .289 with a wOBA of .354 as well as swiping 32 bags on the season. Pairing Mondesi with Whit at the top of the lineup will be huge for me as I predict these Royals getting to Rodón early.