The following Spotlight Stacks were selected by Awesemo.com writer Jake Hari. Please check back later for notes/additional picks from Awesemo himself.
HOU (vs. OAK)
This is a nightmare matchup for Daniel Mengden, who has allowed a near 32% Line-Drive rate with 42.2% hard-contact on the year against righties. The Astros (5.4 implied total as of now) have 7 players who are striking out under 20% of the time against righties and all of them are making hard-contact at a rate over 30%. You’ll have to break the bank for the top-3 in the Astros lineup on DraftKings, but don’t forget about Gurriel, McCann, and Marwin Gonzalez if they’re in the lineup as well. If the matchup against Mengden isn’t good enough assuming they knock him out early, they’ll face an Athletics’ bullpen that has the 4th-most HR/9 (1.39) in the MLB.
KC (vs. CHW)
While they don’t have a run total yet, it should be hefty against Eric Skoglund, who has done everything but impress in the early part of 2018. Against righties, Skoglund has a 46.3% hard-hit rate, 1.80 WHIP, and a K-rate under 17%. The White Sox may strikeout a lot, but Skoglund has had trouble missing bats, and when he’s been hit, it’s been hard, as he has the 11th-highest average exit velocity against righties (93.4 MPH). The White Sox’s top-5 in the order (Anderson, Sanchez, Abreu, Castillo, and Davidson) all make for fantastic plays tonight.
SD (vs. NYM)
Jason Vargas will make his season debut for the Mets tonight, and judging by his numbers last year against righties, the Padres could be a sneaky stack on a slate where hitting it’s great. Vargas struck out righties at an 18.8% clip with 33.6% hard-contact and a 4.79 xFIP. We don’t usually look to the Padres for bats, but they definitely have some righty power bats that are worth using tonight, namely Wil Myers, Christian Villanueva, and Jose Pirela. With only a 4.1 implied total, the Padres may go completely overlooked, but I like their prices on DK so I’ll be looking at them as a secondary stack.
Awesemo’s Notes
I agree with Jake on all three counts; Houston and KC as the top chalk stacks and San Diego as a great contrarian option.
No big deal Jake but I think the KC vs CWS title is backwards