In case the All-Star break didn’t provide you with a big enough respite of baseball action, the slate for tonight’s featured DFS contest is tiny: just four games.
There aren’t too many star pitchers available as part of the slate either, so offense should be at a high. Here are my two favorite stacks from tonight’s smaller slate:
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $175K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st]
1. Los Angeles Angels
SS Zach Neto ($5,300)
OF Mike Trout ($5,000)
1B Nolan Schanuel ($4,000)
OF Jo Adell ($3,900)
Neto was on a tear right before the All-Star break, recording double-digit FPS in each of the last five games prior to the showcase, and while he’s coming off of an extremely rough series against the New York Mets, his overall trend is still fairly positive. His prospects are especially high against Seattle Mariners pitcher Logan Evans ($7,000), who’s posted a pitiful 6.75 ERA in his five road starts this season and ranks in the bottom sextile in eight of 13 Statcast categories. Evans’ inability to induce whiffs and strikeouts should help mitigate two of Neto’s weaknesses. That’s also true of Trout, who’s averaged 9.8 FPTS per game in his last 10 games and whose main issues are whiffing and striking out too much.
Schanuel’s main strength in this matchup is his platoon edge: the 23-year-old southpaw has posted an .804 OPS against right-handed pitchers while being virtually unplayable against lefties, while Evans allows an OPS more than 100 points higher against lefties. He’s also in hot form, posting a .342/.422/.421 slash line over his last 10 games (eight FPTS per game), and he posted a four-hit game against the Mets on Tuesday. Finally, while Adell is a boom-or-bust player, he’s gotten exceptionally unlucky at the plate this season, and that might turn around against a pitcher who has escaped with far less damage than he’s deserved.
2. Athletics
1B Nick Kurtz ($4,900)
OF Tyler Soderstrom ($4,200)
C Shea Langeliers ($4,000)
SS Jacob Wilson ($3,800)
My decision to stack the ice-cold Athletics ultimately depends on how long the Houston Astros’ Jason Alexander ($7,800) stays in the game. To put into context just how bad Alexander has been this season, he was cut by the Athletics, whose staff has the league’s second-highest ERA this season. In his first two MLB seasons, Alexander’s only real skill has been inducing grounders, as most sinker-reliant pitchers invariably do. Facing Alexander is a great opportunity for Wilson, an AL Rookie of the Year candidate, to break his slump: he’s averaged just 3.6 FPTS per game in his last 10 games but nine in his six contests against the Astros.
The other three players in this stack were all chosen for different reasons. Soderstrom is horrific against lefties but has mashed right-handed pitchers to the tune of an .855 OPS this season, and Alexander has allowed a .988 OPS to southpaws. Langeliers hit homers in each of the first two games after the All-Star break before cooling off in the early-week series against the Texas Rangers but has been generally brilliant away from Sutter Health Park, averaging nine FPTS per game. As for Kurtz, he might just be the hottest hitter on the planet, recording five double-digit fantasy efforts in the six games since the showcase and averaging 17.3 FPTS per game in his last 10 games overall, and he’s posted a 1.076 OPS against righties.
