You know it’s a bad slate for pitching when Freddy Peralta is the highest-priced pitcher of a slate.
Not saying he’s not very capable and electric, it’s just not what I expect when I open up the salary page on DraftKings.
Dereck Rodriguez is the second highest-priced pitcher, and while I like what I’ve seen from him, again, why would I overpay for a pitcher whose is only priced according to the talent level of the slate? If there were 2-3 studs, Rodriguez probably comes in around $8K, not nearly $10K.
So with that said, that’s what we are dealing with on this 9-game evening slate.
Like I mentioned on Monday, I will be using a little different format for stacks until we end our baseball coverage.
And that change comes with picking two pitchers to build around and ideally, my stacks can be interchangeable without pricing hiccups.
Let’s see how it plays out for tonight’s slate, shall we?
So the two pitchers I am using for this segment are Miles Mikolas, who is at a reduced price facing a team that doesn’t have a lot of power or pop.
My SP2 is playing the game theory angle – Mike Minor.
I know he’s at home, playing in the heat, and is up against the Dodgers. However, Minor has been far superior at home than on the road, is super tough on lefties and tougher on righties than one would expect. He does give up the long ball once or twice a game, but he doesn’t walk a lot of batters, so he can limit the damage with the long balls. It’s a contrarian move and we will gain an edge on the field if correct because everyone will have the Dodgers.
But yes, I will be hedging because I do love Machado and Turner, the main threats in the Dodgers lineup.
So it’s Minor and Mikolas, so who are we stacking?
GAME STACK – MINNESOTA @ CLEVELAND
Twins
- Max Kepler
- Eddie Rosario
- Jake Cave
Indians
- Francisco Lindor
- Yonder Alonso
- Michael Brantley
Analysis: First off, keep an eye on the weather here. Secondly, I love me some Jose Ramirez, but he’s out of this stack because we are working within the parameters of the pitcher’s salary. He makes it too difficult to shuffle players around at his price. Anyway, both of these teams get a chance to wreck opposing starting pitchers. The Twins get Adam Plutko, who allows a .453 wOBA, 3.32 HR/9 and 40% hard contact to lefties. The top lefties in this lineup are the three above. You can play Mauer if you want, but he’s not my guy. All three of these guys have ISOs of .179 or better against right-handed pitching. On the opposite side, we have the Indians against rookie Kohl Stewart, who also has been terrible against lefties, giving up a .368 wOBA, 44% hard contact rate and 5.76 xFIP. Play Ramirez if you want, I get it. But I will stack these other lefties at cheaper rates. Lindor, Brantley and Alonso have ISOs of .256, .215 and .185 ISOs, respectively. I mean, I’ve talked about the Indians so much this season, I think you already know by now that I always love the four lefties and avoid E5. Today is no different.
