DraftKings Lowball Breakdown Thursday, June 7th
By Nick Collie
MLB Lowball Tournaments are back and better then ever on DraftKings! Well, what exactly is lowball? In DraftKings Lowball mode, users are forced to pick one player in each tier to score the least amount of DraftKings points.
I know sounds crazy right? With DraftKings Lowball, we are now advising people on how to pick the player who will actually perform the worst each night. If you are still confused you can click here to find out the official scoring rules from the DraftKings website. Something to take note is that you are awarded -20 points if the player is a designated starter, so don’t try and get cute by choosing non-starters. Anyways, let’s dive into the tiers for the main slate tonight!
DraftKings Lowball: Pitchers
Cole Hamels (T1) – Hamels got off to a pretty good start this season racking up over 5 Ks in each of his first four starts. Hamels strikeout numbers are still moderately high for the season but he has given up at least 2 ER in four of his last five starts including 2 HR in each of his last three outings. Hamels has undoubtedly the toughest match-up of any starting pitcher tonight going up against the Houston Astros. The Astros this season, have a 119 wRC+ and a .340 wOBA against LHP this season ranking 3rd against the handedness. This will be the fourth time this season the Astros have squared off against Hamels. In the three starts against Hamels the Astros have totaled four HR, five ER, and 12 hits. For whatever reason, Hamels still holds some name value which should drive his ownership down a bit even on a small slate.
Jason Hammel (T2) – Jason Hammel is bad. This season Hammel has a 5.17 ERA, 4.25 FIP, 4.90 xFIP, 2.52 BB/9, 1.01 HR/9, 38.6% FB%, and a 44.1% HH%. Hammel is a very DFS friendly pitcher to target against because he gives up a ton of fly balls that come off the bat at a very hard rate. The A’s this season have a 110 wRC+ and a .318 wOBA against RHP this season both well above average. The A’s also lead the league in HH% against RHP this season with a 41.5% rate. The current forecast in Oakland tonight shows gusts of 17 MPH blowing straight out to center which could turn a couple of those routine Hammel fly balls into HRs. It’s also worth noting that in Hammel’s last start against the A’s might i add, he gave up seven hits, three ER, one HR, and striking out only three batters. The masses may gravitate towards Boyd against the Red Sox but, the Red Sox are actually one of the worst teams against LHP with a 85 wRC+ making Hammel my preferred play in this tier.
Other Pitchers to Consider: Martin Boyd
DraftKings Lowball: Hitting
Texas Rangers- I’m surprised DraftKings Lowball even listed the Rangers as options to roster tonight. The Rangers are easily the desired targets in every tier tonight. Gerrit Cole is the most talented pitcher pitching tonight by a fairly wide margin. The Rangers against RHP this season have a 85 wRC+, 303 wOBA, and a 11.3% swinging strike %. I highly suggest locking in any Rangers starter in every tier tonight.
Tampa Bay Rays- The Rays bats are finally regressing after their insanely hot start to the season. The Rays in the months of March/April were the fifth best offense in the majors with a 109 wRC+ and .328 wOBA. In the last 14 days, the Rays sport a 90 wRC+ and a .300 wOBA.
As we can see the Rays are regressing and slowly transitioning to one of the leagues worst offenses as they were projected to be at the start of the season.
Mike Leake is certainly no powerhouse ace by any means, but he should have no trouble working his way through this below average lineup in a pitcher friendly environment. The only concern here is the extremely high exit velocities for these Rays players against Leake in the past.
Seattle Mariners- On the flip side of this game, The Mariners bats are also prime targets for Lowball tonight. Ryne Stanek is scheduled to start tonight, which usually implies it’s a bullpen game for the Rays tonight.
Stanek started against the Nationals on Tuesday and pitched one inning striking out all three batters. It’s unknown who Kevin Cash will decide to bring in to pitch the bulk of the innings but I’m almost positive Stanek won’t pitch more then the first inning.
After analyzing the game logs for the Rays, it looks like Austin Pruitt will pitch the majority of innings tonight. Pruitt doesn’t have a ton of K upside but he has been pretty good against RHB in a limited sample this season giving up a .227 AVG and a .275 wOBA. The Mariners bats should struggle tonight against Stanek, Pruitt, and whoever else Cash decides to pitch.
Other Teams to Consider:
Detroit Tigers
Next: DraftKings MLB Main Slate
Best of luck in your FanDuel MLB contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all your DFS news and analysis across MLB, NBA,