MLB DRAFT DFS Picks (DRAFT.com): Friday, August 10th

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Welcome to today’s edition of MLB DRAFT DFS 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.

If you are finding this article for the first time, my goal here will be to give you my targets 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. Before we get to the targets and rankings, lets take a quick look at today’s slate.

MLB DRAFT DFS Picks – Slate Overview:

Today we have a full slate of games as is the norm on Friday’s in the MLB. The Cubs of course have to do the afternoon game thing, so I will cover the almost complete 14-game slate today, kicking off at 7:05. To sum up today, the pitching is solid in my opinion 1-6, but kind of boring. Our top plays will be Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka, and Blake Snell. After that there are some viable plays, but I kind of like one of these guys and I may grab him in the late 2nd round or short thereafter when possible. We will talk about that more in the pitching targets.

Hitting wise, the slate looks a lot like yesterday. The Yankees are in a great spot facing awful Texas lefty Mike Minor. Minor is incredibly bad on the road with a 6.50 ERA in 44.1 innings pitched, and is really bad against right-handed hitters this season. He has given up 17 home runs to righties, and is allowing a .477 SLG with a .331 wOBA. Give me as much Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks as possible.

The Red Sox also look to be in a good spot, as they will square off with Dylan Bundy and the Orioles. Bundy has been pretty good in his last couple starts, but he will have his hands full with this lineup tonight. Mookie Betts is just 7-for-29 in his career in this match-up, but he does have three home runs. He comes in as our top play as per usual.

Of course there is the Rockies and Coors. In the few drafts I have done so far, I am completely ignoring it. It hasn’t been a launch pad as of late, and once again we will see good pitching there. I am on team fade Coors today, and will even grab a share of Jon Gray or two and watch him rack up some K’s against the Dodgers… While hoping he doesn’t get shelled. You will see by my rankings that there are just better spots in my opinion. Other than that, the weather looks great so everything is in play. Let’s move ahead to the targets shall we?

***Disclaimer! Since I wrote that launch pad comment at 10:00 PM CST  on 8/9/18, there have been four home runs hit at Coors Field in the last half hour***

MLB DRAFT DFS Picks – Top Pitching Targets

For my targets, instead of giving you some basic strategy, 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.

Blake Snell – Tampa Bay Rays – (11)

Snell has been lights out this year, yet he still gets quite overlooked. Is this because he is on the Rays? I have no idea, but today I like it quite a bit as he is slipping a little bit in my drafts. The Rays will be in Toronto facing the Blue Jays, and are getting love from Vegas as a road favorite. Snell has yet to face the Jays this year, and comes in sporting a 2.27 ERA with 137 K’s in 123 innings. Despite being on a mostly bad team, he has also amassed a 12-5 record. This looks like another double-digit strikeout upside game for Snell, and double-digit DP’s as well. I’ll pass on Cole and Tanaka today, and grab Snell where fit. If I miss I look to the next two targets. If there is one knock on Snell, he pitches much better at home and this game is on the road. However, I will take my chances for the strikeouts against Toronto.

Nathan Eovaldi – Boston Red Sox – (20)

Eovaldi has been through a lot in his career, and since landing in Boston, has been thriving in this rotation. I am sure with the injuries to Eduardo Rodriguez and Chris Sale, he has pretty much been the most important piece the team added as the deadline approached. He has picked up two wins in a row, one coming against his newest rival Yankees. He threw an impressive 15 innings in those starts, striking out nine with just one walk, while scattering seven hits. He is being overlooked here, and while I slightly favor him over this next target, I truly think they both have tremendous upside on this slate.

Jon Gray – Colorado Rockies – (30)

Our last target has been fantastic as of late. Gray got the wake-up call demotion to AAA earlier in the season, and has come back looking like he took it to heart. Yeah it must be tough to pitch half of your games at Coors Field, but if you hit your spots as a pitcher and strike guys out while minimizing the damage, you can have success. This is exactly what Gray has done as of late, regardless of where he is pitching. In his last three starts he has allowed just four earned runs in 22.1 innings pitched, with one of those starts coming at home. Also in that span, he has averaged 13.66 DP’s per game. It’s a tough match-up against the stacked Dodgers, but they do strike out a bit, and with my last pick Gray will be my target if I decide the hitters are more important.

