MLB FanDuel: Diamond Dozen April 25th
By Bruce Lamb
MLB FanDuel Diamond Dozen
Back in action with a huge 14 game slate of MLB action! Last night was pretty high scoring in most contests with 3 teams scoring over 10 runs. The Chicago Cubs lead the way with 14 runs on 17 hits! They were not the only team from the windy city to do damage last night as the White Sox put up an amazing 8 runs in the 6th inning on their way to a 12-1 victory over the Royals. If you happened to have a White Sox stack you should have bought some lottery tickets last night too because it was your lucky day.
The Milwaukee Brewers brought Amir Garrett back down to earth by torching him for 9 earned runs in just 3.1 innings. Eric Thames is some kind of wonderful right now after hitting his league leading 9th and 10th home run of the season less than a month into the season. The Dodgers and Rangers really disappointed last night but the Rockies got things going in the middle innings to salvage some of the night. On the mound Zack Greinke had 11 strikeouts in 6 innings to put up 58 FDP’s.
Tonight the Nationals and Rockies lead the way with a game total of 11.5 runs. San Diego at Arizona has a total of 9.5, Minnesota at Texas and Cincinnati at Milwaukee are close behind at 9. The rest of the games have a total below 9 with the lowest being the Los Angeles Dodgers visiting the San Francisco Giants at 6.5. Once again the Diamond Dozen will feature the pitchers I like, the bats I’m paying up for as well as the value bats I’m targeting, and also the teams I’ll be looking to stack. We have plenty to choose from tonight with so many games so let’s get to it!
MLB FanDuel: Diamond Dozen Top Pitchers
Clayton Kershaw – $12,700
Kershaw is the best pitcher in baseball and will always be in consideration every time he pitches. He has scored over 52 FDP’s in 3 of his 4 starts this season. He has 32 strikeouts in 28.1 innings pitched and has only walked 2 batters all season. I think using Kershaw on this slate will be the contrarian play because so many will want to get exposure to the games in Colorado, Milwaukee, and Arizona. You can make Kershaw work but you will have to get a little creative.
Wade Miley – $8,100
Miley opened up a -137 favorite and quickly jumped up to a -154 favorite over the Tampa Bay Rays. Miley is coming off a dominating performance against the Cincinnati Reds with 11 k’s in 8 innings of work. He is averaging 43.67 FDP’s which is just over 3 points less than Kershaw’s 46.75 average. The $4,600 price difference will likely make Miley one of the more popular targets on the mound tonight against a Tampa Bay team that strikes out at a 28.6% rate.
Michael Wacha – $7,700
This is more a play against the Toronto Blue Jays than it is a play on Wacha’s abilities. The Blue Jays are a mess this season. They lost Encarnacion in the off-season and are missing Josh Donaldson due to a calf injury. Bautista looks absolutely lost at the plate and they just don’t have enough talent on the rest of their team to be relevant. Wacha has 17 k’s in 18.2 innings with a 2.41 ERA. The Blue Jays strikeout at a 24.1% rate and have a team wOBA of just .274. Wacha is a great value play at pitcher tonight if you decide to pay up for a lot of bats.
MLB FanDuel: Diamond Dozen Top Bats
Bryce Harper (OF) – $5,500
Let’s try this again. For some reason Harper was given the night off last night so I’m going back to him again tonight. He is facing the right-handed German Marquez in Coors Field. The Nationals have the highest expected team run total on the slate and will likely be the most popular team to stack tonight. It will be difficult to use both Harper and Kershaw in the same lineup, it can be done, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Anthony Rizzo (1B) – $4,500
The Cubs came alive at the plate last night and I think it’s just the beginning. Rizzo had homered in 3 straight games entering yesterday. He went 0 for 4 but still managed to score 18.4 FDP’s. He walked twice, scored 2 runs, and even stole a base. He went 4x without getting a hit….I’ll take that every time.
Travis Shaw (3B) – $3,600
He isn’t the most expensive player at third base but he could be the most overlooked tonight. He sat yesterday because of the lefty on lefty match-up with Garrett, and he is coming off a bad 3 game stretch where he hasn’t scored more than 10 FDP’s. Tonight he gets a righty on the mound in Scott Feldman who is allowing a .358 wOBA to lefties. This Brewers offense is for real and it seem Thames or Shaw is going off every night.
MLB FanDuel Top Value Bats
Chris Owings (SS) – $2,800
Owings had a grand slam last night in Arizona and gets to face the left handed Clayton Richard tonight. Arizona has the 3rd highest expected team total on the slate tonight and Richard is allowing a .350 wOBA to right handed bats. This should be another great night for the Arizona bats.
Austin Hedges (C) – $2,900
Hedges seems to be all or nothing. He is only hitting .183 on the year but he has 6 home runs and 13 RBI’s. He went yard last night in Arizona which made it 6 home runs in his last 8 games. Patrick Corbin is allowing a .362 wOBA against righties and I think this game shoots out again.
Kole Calhoun (OF) – $2,700
He has begun to hit in front of Mike Trout in the Angels lineup which should benefit him greatly. Opposing pitchers will not want to give Trout any base runners when he comes up so Calhoun should get good pitches to hit should he continue to hit 2nd in the Angels order.
MLB FanDuel Top Stacks
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks put up 7 runs last night behind a grand slam from Owings and a solo shot by Peralta. They did that without their best hitter in Paul Goldschmidt. I think they beat that number tonight. They have the third highest run total on the slate and they should get a ton of production from their right-handed hitters. I would not use Lamb or Peralta in this one due to the .279 wOBA Richard allows to lefties, but his .350 wOBA to righties is something I want a piece of.
Washington Nationals
I was on the Rockies side of this game last night, tonight I’m all about the Nationals. They have some relatively cheap bats for a Coors Field game and German Marquez gets hammered from both left and right-handed hitters. His wOBA to lefties is .391 and to righties it’s .397. Some of the cheaper right-handed bats are Rendon (he will go yard in this series) and Werth are both $3,600. This game has a chance of having some weather issues so please be sure to check on it before game time.
Los Angeles Angels
I’m going to shoot for the moon with at least one stack each time and the Angels are that moon shot tonight. Jesse Hahn does not strikeout many guys, and the Angels don’t strikeout much. The Angels are also very patient at the plate and draw a lot of walks, which Hahn gives up as well. The Angles could have blown the game open against the Blue Jays last night but they left a TON of guys on base. I think they come through in similar situations tonight and put up some runs. Their 4.43 expected run total is almost a full run over their average. If you stack this one you need to for sure have Calhoun, Trout, and Pujols.
Good Luck Tonight….Let’s Get It!
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