MLB DRAFT DFS Picks (DRAFT.com): Monday, July 2nd
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Welcome to today’s edition of MLB Top DRAFT Picks from FantasyCPR. The DRAFT app can be downloaded to your mobile device through your app store, or you can access their desktop site here.
I play quite a bit on DRAFT, and have always been a big fan of the snake draft format. On DRAFT, you roster one starting pitcher, two infielders, and two outfielders. They offer head-to-head, 3-man, 6-man and 10-man drafts that start upon filling. Also, they have a tournament format, where one contest will span a few days. The further you advance, the more you win. I play mostly the six-man contests for cash games, which payout to the top two spots.
My goal here will be to give you my strategy for drafting today on DRAFT, followed by my top 30 overall rankings. Strategy of course changes day by day, depending on what type of slate we are working with. I always start with my pitcher, as everything else revolves around that. After having completed my rankings for today and done a few six-man drafts, here is how I am attacking this slate.
MLB DFS DRAFT Picks – Slate Overview:
Today we are working with a 10-game evening slate starting at the normal 6:05 PM CST. We have two of the best in the game on the mound tonight in Max Scherzer and Corey Kluber, and we welcome Coors Field back in to the DFS world after a Rockies road trip. Scherzer has the tougher match-up by quite a big margin in my opinion tonight, as he and the Nats will host the Red Sox. Boston struggled mightily against Yankees ace Luis Severino last night, and it won’t be any easier for them tonight against Mad Max.
Unlike Scherzer, Kluber does not have the luxury of pitching at home tonight, but he does have the better match-up, as his Indians will face the Royals in Kansas City. Kluber is coming off of a melt down game, where he was lit up at St. Louis for six earned in just 1.2 innings. It’s pretty rare a guy of this caliber has back-to-back bad starts, so with the Indians being a heavy Vegas favorite, I am looking for Kluber to bounce back, and dominate KC. He should be well rested anyway.
I almost feel obliged to say the weather looks great everywhere, so that won’t be an issue. Guess I just couldn’t resist. Let’s move ahead to today’s targets.
MLB DFS DRAFT Picks – Today’s Top Pitching Targets:
I felt like changing this up a bit so welcome to the new format! It is pretty easy to decipher throughout my rankings what that day’s particular strategy will be, so let’s mix it up a bit. Instead of giving you some basic vanilla strategy, like repeating the fact that the Infield position is usually deep throughout, and the outfield position drops off pretty dramatically usually in terms of “lock” type plays, I will opt to point out the guys I am actually targeting and drafting. I think this will be more helpful in terms of understanding why I have certain players ranked where they are. Similar to the rankings, followed by each target will be their overall ranking of 30 in parenthesis.
Corey Kluber – Cleveland Indians – (1)
Normally I am an all in on Scherzer guy when he is on a slate. Today I will just feel a tad more comfortable with Kluber, despite a couple bad starts in his last three. I mentioned the St. Louis blow up, and a couple starts before that, he managed to go just 5 innings against the Twins, allowing four earned runs. It should be noted that Mike Moustakas has some pretty good career numbers against Kluber, hitting nearly .500 in almost 50 plate appearances. It should also be noted that Kluber owns Alex Gordon so bad that it kind of evens out. Gordon is hitting just .159 in 51 career plate appearances with 20 strikeouts. Nobody in this KC lineup really scares me, unlike the Scherzer situation against the Red Sox. Regardless, one of these two studs is certainly on my squad if I get a top two pick
Alex Wood – Los Angeles – Dodgers – (13)
My third ranked pitcher today has the slight benefit of having a couple of other pitchers in much tougher spots with higher projections. Wood will be at home facing the Pirates, and even though they don’t strike out a whole lot, he should be a heavy favorite. You will see Robbie Ray and Luis Castillo with higher projections today, and while I like Ray, his match-up is not ideal as the Cardinals hit lefties pretty well. Castillo on the other hand, this one has me scratching my head. He is the third highest projected pitcher on the slate, and yes he is facing the White Sox, but the Sox are hitting a bit, and this a hitters park with hitting conditions. I want no part of Castillo.
Wood has not given up more than two earned in each of his last four starts, and is coming off of a nice seven inning, six strikeout performance against the Cubs. After Wood I don’t like many of the other options. I am prioritizing getting one of these three today, but I will not take Wood before the fourth round. If I miss on the top studs and Wood, I am looking to this last pitching target.
Nathan Eovaldi – Tampa Bay Rays – (25)
So you missed on the top guys, who are you turning to today? Enter Eovaldi, a flame thrower now six starts back from injury. In his last start, a home game against the Nationals, Eovaldi was filthy for six innings, allowing just one hit while striking out nine. Tampa will head into Miami to face the Marlins, and while they have been hitting a bit, they will counter with Wei-Yin Chen. Chen just is not a big league caliber pitcher anymore, and I will actually be looking to stack up some cheap Rays for sure on those other sites. I doubt Eovaldi matches that 19 DP outing, but double-digits here is certainly plausible.
MLB DFS DRAFT Picks – Today’s Top Hitter Targets:
Wow for a ten game slate we have many, many options today. Coors Field of course is the place to start, but this game is not screaming stack to me. The Rockies will face Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner, and Bum has fared pretty well against this team over the years. Carlos Gonzalez has gotten the best of him, hitting five long balls off of him over the years, but CarGo won’t quite crack the radar tonight. Nolan Arenado on the other hand is on my radar, along with Trevor Story. I am definitely not all-in on Coors tonight, and truthfully I am only targeting one bat from the Giants.
