MLB GPP Tournament Picks: 5-22-17

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

Zack Grienke is the best pitcher on this slate, and it's not even close. He is expensive on both sites, but has a good chance to put up insane numbers tonight against the White Sox. He hasn't been allowing the long ball this season (1.3 HR/9, but he pitches the majority of the time in Chase Field), and he has an elite walk rate at 5.7 percent. On this 9-game slate, I'm looking to attack a weak offense, and want a pitcher that's going to offer safety and upside. Greinke checks all the boxes.

Top GPP Hitters

Kyle Gibson is not a good pitcher by any means. He struggles to miss bats (14.7 K%), and is prone to the long ball (2.5 HR/9). The Orioles have the second-highest projected run total on the slate at 5.5, and I expect Chris Davis to be a big part of that. Gibson will have a hard time K'ing Davis, and his 0.394 wOBA allowed to lefties puts him in danger against Davis. Davis is my HR call of the night, and I like him in all formats tonight.

I have attacked Josh Tomlin ever since I saw him pitch for the first time. He is just a bad pitcher that gets away with a lot of bad pitches. He's finally starting to regress back to the real Tomlin, after starting 2016 on fire. He is a reverse-splits pitcher, and struggles with opposing right-handed power bats. Enter Adam Duvall. Duvall has been much better against lefties this year, but makes for a great GPP play tonight, and is priced to a point where he should go overlooked.

The Cubs have the highest projected run total on the slate at 5.75, and with all of the expensive options this slate has to offer, I'm looking to get some cheaper exposure to the top offenses. Baez isn't a lefty-masher, but he offers tons of HR upside, as seen last week against Amir Garrett with a grand slam in the first inning. On FD, he's too cheap, and on DK, he's a prime tournament target given his price and projected batting order. I really like him in GPP's tonight.

Jake Odorizzi has been a reverse-split pitcher throughout his career, but has seemed to change some things this year. He has a 0.258 wOBA to righties, and a 0.306 wOBA to lefties this season. A 0.306 wOBA to lefties is nothing to go crazy over, but Calhoun's price is too good in this spot. Odorizzi's 2.75 HR/9, and weak 32.5 ground ball percentage suggests that Calhoun is in a good spot to perform tonight. I probably won't go there in cash games, but he's a low-risk, high-reward option in tournaments.