MLB GPP Tournament Picks: 5-20-17

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

Why would Perdomo be in play against a team that just torched the SD pitching staff last night? Well, I fully expect that the Diamondbacks will carry high ownership in tournaments tonight, because you can pay up for any hitter tonight with the pitching options. Also, the Padres bullpen was forced to pitch 8+ innings in relief of Weaver, so he may be given some leeway to throw more pitches. Finally, his massive ground ball rate in Petco Park should suit him well. I really like Perdomo in tournaments tonight.

Top GPP Hitters

Mike Bolsinger is a pitcher i like to attack whenever he is on the mound, and what better way to do that, than to roster the best player for the Orioles. Manny Machado has had a rough start of the season to say the least. He has started to heat up a little bit, and is starting to see the ball well, so i want to take advantage of that while we can. Baltimore is easily my top stack of the night, and Machado should have much to do with that.

Mike Pelfrey is a gas can, and there's no doubt about it. He's always prone to getting blown up, and doesn't miss too many bats. I have Seattle as my second favorite stack of the night, and I want Cruz in my stacks, and as a one-off. People tend to not roster Cruz against righties, because of his known success against lefties, but Pelfrey is bad enough that we should jump on here. Cruz is really nive for tournaments tonight.

Michael Conforto has been on fire this season. He's coming off of back-to-back HR games, and Alex Meyer's vulnerability to left-handed power bats puts Conforto in a prime position to succeed here. I think the Mets are a sneaky stack today, and Conforto has been torching the baseball. He's a little on the expensive side of things, but with many weak pitching options, there should be more than enogh salary to fit him in.

With so many weak catching options on the slate tonight, I'm going to one of the safest options on the slate. J.T. has a solid history against left-handed pitchers, and is a very patient batter, something that will play well considering Urias' high walk rate. He's too cheap right now, and it's hard to not lock him in at this price. J.T. is a very solid tournament option with low-risk, and high-reward.