MLB GPP Tournament Picks: 7-31-17

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

There are tons of gas cans on the mound tonight, so I want one of the safer pitchers on this slate. Charlie Morton is exactly that. The Rays strike out a ton against opposing right handed-pitchers, and Morton has been solid lately. Morton probably goes under-owned tonight, because people will more than likely go up to Severino, or go to the mid-tier. There's a lot to like about Morton in GPP's tonight, and he's the likely candidate to be the SP2 in cash games.

Top GPP Hitters

Giancarlo Stanton has been on a tear in July, and I don't see it stopping tonight. Stanton has absolutely mashed lefties in his career, and I like him to hit a HR tonight. The Marlins also have something to play for, as today would have been the 25th birthday of Jose Fernandez. I'm all about narratives, and I think this is one to consider. The Marlins are a sneaky stack tonight, led behind my favorite hitter on the slate, Giancarlo Stanton.

This just seems like the guy that no one is going to on this slate. Jose Abreu absolutely crushes right-handed pitching, and get a juicy match up against a struggling Marco Estrada. Estrada has a below-average ground ball rate, gives up a ton of hard-contact to opposing right-handed hitters, and has a weak strikeout rate. There is so much to like about Abreu tonight, and his low ownership should be the icing on the cake.

Mike Moustakas is a guy I really like tonight. Ubaldo Jimenez gives up a lot of hard-contact to lefties, and Moustakas has been crushing the ball this year. This ballpark is a huge upgrade for the Royals, and they are one of my top stacks of the night. I really like what they have to offer here tonight, and if they tag Ubaldo early, the bullpen gets even worse. I really like Moustakas here tonight, and he's one of my THREE HR calls of the night, joining the two listed above.

This is a contingent play. I firmly believe that Sonny Gray will be in a different uniform by the 4 p.m. trade deadline. No Sonny Gray, would most likely mean a bullpen game from the Athletics, and thats something we always like to attack. Crawford and the Giants have been subpar this year, but as long as Gray gets traded, which seems very likely at this point, the Giants will be sneaky, and Crawford should be super low-owned