Fansided

DraftKings MLB picks July 25: Plutko, the ninth planet

By Mike Marteny

BOSTON, MA - AUGUST 23: Adam Plutko #45 of the Cleveland Indians throws against the Boston Red Sox in the first inning at Fenway Park on August 23, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - AUGUST 23: Adam Plutko #45 of the Cleveland Indians throws against the Boston Red Sox in the first inning at Fenway Park on August 23, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images) /
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DraftKings MLB
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 09: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets in action against the Minnesota Twins at Citi Field on April 09, 2019 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. The Twins defeated the Mets 14-8. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /

DraftKings MLB Early Plays:

On the early slate, it begins and ends with Jake deGrom and how to fit him in. Yes, his numbers are a little worse at home, but he picked up 22.8 DraftKings points on the Padres in San Diego earlier this year. deGrom also has a 2.29 ERA in his last ten starts, so a lot of those home numbers were skewed by a few bad starts in the first six weeks. He’s the guy you want to lock in, especially with the elevated strikeout potential with the Padres today.

Eric Lauer’s ERA is 3.5 runs higher on the road, so I’m not touching that here. Miles Mikolas has also been dreadful on the road. His ERA is nearly 5 runs worse away from Busch Stadium. That leaves Joe Musgrove whether we like it or not. That would be fine except Musgrove has given up 13 of his 59 runs allowed this year to the Cardinals in just 7.2 innings!

Now what? We have to use two pitchers! In this particular instance, it may be wise to uncheck that “remove non probables” box at the bottom of the screen and use a reliever. Francisco Liriano would look to be the long reliever of choice for Pittsburgh, but it’s much more muddled on the St. Louis side. John Gant or John Brebbia look to be the better bets.

I may go ahead and take my chances with Musgrove since he doesn’t have glaring home/road splits and he’s cheaper than Liriano. Musgrove has the best chance of the other three to make something of his starting opportunity. Using Musgrove with deGrom leaves us $4,100 to spend per hitter slot. Now we need to identify the priorities.

Given the terrible splits on Mikolas and Lauer, I’m targeting mostly Mets righties and Pirates lefties. The only past stats that really stand out are Adam Frazier and Corey Dickerson against Mikolas. Hunter Renfroe has homered twice off of deGrom, but I’m not sure I want to take that.

The only real debate left is Pete Alonso or Josh Bell. Bell has been in a bit of a slump lately, so I’ll happily go Alonso. We could punt catcher with Jake Stallings or Mejia, but with Wilson Ramos only $600 more, I think I’ll go ahead and pay for him. That leaves $4,025 to pay for SS, 3B, and two OF slots.

Sticking with our established theme, it’s pretty easy to just plug in Amed Rosario and Colin Moran. If we go that route, which I will, that leaves $3,950 for the other two OF slots. That would leave off Starling Marte and Bryan Reynolds. Leaving off Conforto, Dom Smith, and McNeil isn’t that big of a deal since all are lefties.

It’s fair and easy to want to take shots with Franimal and Renfroe here, especially since they fit so easily. I think I’ll go with the hot Jose Martinez and J.D. Davis to get another Mets righty in there.