MLB GPP Tournament Picks: 6-27-17

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

Kenta Maeda has had an interesting beginning to his major league career over his past two seasons. He's had many ups, but also a few downs. This is a spot, where I believe, will be an up for Maeda. He gets to face the Angels, who are still without Mike Trout, and lose the designated hitter in this game. Their lineup is also a right handed heavy, which should benefit Maeda and his .278 wOBA against righties. Madea also has a 3.93 ERA at home, compared to his 5.46 ERA on the road this season. The downside of Maeda is that he hasn't gone deep into a game in over a month, but has dealt with injuries also during that time. In his lone start against the Angels, which occurred in 2016, he only lasted four innings while giving up four runs. However, in that game, Maeda also had to deal with Trout, something that won't have to occur tonight. This Angels team ranks 19th in OBP in the month of June, so they are not an offense to be feared.

Top GPP Hitters

Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger are the two big dogs on this slate, with enormous salaries. With Jesse Chavez being a reverse splits pitcher, I think it wouldn't be wise to roster Bellinger (but I can't blame you). With Judge facing a lefty here, that to me, definitely makes him stand out on this slate. Granted, we've only seen 48 at-bats against lefties for Judge, but he has five home runs in that span and is hitting .333. He's also blasted nine home runs overall in the month of June. In years past, Jose Quintana has been a dominant force, but he's looked very mediocre at times. Quintana comes into this game with a 1.45 HR/9 to righties while allowing a .332 wOBA. Something clearly is not right with Quintana, and it looks like Judge should be able to take advantage of this.

Tyson Ross was actually somewhat decent in his first start in a Rangers uniform, but blew up in his last start. It's always hard to project after only two starts, but I'm going there. With an expected team run total of 5.75, I do have Vegas on my side! Ross gave up seven runs in just three innings to Toronto last time out. His hard hit percentage was over 60% in his last start, and he could continue to struggle here. Ross will be away from Texas for the first time, but Progressive Field is still right at the American League average of 2.67 home runs per game there. I don't think Chisenhall will necessarily need a home run to reach value, as he's had four multi-hit games in his past eight games. Chisenhall has hit .448 in that short span. He unfortunately has not gone deep in that time frame, but still has ten on the year, so he is a threat. He also has a .260 ISO at Progressive Field. With Ross being so unpredictable, it's a great spot for Chisenhall.

Until Eric Sogard gets priced too high, I'm going to continue to play him. Once a misfit in Oakland, he's found a home in Milwaukee and is doing just dandy there. Tonight's game is in Cincinnati, which is still a good hitters ballpark. It might not be as good as Miller Park, but it still ranks near the top. Sogard isn't a home run threat at all, but he's been phenomenal at getting on base this season. Atop the lineup, he gets ample opportunities to rack up fantasy points. As a lefty, he's hit righties with a .367 batting average. Sogard is only 1-for-10 over his last ten plate appearances, but was on a ten game hitting streak before that. In that streak, six of those ten games were multi-hit performances for Sogard. Even though Tim Adleman has better numbers at home (go figure), he gets hit pretty hard by lefties, which makes Sogard an extremely good play tonight.

Still searching for his first career home run, Sam Travis will be in an amazing opportunity tonight. Hector Santiago is not the same pitcher he once was in Los Angeles. Since he's a fly ball pitcher, he clearly hasn't benefited from the move to Minnesota. To make matters worse, Santiago is making his first start off the disabled list, where he spent about 20 days on. He did pitch one rehab assignment, but it lasted just three innings. On the year, Santiago is allowing a 1.24 HR/9 rate to righties, as well as a 52.4% fly ball rate. Santiago also has a 6.56 ERA on the road this year. Travis has only played in eight games this year, but does come in as a highly touted prospect. With injuries to Hanley Ramirez, and a lefty going, Travis should be in a favorable spot in the lineup.