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

Alex Cobb (R), Rays

FanDuelDraftKingsOppFIPK%GB%Opp Run TotalMoneyline
$8,100$7,900vs TEX4.1615.6%45.2%5-130

To me, Texas hasn't been that huge juggernaut of an offense that we all would expect. Texas is dead last on the year in road batting average and also rank 18th in runs scored on the road. Meanwhile, Alex Cobb has been pitching much better than expected and owns an impressive 2.64 ERA at home. His strikeout percentage isn't really where you'd like to see, but with him allowing so few runs at home, you sort of don't need the high stirkeout percentage you typically want to see. Cobb got hit hard three starts ago, giving up six runs, but that was against Baltimore and on the road. His past two starts, he's allowed just one run. Although he was halted a little by the All-Star break, it does look like Cobb is hitting his stride at this point in the season.

Top GPP Hitters

Daniel Murphy (L), Nationals

FanDuelDraftKingsOpp Pitcher
& Handedness
wOBA vs RHPISO vs RHPwRC+ vs RHPBatting
Order
Team
Run Total
$3,700$4,900Zack Godley - R.401.24714635

Okay, on DraftKings he might be overpriced, but at $3,700 on FanDuel, how do you not play him? He's hit 12 of his 16 home runs on the road this year, which is very impressive, considering he's going to be taking hacks at Chase Field. He's also deadly against righties, which is evident by his aforementioned splits. In the five games since the start of the second half, Murphy has gone deep twice. As for Zack Godley, he's coming off of a pretty rough outing against Atlanta. Oddly enough, he owns just a 2.51 ERA at home. One good thing though is that Godley does allow a 1.13 HR/9 to lefties. He doesn't give up many home runs, but when he does, it's more than not when he's facing a lefty.

Justin Upton (R), Tigers

FanDuelDraftKingsOpp Pitcher
& Handedness
wOBA vs RHP



ISO vs RHP



wRC+ vs RHP



Batting
Order
Team
Run Total
$3,400$4,400Ervin Santana - R.356.22812334

Despite popular belief, Ervin Santana isn't all he's cracked up to be. When you consider his extremely low .217 BABIP and a pretty poor FIP of 4.77, his 2.99 ERA doesn't look all too great. Eventually, those numbers are going to catch up to him. He's also allowed four home runs over his past three starts, and is allowing a 1.61 HR/9 at home this year. He's also been a reverse splits starter, allowing a .314 wOBA to righties on the year. Enter Justin Upton and his .394 wOBA in the month of July. Although Upton probably will never see the power that he used to, he still has the ability there, and has knocked out 13 of his 15 homers against righties. Since the break, Upton has multi hit games in five of his seven games. It looks like he's locked in and ready to go. You'll also probably get a low ownership rate on Upton due to him facing Santana.

Lucas Duda (L), Mets

FanDuelDraftKingsOpp Pitcher
& Handedness
wOBA vs RHP



ISO vs RHP



wRC+ vs RHP



Batting
Order
Team
Run Total
$3,500$4,000Paul Blackburn - R.393.30314655.5

Lucas Duda has been pretty great against right handed pitchers this year. Although he might see less at-bats due to hitting fifth, he could get more RBI opportunities. In his past five games, Duda has hit three home runs, including one yesterday. He also owns a .327 ISO on the month. Duda is one guy who looks locked in at the plate right now. Paul Blackburn will be making his fourth career start. He struggled, allowing four walks in his last start. This will also be Blackburn's first start in a less than favorable park for pitchers. He's made two starts in Oakland and one in Seattle. As for Citi Field, it's more of a neutral ballpark. It's also a good park for Duda, as he's hit 11 of his 17 home runs there.

Freddy Galvis (S), Phillies

FanDuelDraftKingsOpp Pitcher
& Handedness
wOBA vs RHP



ISO vs RHP



wRC+ vs RHP



Batting
Order
Team
Run Total
$2,900$3,500Matt Garza - R.317.1819325.25

Freddy Galvis has six hits over his past three games, including four runs scored. Although he only has a .317 wOBA against righties, he does have a .340 wOBA in this month. Galvis didn't see consistent time until just recently, which has helped his wOBA increase recently. He also has a .350 wOBA at home this year. We all know Matt Garza struggles at times, and this looks to be one of those times. He has been good as of late, but does have a 3.94 ERA on the road this year. Lefties own a .319 wOBA against Garza on the year. I think Galvis is a little over priced on DraftKings, but FanDuel, he's priced very nicely, especially at a position where it might not be best to pay up tonight.



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