MLB DRAFT DFS Picks  – Today’s Hitting Targets:

IF – Matt Carpenter – St. Louis Cardinals – (4)

Considering the April and most of May he had, I was seriously thinking this was the beginning of the end for Carpenter. Safe to say I was wrong, and he certainly still has it. If you ask me, the most impressive thing is the home runs. Carpenter is not a home run hitter by any means. Much like Betts, his bombs are just the byproduct of a good swing. He has now homered in two straight again, both coming at a pitchers park in Miami. He goes to another pitchers park in KC, but I don’t think Royals starter Burch Smith will have much of an answer for him. The massive home run total is now 31, and I am on the Carpenter bandwagon until he cools off a bit.

IF – Khris Davis – Oakland Athletics – (25)

Did someone say home runs? Davis didn’t hit one yesterday but the only reason might be that the Athletics did not have a game. In all seriousness, Davis is Khrushing again (get it?) and is coming in as a late round steal at the infield “DH” position on DRAFT. He is likely being overlooked a bit because most only target him against lefties. But in reality, most of his homers are coming off of right-handed pitching this season. The incredible stat I should mention here is 11 homers in the last 16 games. If your last pick in your drafts is a damn near guaranteed homer, you should probably think about it. Davis is now up to 32 homers on the season.

OF – Giancarlo Stanton – New York Yankees – (2)

So I linked Davis to Carpenter pretty easily so how can I link Stanton to Davis? Easy. I took Monday and Tuesday off for the most part to focus on my PGA articles (Thank you if you read those by the way… Go ZJ!) so I am not exactly sure when this happened, but Stanton is an outfielder and no longer a DH infielder like Davis! Outfield is usually pretty thin, and now that Stanton is heating up, he becomes a top pick once again. He has homered in three straight games now, and faces Minor who he has homered four times off of in his career. A solid case can be made for him as the #1 overall pick today. For me, it’s basically a toss-up between him and Mookie.

OF – Aaron Hicks – New York Yankees – (10)

My last target today before we get to the rankings will be another hot Yankee. Hicks is a switch-hitter, but hits lefties so well he will likely hit lead-off tomorrow. He connected on his 20th homer yesterday, giving him home runs in back-to-back games. Now I am going to link all four of these targets together because they are simply hitting bombs! two in a row here, three in a row there.. You see the trend. I have Hicks ranked way higher than most as you will see by the projections, but I will be drafting him ahead of any outfielder playing in Coors Field today. The match-up here is just too good for the Yankees.

MLB DRAFT DFS 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. Gerrit Cole – Houston Astros – (6)

2. Blake Snell – Tampa Bay Rays – (11)

3. Masahiro Tanaka – New York Yankees – (12)

4. Nathan Eovaldi – Boston Red Sox – (20)

5. Shane Bieber – Cleveland Indians – (29)

6. Jon Gray – Colorado Rockies – (30)

Infielders:

1. J.D. Martinez – Boston Red Sox – (3)

2. Matt Carpenter – St. Louis Cardinals – (4)

3. Jose Ramirez – Cleveland Indians – (7)

4. Francisco Lindor – Cleveland Indians – (9)

5. Paul Goldschmidt – Arizona Diamondbacks – (14)

6. Manny Machado – Los Angeles Dodgers – (16)

7. Nolan Arenado – Colorado Rockies – (17)

8. Trevor Story – Colorado Rockies – (23)

9. Khris Davis – Oakland Athletics – (25)

10. Mitch Moreland – Boston Red Sox – (26)

11. Rougned Odor – Texas Rangers – (27)

12. Edwin Encarnacion – Cleveland Indians – (28)

Outfielders:

1. Mookie Betts – Boston Red Sox – (1)

2. Giancarlo Stanton – New York Yankees – (2)

3. Andrew Benintendi – Boston Red Sox – (5)

4. Charlie Blackmon – Colorado Rockies – (8)

5. Aaron Hicks – New York Yankees – (10)

6. Rhys Hoskins – Philadelphia Phillies – (13)

7. Carlos Gonzalez – Colorado Rockies – (15)

8. Eddie Rosario – Minnesota Twins – (18)

9. David Dahl – Colorado Rockies – (19)

10. Cody Bellinger – Los Angeles Dodgers – (21)

11. Joc Pederson – Los Angeles Dodgers – (22)

12. Mike Trout – Los Angeles Angels – (24)

That is all for today’s MLB DRAFT DFS 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!