MLB Mobile Sports Betting Toolkit
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 |
| Jose Altuve | 10 |
| Miguel Cabrera | 9 |
| Evan Gattis | 8 |
| Brandon Crawford | 7 |
| Trevor Ploufe | 6 |
-Jose Altuve faces a lefty tonight and we all know what that means. He's going to be heavily owned at an increasingly weak second base position. Rodon has looked pretty good, but also very erratic and prone to making mistakes. Altuve's only issue tonight is going to be ownership percentage, which is likely to be high in both cash games and tournaments.
-Miguel Cabrera continues to be up and down day-to-day and has been much better in day games lately for some reason. He's facing a weak lefty in Santiago tonight and that should give him a ton of upside. Despite the hype here, I expect him to be lower owned than some of these other guys due to his price and the fact he's let just about everyone down this year at some point.
-Evan Gattis hasn't been as good as last year with the power numbers, but he's still one of the more productive hitting catchers on the season. He faces a lefty tonight, who he sports more power against, but really this hype comes down to the lack of catcher options overall. We're going to see a lot of Gattis and a lot of punts most likely on this slate.
-Brandon Crawford continues to be a bit overhyped in my opinion. He's having a great first half, but I just hate paying his shiny new price tag for a seventh hitter who has never put a full season together. It's hard not to like what he's bringing to the table right now at a weak shortstop position though.
-Trevor Ploufe playing a lefty is always a nice spot to find him in. Facing Mark Buerhle is probably even better as he simply isn't the same guy he was even a couple years ago. Ploufe has been up and down along with the Twins offense overall this season, but has put together some really nice splits against lefties over the past few years that are going to have him likely pretty heavy owned tonight.
Outfielders:
| Name | Buzz |
| Bryce Harper | 9 |
| George Springer | 8 |
| Michael Brantley | 8 |
| Rajai Davis | 7 |
-Bryce Harper is not a guy we need to say much about as usual, but he's remained red-hot and continues to be owned in any lineup people can afford his high price tag. The good thing about his ridiculous price is that it's kept his ownership down through this hot streak making him a valuable GPP play at times and not just a cash game play. Hard not to like him in the bandbox in Cincinnati against another weak righty.
-George Springer has seen his price fall quite a bit since early in the season, but his bat is really starting to come around of late. Springer was heavily hyped heading into the season, but started really slowly. Much like Altuve above, he's starting become a must-play against lefties and that duo is stealing a ton of bases this year.
-Michael Brantley has been consistently underowned this season despite some of the most impressive peripheral numbers out there on the year. He almost never strikes out and facing a right-hander tonight that does little well other than strike batters out, he could be in for a monster game here. He'll make Tijuan Walker pay for every mistake he makes against him.
-Rajai Davis is everyone's favorite platoon leadoff hitter on days like this. He's only playing against lefties now and that keeps his price down even when he's in the leadoff spot. He hasn't been great this year, but the Tigers leadoff spot has been productive overall in an explosive offense.
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