DraftKings MLB Picks April 8: JV against the JV Yankees

ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA – MARCH 28: Blake Snell #4 of the Tampa Bay Rays throws the second pitch of the season to George Springer #4 of the Houston Astros During Opening Day at Tropicana Field on March 28, 2019 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) /

DraftKings MLB Picks April 8: JV against the JV Yankees

We have Opening Day in Chicago for the early slate today. The other eight games make up the main DraftKings MLB tournaments. There are a lot of hidden gems hiding in the night slate, but what about the afternoon?

DraftKings MLB Pitcher Plays:

Top Tier:

Justin Verlander ($10,400): Verlander is easily the biggest name on this slate, but he’s more than a name. The Yankees are hitting just .190 in 63 at bats with only two homers, three runs, and an impressive 20 strikeouts. A lot of the good Yankees hitters are hurt or struggling. This is the time to take a run at the Yankees. Verlander could put up some big numbers here.

Hyun-Jin Ryu ($9,600): Ryu really looks healthy this year. He has started the season with brilliant outings against the Diamondbacks and Giants. The Cardinals will be a tougher test, and they have been decent against Ryu, but with Ryu’s start to the season, we can’t ignore him. Outside of Molina and Goldschmidt, the rest of the Cardinals team is just 11-63 with four runs and 16 strikeouts. If he can stay away from Molina and Goldy, this could be a great outing for Ryu.

Madison Bumgarner ($9,300): It may be a bit premature to say MadBum is back, but he has turned in two strong starts to start 2019. One was against these Padres in which he put up 26.2 DraftKings points in seven strong innings. He doens’t have the upside of Verlander, but I could certainly make a case for using him over Ryu.

Middle Tier:

Eric Lauer ($7,500): The Giants are likely the worst offensive team in the league, so Lauer is in play here, especially since he put up 20.5 DraftKings points on the Giants in his first start. The Giants are only hitting .227 with just two runs in 44 at bats so far. Lauer doesn’t rack up a lot of strikeouts so he’s not going to post eye popping numbers, but we really have no reason to think that the Giants will hit him here.

Marco Estrada ($7,300): Estrada has turned in two solid starts since a tough opener in Japan. The Orioles are a little better offensively than they should be, but Estrada is really familiar with the Orioles, and he has shut them down. They are hitting just .171 in 82 at bats against Estrada with 26 strikeouts, but the Orioles have homered six times. There are places to take shots here.

Felix Hernandez ($6,900): Felix was solid in the opener, only allowing one earned (three overall) run in 5.1 innings with four strikeouts. This is what Felix is now. He isn’t going to strike out 12 or go more than six innings, but he can still get you 20 DraftKings points. Felix is 3-4 with a 3.20 ERA in eight career starts at Kaufmann Stadium. And if you do play narratives, King Felix turns 33 today!

Bargain Pitchers:

Kyle Freeland ($6,200): You will almost never see me recommend two pitchers at Coors, but it is warranted. True, Freeland has been hit well by the Braves, but not necessarily hard. On top of that, Freeland is 16-10 with a 3.04 ERA in 34 career home starts. Freeland’s issues were on the road last year, and he has opened with two really good road starts. Can he pitch like he did last year at home?

Julio Teheran ($5,700): You may think I’m crazy, but hear me out. Teheran is super cheap. He is also 1-1 with a 2.96 ERA in four career Coors Field starts. On top of that, the current Rockies are only hitting .229 with three homers and six runs in 105 at bats with 33 strikeouts. All of those are really solid numbers. Solid enough to make Teheran stand out at this price.

Homer Bailey ($5,000): Homer trolled everyone by racking up 17.1 DraftKings points in his first start. However, the Mariner offense is firing on all cylinders right now. There isn’t a whole lot to like about Bailey except that he’s healthy and throwing strikes. Will that be enough? If he generates eight strikeouts again, then yes. If you are stacking bats and have to go cheap, Bailey is the cheapest, but is far from the worst pitcher going tonight.