We have the Yankees at home facing the Braves and Anibal Sanchez, and we also have James Shields in action at Great American Ball Park facing the Reds. I love targeting Sanchez, so the Yankees are a great stack option, after Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, look to complete the stack with Aaron Hicks and Didi Gregorius. Also, I am loving the Reds lefties here along with Eugenio Suarez, so we actually have two four-man stack options that are certainly in play. Joey Votto, Scott Schebler, and Scooter Gennett are the the other targets here.
IF – Jose Ramirez – Cleveland Indians – (12)
When I actually get a top two pick, which is rare, I grab a top pitcher. After that, I am looking right to JRam in the second. He went 3-for-6 with two doubles yesterday in the Indians thrashing of the A’s., making it three straight double-digit DP performances. Ramirez is always in play at this point, when he gets hot, play him. He kind of slots in around the end of the second round, and of course stacking him with Francisco Lindor and Michael Brantley is always in play. All three have hit Royals starter Jakob Junis in a small sample size. Lindor has been the best however, at 4-for-7 with two doubles and a home run. With all of this infield depth, these Indians are actually making for a semi-sneaky stack today.
IF – Freddie Freeman – Atlanta Braves – (19)
Again, the depth at this position just seems like your fourth round pick is a steal no matter who it is. This has happened with Freeman for me at least twice, and it sticks out when a player of this caliber slips so far in the draft. Freeman hit his 16th homer last night, and has been an RBI machine this year thus far with 56 driven-in. His Braves will be in Yankee Stadium, so the hitting conditions should be prime. He will be facing Yankees rookie Jonathan Loaisiga who has been off to a great start thus far, and is coming off an eight strikeout win against the Phillies. I think the Braves lefty heavy lineup could pose a threat to Loaisiga, so I like Freeman as a late round one-off.
OF – Andrew McCutchen – San Francisco Giants – (8)
Ah yes my one target from the opposing team at Coors Field. I could add Brandon Belt here, as he does hit lefties well, but I just don’t have a good feeling about the Giants. Maybe my tune will change as the day goes on, but right now, I’ll pass. Kyle Freeland will be on the hill for the Rockies, so we could say Buster Posey is in play in well. The infield position is just too deep for that in my opinion however. Cutch is not hitting like the Cutch we have been used to in the past, as he is hitting just .261 with nine home runs on the season. I think he connects with number ten here off Freeland, and he has been a constant second round grab for me today.
OF – Juan Soto – Washington Nationals – (27)
The Nats are coming off of a rout, so it is unlikely they will go off again, but I like pairing Soto with Bryce Harper in drafts that I happen to land him. There are much better spots in the stacks I mentioned above, but the Nats could make for a sneaky, easy to obtain stack. They aren’t in a great spot, as they will face Boston and Rick Porcello, but Soto could make for a great last round pick, in a not so deep outfield position. Soto is 0 for his last 10, but had that massive Friday night hitting two home runs and scoring 42 DP’s. He will make a squad or two of mine, as soon as I get Harper.
MLB DFS DRAFT Picks – Today’s Rankings:
My rankings are pretty easy to follow. I have ranked the top 30 overall. We will go six deep at pitcher, and twelve deep at IF and OF. Rankings are broken down into positions, and following each players name will be their overall ranking in parenthesis.
Pitchers:
1. Corey Kluber – Cleveland Indians – (1)
2. Max Scherzer – Washington Nationals – (2)
3. Alex Wood – Los Angeles Dodgers – (13)
4. Robbie Ray – Arizona Diamondbacks – (18)
5. Nathan Eovaldi – Tampa Bay Rays – (25)
6. Brent Suter – Milwaukee Brewers – (30)
Infielders:
1. Nolan Arenado – Colorado Rockies – (4)
2. Giancarlo Stanton – New York Yankees – (5)
3. Joey Votto – Cincinnati Reds – (6)
4. Trevor Story – Colorado Rockies – (9)
5. Paul Goldschmidt – Arizona Diamondbacks – (11)
6. Jose Ramirez – Cleveland Indians – (12)
7. Didi Gregorius – New York Yankees – (14)
8. Francisco Lindor – Cleveland Indians – (15)
9. Scooter Gennett – Cincinnati Reds – (17)
10. Freddie Freeman – Atlanta Braves – (19)
11. Eugenio Suarez – Cincinnati Reds – (20)
12. Ozzie Albies – Atlanta Braves – (24)
Outfielders:
1. Aaron Judge – New York Yankees – (3)
2. Bryce Harper – Washington Nationals – (7)
3. Andrew McCutchen – San Francisco Giants – (8)
4. Eric Thames – Milwaukee Brewers – (10)
5. Scott Schebler – Cincinnati Reds – (16)
6. Michael Brantley – Cleveland Indians – (21)
7. Aaron Hicks – New York Yankees – (22)
8. Charlie Blackmon – Colorado Rockies – (23)
9. Mookie Betts – Boston Red Sox – (26)
10. Juan Soto – Washington Nationals – (27)
11. David Peralta – Arizona Diamondbacks – (28)
12. Cody Bellinger – Los Angeles Dodgers – (29)
Next: DFS MLB Game by Game Breakdowns
That is all for today’s MLB Top DRAFT picks on FantasyCPR. If you have any questions regarding any of my rankings, reach out to me on Twitter at @JuanBondDFS. You can also leave a question right here in the comments, and I will do my best to respond. Good luck tonight and happy drafting on DRAFT!