MLB Mobile Sports Betting Toolkit
The purpose of this column is to highlight some players with upside and well-suited for tournaments. While the majority of the hitter picks will likely have power upside, that's not necessarily the case for all the listed options. Other contextual factors such as batting order, ballpark, opposing pitcher, price, speed, etc also come into play, and you'll see these items sprinkled into the write-ups below. Along with that, we'll be gauging the ownership levels, giving you some plausible pivots from the popular choices in a given game slate.
Top GPP Pitcher
Robbie Ray (P), Diamondbacks | |||||||
FanDuel | DraftKings | Opp | FIP | K% | GB% | Opp Run Total | Moneyline |
$8,000 | $9,800 | Dodgers | 3.21 | 27.2% | 45.7% | 3.85 | +140 |
Robbie Ray is in a similar spot he was in last week. He's facing a left-handed heavy team, in a great pitcher's ball park in Los Angeles. He has an 11.6% swinging strike rate (second best on slate), and a 27.2% strikeout rate (second best on slate). The Dodgers have been pretty hot lately, and even if they decide to go righty heavy against Ray (they won't because they never do), their lineup isn't strong enough against opposing lefties to scare me off. I think he's the best arm of the top 3 (Lackey and Salazar), and I think Salazar is an easy pass for me, so rostering Ray at lower ownership than he should be sounds great to me in cash games and GPP's.
Top GPP Hitters
Francisco Lindor (SS), Indians | |||||||
FanDuel | DraftKings | Opp Pitcher & Handedness | wOBA vs RHP | ISO vs RHP | wRC+ vs RHP | Batting Order | Team Run Total |
$4,100 | $4,200 | Kyle Gibson-R | 0.356 | 0.135 | 119 | 2 | 4.71 |
Francisco Lindor has started off the season hot. He is currently on a 10-game hit streak and finds himself in a great match up against Kyle Gibson. Gibson surrendered a .380 wOBA to opposing lefties last year, and Lindor had a 119 wRC+ against right-handed hitters. The Indians make for a great stack tonight, and I want to lock in their most consistent bat. His price on DraftKings is too low, but his FanDuel price may be too high for people to chase, which is exactly what I want. Throw in his 8-for-10 career numbers against Gibson, and you have my favorite bat of the night.
Wil Myers (1B), Padres | |||||||
FanDuel | DraftKings | Opp Pitcher & Handedness | wOBA vs LHP | ISO vs LHP | wRC+ vs LHP | Batting Order | Team Run Total |
$3,900 | $4,400 | Garcia-L | 0.349 | 0.197 | 120 | 2 | 3.74 |
1B is loaded tonight, but Wil Myers really intrigues me. Myers had a .349 wOBA, and a 120 wRC+ against left-handed pitching last year. To go along with that, Jaime Garcia allowed a .342 wOBA to right-handed bats, and surrendered a 1.45 HR/9 to righties as well. Even after a 3-game sample, SunTrust Park seems to be a much better hitting environment than Turner field, which bodes well for SD bats. SD is one of my top two stacks on the night, but I like Myers in my stacks, and as a one-off.
Khris Davis (OF), Athletics | |||||||
FanDuel | DraftKings | Opp Pitcher & Handedness | wOBA vs RHP | ISO vs RHP | wRC+ vs RHP | Batting Order | Team Run Total |
$3,400 | $4,100 | Griffin-R | 0.343 | 0.273 | 119 | 4 | 4.28 |
A.J. Griffin isn't a good pitcher, and Khris Davis mashes mediocre fastball pitchers, so he is my DONG OF THE DAY pick. Even though Griffin is much worse against lefties (.406 to L, .304 to R), I think Davis is always in play in GPP's. Griffin is a fly-ball pitcher (50% vs L, 45.8% vs R), and that suites well for power-hitting Khris Davis. People will want to stack the lefties here given Griffin's struggles against them, but I want Oakland's best hitter in an over four total here. I wouldn't touch him in cash today, but his upside in tournaments is enormous.
Hunter Renfroe (OF), Padres | |||||||
FanDuel | DraftKings | Opp Pitcher & Handedness | wOBA vs LHP | ISO vs LHP | wRC+ vs LHP | Batting Order | Team Run Total |
$3,200 | $3,200 | Garcia-L | 0.459 | 0.444 | 194 | 4 | 3.74 |
Hunter Renfroe is in a really sneaky spot tonight, and I'm going to have tons of exposure. His numbers are hard to make anything of given the sample size, but since he has been called up to the majors, he has been crushing lefties to the tune of a 194 wRC+. Factor in that half of those games were played at Petco Park, and you start to realize how good this guy really is against left-handers. He had a 475 wRC+ and a .878 wOBA against lefties on the road last year. As I mentioned with Myers, SunTrust Park seems to be good from hitters, so he gets an upgrade in park shift here. His price is merely too cheap on DraftKings, and he's the perfect price on FanDuel to attack in tournaments.
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