My picks: Verlander, Hernandez

HOUSTON, TEXAS – APRIL 05: Carlos Correa #1 of the Houston Astros hits a home run in the fourth inning against the Oakland Athletics of the Home Opener at Minute Maid Park on April 05, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /

DraftKings MLB Stack Options:

Houston Astros vs. Masahiro Tanaka:

The Astros owe us all some money by now. It has been a rough start for one of the best teams in the American League, but they are going to come alive at some time. It could be here. The Astros are hitting a staggering .349 in 83 at bats against Tanaka with eight homers and 20 runs to only 14 strikeouts. George Springer and Carlos Correa are both hitting better than .333 off of Tanaka and have both homered twice. Bregman, Michael Brantley, Josh Reddick, and Jose Altuve have homered off of Tanaka as well. Every active Houston player is hitting .250 or better against Tanaka. There really is no bad play here.

Oakland Athletics vs. Andrew Cashner:

The A’s are hitting .338 against Cashner with five homers and 19 runs in just 71 at bats with only ten strikeouts. The A’s are pretty much the anti-Astros. Khris Davis is really the only expensive part of this, but he is 8-17(.353) with a homer and six RBI, so Davis needs to be in there. Kendrys Morales is 6-10 with three homers and should be where this starts. Profarhas the other homer with four RBI in just two at bats. Matt Chapman and Nick Hundley have hit Estrada well too.

Milwaukee Brewers vs. Trevor Cahill:

Okay, so the Brewers haven’t exactly mauled Cahill. They only have four runs in 47 at bats with no homers. The thing here is the exit velocity. Mike Moustakas has the best average exit velocity of the night at 94.1 mph against Cahill. Yasmani Grandal is right behind him at 93.9 mph. All of that hard contact wont result in outs forever.

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – MARCH 31: Paul Goldschmidt #46 of the St. Louis Cardinals is congratulated by teammates following a home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fifth inning of a game at Miller Park on March 31, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /

The Phillies have hit Anibal Sanchez pretty well, but not really well enough to stack. Bryce Harper is 4-14 with two triples, a homer, five walks, and a pair of RBI, so he’s probably worth the money. Scott Kingery, J.T. Realmuto, and Odubel Herrera are the other three Phillies that have homered against Sanchez, but that is Herrera’s only hit in nine tries.

I like Vince Velasquez, but not against the Nationals. Not with the way Howie Kendrick and Ryan Zimmerman have hit him. Kendrick is 4-7 with two homers and five RBI. Zimmerman is 5-12 with a homer and four RBI.

The Orioles are cheap, and Estrada has fly ball tendencies. I wouldn’t go with a full on stack since the Orioles have struggled overall, but Chris Davis has three homers and nine RBI despite only six hits in 36 tries. Trey Mancini, Jesus Sucre, and Renato Nunez are the others that have taken Estrada deep.

Yadier Molina is only 2-9 against Ryu, but both of the hits are home runs. Goldschmidt is 11-26(.423) with three homers and nine RBI against Ryu.

Whit Merrifield is the only Royal I would play against King Felix tonight. If Billy Hamilton is near the top of the order, I would consider him, but I’m not making it a priority.

Steven Duggar leading off is really the only Giants player that I’m interested in. This team is a black hole for DFS purposes.

I wouldn’t really throw anyone at the Dodgers right now, but targeting Miles Mikolas probably isn’t a great idea either. He’s a ground ball pitcher, after all. Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy are worth a look here, but other than that, I don’t have a lot of interest in Dodgers bats.

Greg Bird and Brett Gardner are the two Yankees that have homered off of Verlander. If you want to take a run at Verlander ownership, do so with cheap lefties. Judge and Gleyber Torres are a combined 1-12.

Justin Bour has the third highest exit velocity of the night against Jhoulys Chacin. I’m not sure I want to take a big shot at Chacin here, but Bour looks ready to get something off of him.

Both Wil Myers and Hunter Renfroe have homered twice off of Madison Bumgarner. Outside of that, the rest of the Padres are just 9-49 with one run and 13 strikeouts.

I mentioned how well Teheran has been against the Rockies, so I’m not sure I want to pay up for the bats. However, if you want to go after him, David Dahl, Charlie Blackmon, and Mark Reynolds have the homers.

Surprisingly, Nick Markakis is 5-11 with two homers and three RBI off of Freeland. Dansby Swanson has a homer and four RBI with six hits in nine tries.

Former Red Jay Bruce has the only Seattle homer off of Homer so far. Bailey pitched well enough in the opener that I may not want to stack here, but it’s not a bad option. 1-5 in the Seattle offense is all cooking right now.

Next. MLB DFS stack options April 8. dark

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