The Pulse: MLB Friday, May 22

Getting Social with Ownership

The MLB Pulse is constructed to give daily fantasy enthusiasts insight to the most popular picks in a game slate, assessing their viability along the way. In other words, this column is designed to gauge the daily fantasy world's opinion as a whole. We will then take it a step further, telling you when to “join the herd" and when to pivot elsewhere.

Buzz is calculated on a 1-10 scale by considering numerous daily fantasy media outlets picks and general conversation on forums/twitter.

Infielders:

Name	Buzz
Buster Posey	10
Brandon Crawford	9
Jose Abreu	8
Kyle Seager	7
Jason Kipnis	6

-Buster Posey faces another righty tonight, but as the hottest hitting catcher over the past couple weeks added to the fact that he's playing in Coor Field tonight, his ownership is going to be sky high. Even in lui of his high price tag I imagine. He's being touted as the top option at the position by nearly everyone. He's certainly an advised fade in GPPs if you're looking to hit a top spot, but he could easily be the highest scoring catcher of the night.

-Brandon Crawford continues to heat up and as "luck" would have it, we have another Giant atop out buzz list. Crawford has been excellent lately and finally may be in the midst of the breakout season. Kyle Kendrick hasn't been anything special at all this year and Crawford has been crushing similarly talented righties this season. Much like Posey, he's probably a good GPP fade due to his heavy ownership, but should put up some big numbers.

-Jose Abreu hasn't been as good as last year with the power numbers, but he's still terrifying at the plate each time up. He's hitting nearly .300 still and I fully expect the power to come around, he's simply hyped too often at this point and most of that hype is due to a 13 at-bat sample size of BvP versus Phil Hughes tonight. I like him, but I'm not solid on him as a far superior play to the plethora of other first basemen tonight.

-Jason Kipnis continues to be red hot lately and faces another weak righty in Mike Leake tonight. He's crushed righties on the season to the tune of a .371 wOBA, .169 ISO and 142 wRC+ that still leaves some room for improvement. I don't love him being one of the higher priced second basemen on every site though, when you can get Joe Panik at Coors for much less. That should, however, drive down his ownership.

-Kyle Seager playing is SafeCo field realy hurts often, but tonight he'll play in the hitter friendly dome in Toronto where he makes for an excellent play. He's facing a weak righty tonight and has been really getting it going, with a hit in seven consecutive games. He got tossed last night, so he will be looking to make up for lost time against Marco Estrada and the .315 wOBA against he sports coming in.

Outfielders:

Name	Buzz
Bryce Harper	9
Charlie Blackmon	8
Michael Brantley	8
Brett Gardner	7

-Bryce Harper is not a guy we need to say much about or why he's being hyped. He's as hot as anyone in the league and is now up to 15 home runs on the year. Harper offers immense upside due to his contributions in every category and it's hard not to love him against Sean O'Sullivan, who hasn't shown much yet this season. Harper is priced this high for a reason.

-Charlie Blackmon has seen his price fall quite a bit since early in the season, leaving him in a great spot right now if you want to target Coors tonight. Ryan Vogelsong has looked good so far this season, but his struggles against lefties are real. If you want to target the overpriced Rockies somewhere today, Blackmon is the spot.

-Michael Brantley has consistently been one of the most elite left-hand hitters in the majors for almost two years now and yet he still only runs into a massive hype train against weaker righties like Mike Leake and then he gets overplayed. I like him tonight, but I'm not sold on him being an over-the-top good option tonight for his price. I prefer him if you're going after what's likely to be an underused Indians stack.

-Brett Gardner is everyone's favorite fill-in leadoff hitter right now with Jacoby Ellsbury on the DL. The thing that makes him a really nice play as a leadoff guy is he has some more pop in his bat than you'd expect with a .120 ISO on the season against righties. I love targeting Colby Lewis and apparently so does everyone else, thanks to Lewis' .363 wOBA given up to lefties over the past two seasons.

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