MLB GPP Tournament Picks: 8-15-17

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

Dinelson Lamet isn't a household name, but he gets two big advantages tonight. The first one is that he is home, where he has a much better ERA. Although 4.03 isn't great, he does get to pitch at Petco tonight. Another big plus is the matchup between the Phillies. The Phillies do have some big names but they haven't really been a threat at all this year. Lamet really isn't an ideal option on most nights, especially at his price tag here, but he's in a really good matchup and a good alternative to the big guns on this slate. One good thing I do like is that Lamet owns a pretty high strikeout rate of 29.1%. Over his past four starts, he owns a 2.31 ERA and a 3-0 record. The Phillies rank second last in total runs scored this season as well.

Top GPP Hitters

Ryan Braun has been red-hot recently, as he's on an eight game win streak and a .515 batting average. He's only hit one home run in that span, but has collected two stolen bases in that span. He doesn't get a completely awful pitcher tonight, but Ivan Nova certainly can struggle at times, which has been evident by his recent performances. Over his past four games, he owns a 7.25 ERA while giving up six home runs. Away from PNC Park, Nova owns a 4.70 ERA which is considerably worse than his home numbers. Surprisingly, Braun has put up better numbers away from Miller Park, but his numbers at home are still pretty respectable. Braun owns a .372 wOBA and .218 ISO at home this season.

In his career, Anthony Rendon has been absolutely fantastic against lefties, and this season has been no different. In just 69 at-bats, Rendon has hit six home runs. His overall numbers have taken a dip in August, but he still is posting an impressive .267 ISO in the second half. He's been killed in BABIP this month, holding just a .135 BABIP. It looks like some of his poor numbers might be due to this. Tyler Skaggs isn't a terrible lefty starter, but he still is young and has looked okay since returning from the disabled list. This year, Skaggs is allowing a .327 wOBA to righties, which is right in line with his career wOBA allowed of .321. Despite playing his home games in Los Angeles, he has much better road numbers, allowing just a 2.28 ERA on the road this year. However, three out of his four road starts have all come in extremely good pitchers parks, outside of the Texas outing. In Washington, the stadium is somewhat neutral, which might not favor Skaggs. Rendon has hit 12 of his 22 home runs at home this year as well.

As a Red Sox fan, I know how underwhelming Rick Porcello can be. He's a far cry from his CY Young performance yesterday, and attacking him in DFS sometimes works out well for you. Last year, he was phenomenal at home, but owns a 5.24 ERA this season at Fenway Park. He's also allowing a .356 wOBA at home this year too. Against righties this year, Porcello is allowing a .347 wOBA to righties as well. In his last four starts, Porcello has allowed eight home runs. Paul DeJong, despite being better against lefties, still has good numbers against righties this year. DeJong has clobbered 13 home runs of his 18 home runs against righties on the year, for a nice ISO of .257. DeJong has four straight multi-hit games and has hit .400 with four home runs over his past 10 games.

Lucas Duda hasn't been the greatest since the trade, hitting just .240 with three home runs in 16 games. On the positive side, he does own a .364 wOBA in that same span, so he still is getting on base and making things happen. Half of those games have been at the Trop, which he has collected just four hits at. Clearly he has not done well there. Thankfully, this game is in Rogers Center, which is a very good park for hitters. Against righties on the year, Duda has overall pretty good numbers. He's also a flyball hitter facing a flyball pitcher in Marco Estrada. Although Estrada has looked good recently, he's a very streaky hitter and could blow up almost any time. Estrada is allowing a 1.33 HR/9 at home this year, as well as a 1.42 HR/9 to lefties.