We have less than 2 weeks until the MLB All-Star break. It’s the worst part of the sports year, in my opinion. The World Cup will end right before it starts, too. There will be PGA golf with the British Open later in the week, but leading up to Thursday, it will be almost silence for fantasy sports.
But in the meantime, we need to make this time in DFS count before we get a little break from the action, which isn’t always a bad thing. I guess it does allow for more time with that family, right? 🙂
For today’s DRAFT slate, we have 12 games where pitching is about as weak as it can get. Today is going to be one of those weird exceptions where taking a pitching (ahem, Clayton Kershaw) is completely acceptable in the first round, at any pick. However, if you feel confident in another pitcher and you know you can get him late, then by all means go with the hitter-first approach.
For today’s slate, we will have Coors, the Yankees vs. a lefty and the Indians as the top targets for DFS-ers. But there are other gas cans to target outside of those players that will be integral to success in 6-man DRAFT contests or larger.
Speaking of DRAFT, they just rolled out a new NFL Best Ball Championship tournament. It looks badass. It’s $25 for each entry, 150-max, but you get to play for 12 weeks and give yourself a shot at $100,000. Go check out the details!
But back to baseball as I switched things up for this article. Instead of the top-15 hitters, I split off OF and IF to top-10 at each position and moved pitchers up to top-6 since I do incorporate 6-man contest strategy. So, let’s go, shall we?
TOP-10 OUTFIELDER RANKINGS
1. Mike Trout
2. Charlie Blackmon
3. Aaron Judge
4. George Springer (if back in lineup)
5. Andrew McCutchen
6. Carlos Gonzalez
7. Scott Schebler
8. Justin Upton
9. Ronald Acuna
10. Aaron Hicks
TOP-10 INFIELDER RANKINGS
1. Giancarlo Stanton
2. Nolan Arenado
3. Brandon Belt
4. Nelson Cruz
5. Jose Ramirez
6. Francisco LIndor
7. Alex Bregman
8. Jose Altuve
9. Joey Votto
10. Freddie Freeman and Gleyber Torres
DARK HORSE BATS OF THE DAY
Wil Myers – OF – San Diego Padres: He’s on a roll, a reverse-splits hitter taking on a with a 50% hard contact rate allowed and a 4.93 xFIP to RH bats this season.
Joe Panik – 2B – San Francisco Giants: If you want to stack Coors in larger contests, Panik is an excellent deep-round pick against Rockies’ starter Antonio Senzatela. Panik has BvP against him (4-for-10 with 2 HRs) and Senzatela 5th in wOBA allowed to lefties on this slate at .354. He’s also allowed a 38% hard contact rate and giving up 1.28 HR/9.
TOP-6 PITCHER RANKINGS
1. Clayton Kershaw (duh)
2. Zach Eflin
3. Zack Greinke
4. Jack Flaherty
5. Shane Bieber
6. Anthony DeSclafani
3-MAN DRAFT CONTESTS
THE STRAT – Take Clayton Kershaw first whenever you can. It’s the safest bet on the board as he takes on the PIrates at home. Outfield is the weakest position on the board, so taking Trout, Blackmon or Judge first certainly makes sense. Be prepared to take Eflin as your second pitching option if you choose to forgo Kershaw. I actually don’t hate that strategy at all. In my 3-mans, I have been taking those 3 OFs and Stanton as my first couple of picks if I don’t get Kershaw. I like Arenado, Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, McCutchen and Astros to round out my lineups. If you can;t get any of those, then I suggest taking Cruz as a late-round pick along with someone like Acuna or Wil Myers.
6-MAN DRAFT CONTESTS
THE STRAT – I suggest stacking in this situation today. You can go Coors, Astros, Indians and Yankees here. I definitely would take Kershaw with my first round pick here if available. The same strategy for me applies with 6-mans as it does 3-mans today because the field of OFs is weak and so is pitching, except I will try to stack more in this situation. Honestly, I will play mostly 3-mans today because of the slate.
