We have medium sized slate on tap for Friday night so let’s dig into the box and sort out some picks for tonight.
Welcome baseball fans! Hopefully Opening Day went well for you as there were quite a few picks in yesterday’s column that went on to have nice games. Players like Kershaw and Trout weren’t exactly bold calls, but points are points. The early slate was changed on Twitter due to the rainout in Detroit but it still did very well if you played. It put up a score of 185.7 on the back of the Cubbies stack and Syndergaard having a good start for fantasy.
The main slate didn’t fare quite as well. The sample lineup put up 122.8, which was likely on the line for many players. Hopefully the readers put together the puzzle pieces a little bit better than I did. Many of the picks did well, including Freddie Freeman, Giancarlo Stanton, Khris Davis, and Manny Machado. If you played any of those guys with Kole Calhoun and his 30-point explosion, you were likely in good shape. Somebody please tell me they played a White Sox stack because that probably did really well!
We have an early slate today if you choose due to the rainouts in Detroit and Cincinnati. Seeing as how both this games afford great options, it may be worth it to play the all day slate. We’ll break it down as if you are, but try to focus on just main slate in the analysis. We’ll just make a quick mention of the all day options. If you go the all day route, find a way to put Nationals in your lineup.
If you read yesterday, you’ll know that deciding on a starting pitcher is one of the most important decisions for a lineup. We don’t have the plethora of ace options that we did yesterday but there’s still plenty of fantasy goodness to be had.
Pitcher, High-End Spend
David Price, $8,500
.115(10 for 87), 26.9 strikeout percentage
We’re going right back to the well and picking on the Tampa Bay Rays tonight. Price had a lost season in 2017 as he battled through injuries for a huge chunk of it. He can start the 2018 campaign right when he takes the hill at Tropicana Field. Against the current Rays lineup, Price boasts a 24.1 percent strikeout rate and just a .123 batting average against. The Boston lefty featured primarily a sinker, four seam fastball, and a changeup in 2017. Tampa fared poorly or barely league average against all of them. Price should be able to get a win and hopefully can make it through six innings to get the quality start bonus as well. You just have to hope the Boston bullpen doesn’t spit up all over themselves today.
There is the option of Max Scherzer, but I’m passing on him. One of the weak spots in his game is giving up home runs and he’s pitching in a launchpad. He can slice through any lineup and in any park. It’s just more of a GPP play than cash for today.
Secondary Option – Dallas Keuchel, $9,200 at Texas Rangers
Mid-Range
Masahiro Tanaka, $8,700
.203(26 for 128), 20.7 strikeout percentage
Yes, Tanaka is more expensive than the high-end spend. However, he’s more of a secondary play for me today. The point of this column is to discuss price point, but also preference of who to play. Price is number one on my list by a significant amount and there’s no real ace upside today. For just the second day of the season, mid-range pitching options aren’t all that great and come with a fair bit of risk. Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka personifies that but the price isn’t horrible. He’s on the road, which actually can help him slightly.
The Rogers Centre in Toronto is actually more pitcher friendly than Yankee Stadium. Tanaka has solid numbers against the current Jays lineup and what’s more, he throws pitches that the Blue Jays struggled with last year. They were under league average on the split finger fastball and especially the slider (-36.4), which is what Tanaka leaned on the most. Targeting the Blue Jays lineup isn’t always the best idea but Tanaka has the talent to make it work.
Secondary Option – Kyle Hendricks, $8,200 at Miami Marlins
Value
Jhoulys Chacin, $6,400
.263(15 for 56), 27 .0 strikeout percentage
I will pick on the San Diego Padres relentlessly until they prove I shouldn’t. They just aren’t a very good offensive team whatsoever. Now, Chacin certainly isn’t the safest option either. He’s nothing more than an league average pitcher but he’s good a good price point. The advanced stats point us in the right direction as well. Chacin primarily throws a sinker, slider and four seam mix. The Padres were putrid against those pitches in 2017. This is a gamble play and should only be taken if you really want to bulk up on offense.
Secondary Option – Aaron Sanchez, $5,900 vs. New York Yankees
Pitchers to target against – Homer Bailey(vs. Washington), Doug Fister(vs. Houston), Robbie Ray(vs. Colorado), Jordan Zimmermann(vs. Pittsburgh)