It’s hard to believe that we’ve nearly hit the one month mark of the MLB season.
We still have 5 months to go in the regular season, but it’s starting to fly by.
It’s also starting to become that time where we can begin incorporating 2018 stats into our research. There’s still a lot of noise out there in the stats, but we will start to see clarity in the numbers soon.
Tonight we have 8 games to digest, which is more of a palatable slate for me. This edition of the Stack is going to stray from the usual rules, but only just a little bit.
We have Coors on the slate, which I have said, will not be in my articles because they are USUALLY the obvious plays.
However, there are a couple of guys from the Padres that are the apple of my eye, and I don’t think their ownership will be very high, especially with the Yankees and Astros on the slate.
The Rockies are the No. 1 stack on the board for me, so just know that going in.
Let’s get down to business. May the force be with you!
NEW YORK YANKEES
1. Aaron Judge – $5,400
2. Miguel Andujar – $2,800
Total Cost – $8,200
Percentage of Salary Cap – 16%
Combined 2018 Home Runs – 8
SP HR/9 vs. Left (2018) – 4
SP HR/9 vs. Right (2018) – 0
Justification – Add in Gary Sanchez and Stanton if you want, even Didi, Torres, etc. I get it.. But I want to two guys who have been the best against RH pitching this season. Part of this play is hoping to get on the right side of the stats. Odorizzi is a career-splits pitcher, but right now he’s getting smoked by left-handed bats, mowing down RH bats and has yet to give up a HR to a RH bat. But this is Yankee Stadium, this is the Yankees and Odorizzi isn’t some next-level pitcher all of a sudden. This is variance. Judge owns a .438 wOBA, a .349 ISO and a 44% hard contact rate against righties. Andujar is just red hot with 13 hits in his last 6 games, where all but one are multi-hit efforts. Against RH pitching, Andujar owns a .418 wOBA, .368 ISO and a 48.5% hard contact rate.
TEXAS RANGERS
1. Adrian Beltre – $3,400
2. Joey Gallo – $3,800
3. Shin-Soo Choo – $3,600
4. Nomar Mazara – $3,400
Total Cost – $14,200
Percentage of Salary Cap – 28%
Combined 2018 Home Runs – 16
SP HR/9 vs. Left (2018) – 0
SP HR/9 vs. Right (2018) – 0
Justification – This stack is a tough one for me. I really like the upside Trevor Cahill presents with his ability to rack up strikeouts and the Rangers ability to strike out – 26% against RH pitching. But as you can see from their home run numbers, this stack has some pop. Cahill can be a little generous in the extra-base hit department and all four of these Rangers provide salary relief and upside. In his lone start, Cahill gave up 50% hard contact to both sides of the plate. Since 2016, Cahill owns a .336 wOBA against RH bats and has allowed 32% hard contact to lefties. He’s allowed more than one HR/9 to both sides of the plate in that span, too. Gallo has the most pop in this group and is ridiculously underpriced, in my opinion. Choo is 5-for-10 off Cahill while Beltre is batting .367 with 6 extra-base hits in his career. Mazara is on a hot steak with 12 hits in his last 10 games.
