MLB GPP Tournament Picks: 5-26-17

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

Obviously, Max Scherzer is the top guy on this slate, and he's priced accordingly. But to win GPP's, sometimes you need to be a little different. With Chris Archer here, he gives you almost the same potential as Scherzer while giving you some savings. It's not the best matchup against the Twins, as they rank 11th best in batting average against righties. However, this Twins team does struggle getting players across home plate, as they rank 21st in runs scored. Archer hasn't faced this Twins team since last August. It is compiled now of a few different hitters, but the core remains the same. Archer went six innings in that contest while giving up just one run and three hits. He did strikeout seven batters, despite allowing three free passes. It should also be noted that Archer has looked better this year, lowering his ERA and HR/9 by a good amount. Oddly enough, Archer's ground ball rate has dipped a bit.

Top GPP Hitter

I'm really puzzled by the Diamondbacks projected run total here of just 3.5. Sure, they are missing A.J. Pollock but they still have so much potential. Junior Guerra isn't really a bad pitcher, having compiled a 2.81 ERA over 20 starts last year, but he will only be making his second appearance of the season here. But at the same time, Guerra has only pitched in 24 games over his short career. There is some risk with employing a full D'backs stack (as discussed on the stacking podcast), but definitely a one-off play of Lamb is definitely playable. Lamb has been crushing righties all season, and yes his numbers are a little lower away from Chase Field, but Miller Park is still very much a hitters ballpark. Over his past nine games, he's hit six home runs, including two coming at Petco Park.

Joey Votto is still in the prime of his career, and he's been a huge threat all year. He's put up double digit fantasy points on DraftKings in three of his past five games. Votto is a guy who is also consistent where it's very unlikely for him to snag you a zero in the DFS realm. Votto has clearly crushed righties this year as well, as he has hit eight of his 12 home runs against right handers. Nola has only started in four games this season and owns a 3.52 ERA. He's only thrown one game at home this year, allowing three runs to Washington. If you look at Nola's numbers at home in 2016, he allowed a 1.54 HR/9. It should also be noted that Votto is 0-for-5 against Nola in his career. But this should be a reminder that BvP isn't always a great stat to utilize in DFS.

I just am not a believer in Alex Wood despite my co-host on the Stacking Pod believing he is! I really don't care that he has a sub-2.00 ERA this year. In his past six starts, Wood has allowed zero runs four times and four runs twice. Wood has just been too up and down. He's either lights out or gets hit. He's also allowing just a .214 wOBA to righties this year, another number that I can't believe will continue. Despite his struggles this season, Contreras has hit lefties well, knocking out one ball in 41 at-bats against lefties. Contreras has also hit all four of his home runs away from Wrigley Field this year. You also save some salary by going contrarian with Contreras here.

Another starting pitcher that I like to target in 2017 is Matt Cain. Cain is coming off his second worst outing on the season, as he surrendered seven earned runs against St. Louis. In the month of May, Cain is boasting an 8.41 ERA, including allowing 14 walks in 20.1 innings pitched. Despite allowing just a .90 HR/9 to lefties, he's allowing a .374 wOBA and .449 slugging percentage to lefties. My only hesitation deploying Atlanta bats tonight is that Cain owns just a 1.19 ERA in four home starts in San Francisco this year. Markakis really hasn't had the best season but still is compiling a .329 wOBA against righties this year. He's hitting close to .200 since being inserted into the three hole, following Freddie Freeman's injury a little under ten days ago. I'm not too concerned, as Markakis has a good chance to bounce back against a weak starter in Cain. When you combine how poorly Markakis has been with the amount of hitters in good spots tonight, you should get extremely low ownership rate on Markakis.