MLB GPP Tournament Picks: 6-13-17

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

I vowed about a month ago to never highlight C.C. Sabathia, but alas, here we are again. I will admit, I do feel uneasy about this, but that's why I'm recommending him for GPP's and not cash. Sabathia is currently on a five game win streak, while recording at least 20 points on DraftKings in each start. I'm sitting here shaking my head, not completely sure what he's doing. His numbers look pretty the same as earlier this year, but he just has been limiting the runs. Collecting wins, thanks to the Yankees scoring massive amounts of runs, definitely helps in the overall DFS picture. He's going up against the Angels, who we all know aren't the best offense around. However, there is a little concern do to the heavy righty bats they will throw at Sabathia. Yunel Escobar surprisingly has extremely good numbers (.341 average in 41 at-bats), but not many others do. Over the past seven days, the Angels rank 23rd with a .242 batting average.

Top GPP Hitters

Even though we share the same name, Nick Martinez is a guy I almost always attack in DFS. And for the most part, it pays off handsomely on most nights! I'll admit though that Springer's numbers against lefties are much better than righties, but he's still a very formidable hitter against righties. Springer has been phenomenal over his past 16 games, hitting a robust .375 with eight home runs in that span. Springer also has two games where he has gone deep twice, which means he's a very streaky hitter. Martinez has allowed an insane 2.17 HR/9 to righties on the year, which clearly bodes well for Springer. Martinez also has a 2.53 HR/9 away from Arlington. Needless to say, things are starting to pile up in favor of Springer. If Springer somehow has a poor game, I will be extremely shocked.

Mitch Moreland isn't the first guy that you would think about Red Sox hitters, but he's actually been a pretty serviceable option, especially now that he's hitting fourth. Moreland has also hit all eight home runs this year against righties, while he gets to face Ben Lively tonight. However, Moreland has only hit two of those home runs at Fenway Park. Don't let his down numbers at Fenway scare you off, as Moreland is on a seven game hitting streak where he has a .490 wOBA in that span. Lively will make just his third career start tonight. Lively threw a good game in his first outing, but that was against the Giants. In his last game out, he got pegged for three runs over seven inning. It's really hard to dissect Lively after just two starts, but what is very troubling is that Lively has just three total strikeouts over 14 innings. Obviously, that should increase, but it definitely is alarming.

Zack Cozart is much more expensive than I would necessarily like, but he has actually put together a pretty good year thus far. He has almost increased his walk rate by two times, while already hitting nine home runs (he hit 16 total last year). He's also clearly crushed lefties this year. The downside though is that the Reds will continue their west coast trip and are now in San Diego. There's a huge difference between Petco Park and Great American Ball Park...and it's not a great difference for hitters. Still, Cozart does have good numbers on the road this year, with a .418 wOBa and .289 ISO. Over his last three starts, Clayton Richard has allowed almost nine hits per game. Although Richard has only allowed three homers at Petco this year, he still has a 4.70 ERA in six starts. Since this game is at Petco, there's a good chance you will see a much lower ownership on Cozart and all Reds hitter tonight.

Disclaimer: I am not advocating to attack Marco Estrada. I repeat, I am not advocating to attack Marco Estrada. Well, now we have that out of the way, I can chat about good old friend Colby Rasmus. Rasmus has had an up-and-down career, but in 2017, he's quietly put together a nice little run in 32 games. He comes into this game with a pretty impressive .577 slugging percentage. Despite Rasmus collecting six of his nine homers at the Trop this year, this game is in Toronto, which is a much better hitters park than in Tampa Bay. Looking at Estrada's numbers, he's been a reverse splits pitcher, and has a better ERA at home this year. However, Estrada is allowing a 1.26 HR/9 to lefties on the year. He's also allowed a 48.9% flyball rate at home, which means eventually he could be allowing more home runs. And let's not forget that Estrada got obliterated two starts ago by the Yankees, allowing seven total runs. Against the A's in his last start, he also gave up seven hits and four runs. Estrada hasn't looked like himself lately, and he could get in trouble again, against a red-hot Rays team.