Welcome into the Wednesday edition of the FanDuel daily fantasy MLB column! We have a medium sized seven game slate tonight so let’s get going.
Tuesday night was another big sweat as our Coors stack was relatively quiet except Trevor Story. Of course, he was also the highest owned of the bunch. Our pitcher only netted us 24 points and we just barely made it into the 50/50’s. It was another night to show what bankroll management is important. If you’re playing mostly cash games, you should have still had a successful night last night. If you went too heavy on GPP’s, it likely wasn’t a good one for you. Let’s got moving on tonight.
Red Sox at Yankees
Red Sox Probable Pitcher – Rick Porcello, RHP
2.14 ERA, 0.82 WHIP and 8.94 K/9
Vs LHH – .220 average, .241 wOBA and 33.9 hard contact rate
Vs RHH – .187 average, .201 wOBA and 21.7 hard contact rate
I’ve been a big Porcello guy this season and have used him three straight starts. That streak is coming to a halt tonight because I just don’t like targeting pitchers in Yankee Stadium against that lineup. Porcello may well throw a great game. He had a no-hitter cooking agains the Sox back in April at Fenway. I should no because I hadn’t bought into Porcello at that point and stacked against him. While Porcello has been excellent so far, one flaw that could hurt him tonight is his fly ball rate to lefties. It’s at 41.8 percent, about where it was last season. The HR/FB rate is almost half of what it was last year, at just 8.7 percent in 2018. There’s home runs coming from lefties.
Yankees Hitters to Target
Elite Options – Didi Gregorius(GPP only)
Secondary Options – Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez, Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks
Yankees Probable Starter – Masahiro Tanaka – RHP
4.39 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 9.22 K/9
Vs LHH – .191 average, .211 wOBA and 24.5 hard contact rate
Vs RHH – .228 average, .327 wOBA and 39.1 hard contact rate
Tanaka is very much in the same boat as Porcello for me tonight. He’s a rock solid pitcher who’s facing a good offense in a tough park. There’s legitimately a wide range of outcomes for him tonight, so he’s simply a GPP play. Boston doesn’t strike out a ton against righties so the ceiling may not be there. $8,600 for him isn’t exactly a discount either. At first blush, I don’t think I’ll have a ton of exposure to this game from any side. I will say that the Sox could be a very sneaky stacking option as not many will go full bore against Tanaka.
Red Sox Hitters to Target
Elite Options – Mookie Betts
Secondary Options – J.D. Martinez, Hanley Ramirez
Home Run Pick – Didi Gregorius