MLB GPP Tournament Picks: 8-29-17

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

Sometimes with hitters, I really like to target Dylan Bundy. However, he still has a ton of potential at times, if he strikes out enough batters and limits the damage. This is one of those outings where I actually like rostering him. Despite this game being in Baltimore, he has a fantastic matchup against a very under performing offensive team. Bundy comes into this game as a favorite, and has put together a string of good starts. He will be coming off of the bereavement list, but looks to continue his nice form. In August, he has a 31.4% strikeout rate, as well as a small 2.67 ERA. He owns a 3.87 ERA at home this year. Bundy really just needs to worry about a few hitters, like Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz, and Kyle Seager. Bundy has been worse against lefties this year, but has decent numbers against righties. As long as his strikeout rate continues where it has been the past few games, I'm fairly confident that Bundy will easily produce big DFS points tonight.

Top GPP Hitters

Staying in the same game, I find myself gravitating towards Manny Machado. Machado has really turned it on lately, going deep ten times with a .413 wOBA in August. Of those ten home runs, seven of those have come at home this month. Overall, Machado owns a .373 wOBA and .258 ISO at Camden Yards this year. He gets the pleasure of facing Erasmo Ramirez, who actually hasn't been terrible since joining the Mariners in his five starts. In his five starts on his new team, Ramirez has given up five total home runs, despite going his past three without allowing a single one. He has a lot worse numbers against lefties, but it's very hard to overlook this pace that Machado is currently on.

Speaking of red hot players, I find myself looking at Rhys Hoskins. Obviously, it's a small sample size and there's no way he continues on this historic place (i.e. Aaron Judge), but he does get a good matchup here against R.A. Dickey. Hoskins has exploded on the scene while setting records. Hoskins has gone deep 11 times in his first 19 games and is currently on a ten game hitting streak. It's interesting looking at Hoskins, who failed to collect even one hit over his first three games. Since then, he's clobbered the ball and doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon. Of his career 21 hits, 11 of them have been long balls. Dickey is a guy who can give up runs in bunches or throw a pretty good game. I'm leaning towards a bunch of runs...or at least home runs. In his past four games, Dickey has allowed zero home runs twice, but also has allowed a three home run game and a two home run game. The potential is there for Hoskins to continue just demolishing the ball, especially with this game being at home.

Brian Dozier comes into this game with great numbers against James Shields. Dozier has taken Shields deep four times in 34 at-bats as well as a .353 batting average. With Dozier leading off, he gets plenty of opportunities to do damage off of Shields. Over his past 15 games, Dozier owns a .403 wOBA and has hit four home runs. He obviously has better numbers against lefties, but Dozier still has pretty good power against righties. Shields hasn't looked half bad this month, posting a 4.24 ERA. He's also coming off of a start against this same Minnesota team. Dozier didn't collect a hit, but did snag a walk. I expect Dozier to continue big things against Mr. James Shields. He's bound to revert into his old self anytime.

You're going to have to ignore Chris Young's numbers against lefties this year. He's just been pretty bad against them. Over his career however, Young does have a .360 wOBA and a .206 ISO. Hopefully, since this is Brett Anderson's first appearance since May, he will be a little rusty and Young will be able to take advantage. One thing that concerns me though is that Anderson may not go deep in this game. On the same accord, in all of his games this year, he owns an ERA of 8.18. He looked awful with the Cubs this year, and I think that continues here with the Blue Jays. If that's the case, I'm pretty confident Young is still able to do some damage against righties. It also helps that this game is at a very good hitters park.