Although Roman Anthony ($4,000) didn’t get a hit last night in his MLB debut, finishing zero-for-four, he needs to look no further than Jac Caglianone ($3,300) to show that fortunes can turn around quickly, as Caglianone notched a four-hit game in just his sixth start as a pro. Anthony and Caglianone will be just fine.
In fact, I’m going to back Anthony to record his first professional hit tonight. Here are seven other players I’ll be targeting for tonight’s featured DFS contest on DraftKings.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $222K Rally Cap [$50K to 1st]
PITCHER
Stud
Lance McCullers Jr., Houston Astros vs. Chicago White Sox, $8,500 – I’ve written previously about my pessimism regarding McCullers, but he’s been elite over his last two starts, pitching a combined 12 innings, giving up three runs, walking two, and striking out 19 (28.5 FPTS per game), and while his salary has jumped dramatically from $6,300 to $8,500, he’s still worth it if he can put up similar numbers again. The White Sox offer a pretty good reason to back him, given that they have posted the second-lowest OPS in the league this season, a mark that drops 15 points in road games.
Value
Simeon Woods Richardson, Minnesota Twins vs. Texas Rangers, $6,800 – Woods Richardson was demoted to the minors in May after giving up six runs and eight hits in just four innings of work (-1 FPTS), but he’s shown some flashes in his other starts this season, including a 5.1-inning, one-run, seven-strikeout (25.6-FPT) masterpiece against the Los Angeles Angels on April 26. With the Rangers having literally the league’s worst offense by OPS — which is hard to do, given that the Colorado Rockies are 12-53 — Woods Richardson should bounce back from his last shaky start in both the majors and Triple-A.
INFIELDER
Stud
Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners at Arizona Diamondbacks, $6,000 – Raleigh’s salary is expensive, of course, but given that he’s slashed .308/.386/.872 with seven home runs over his last 10 games (15.7 FPTS per game), you could reasonably argue that he’s under-valued. If the 28-year-old plays every game for the rest of the season, he’s on track to break Aaron Judge ($6,600)‘s AL home runs record and conceivably has a shot, even if extremely slim, at Barry Bonds’ all-time home runs record. More games against starters like the Diamondbacks’ Brandon Pfaadt ($7,300) should help his chase, given that Pfaadt threw a “yes-hitter” on May 31, giving up eight runs without recording an out (-20.8 FPTS).
Stud
Jonathan Aranda, Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox, $4,700 – After dunking on Pfaadt, I’ll switch to criticizing the Red Sox’s Lucas Giolito ($6,300), who gave up seven runs in 1.2 innings (-13.7 FPTS) last Wednesday against the Angels and now has an eye-popping 10.47 ERA in four starts at home. Giolito might struggle to turn that around against Aranda, as he’s slashed .333/.400/.367 over his last 10 games (5.8 FPTS per game) and went two-for-four with two RBI’s and a walk (12 FPTS) in the series opener yesterday. The 27-year-old Mexican hasn’t gone deep since May 26, but he still ranks in the 88th percentile in average exit velocity and the 92nd in hard-hit percentage. Meanwhile, Giolito ranks in the eighth and 16th percentiles in those respective categories.
Value
Ryan Ritter, Colorado Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants, $2,500 – Ritter made his major league debut over the weekend against the New York Mets and got a hit off of the league’s best pitching staff in each of his three games. He also tripled in his first game — the Rockies actually lead all of the major leagues in triples — and knocked in his first RBI on Sunday. The speedster, who slashed .305/.413/.635 with 16 home runs in 52 games with Triple-A Albuquerque, should be able to do some damage against Kyle Harrison ($6,600), who conceded five runs and nine hits in just 4.1 innings (-0.3 FPTS) in his most recent start.
OUTFIELDER
Stud
Aaron Judge, New York Yankees at Kansas City Royals, $6,600 – What Judge has done over his past 10 games has barely made headlines, but that’s simply because the extraordinary has become so ordinary for him; across that span, he’s slashing .400/.523/.914 (14.4 FPTS per game), and he’s coming off a three-for-four, two-homer, three-run (39-FPT) performance. A start against Noah Cameron ($9,000), who owns a 0.85 ERA through his first five big-league starts, wouldn’t normally be seen as an opportunity, but Cameron’s FIP is a mere 3.64 and he’s benefiting from a minuscule .148 batting average on balls in play. This season, Judge has a 1.537 OPS against left-handed pitchers, a mark 100 points higher than Josh Gibson’s single-season record in 1937.
Stud
Roman Anthony, Boston Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays, $4,000 – I’m not going to be dissuaded by Anthony’s first start after watching him hit Triple-A pitches to the moon. He’s going to get it going eventually, and when he does, he’ll be hard to stop. The 21-year-old hit a 497-foot grand slam on Sunday in the minors, and it’s just a matter of time before he does it for Boston too. He’ll have a decent shot of getting it done against Ryan Pepiot ($7,600), who’s allowed at least one homer in seven of his 13 starts and ranks in just the 28th percentile in hard-hit percentage. Fenway Park is also the league’s second-most hitter-friendly park for left-handed batters.
Value
Jo Adell, Los Angeles Angels vs. Athletics, $3,200 – Adell has been one of the league’s best hitters since the start of June, and he’s slashed .364/.447/.939 over his last 10 games, with six homers, 11 RBI’s, and nine runs scored (13.5 FPTS per game) across that span. He also homered in the series opener last night and now has three homers in his last three games. At some point, he’s bound for some regression to the mean, but there’s no reason to expect that to happen against Mitch Spence ($7,500) and the Athletics. Spence has ranked in just the ninth percentile in average exit velocity this season, and he’s backed up by easily the league’s worst bullpen.
