MLB DFS Picks: Spotlight Hitters and Stacks for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo: July 17 (FREE)

MLB DFS: Wednesday, July 17th has a solid split slate on Yahoo, DraftKings, FanDuel and FantasyDraft. Before you lock in your fantasy baseball lineups, make sure to check out Awesemo’s MLB rankings and projections. Not a member? Sign up HERE and use Promo Code: MLBSTACKS for 50% off any one month subscription.

For Wednesday’s free Spotlight Pitchers article click here 


Greetings Gamers! Welcome to the Wednesday slate and do be sure to check in on any potential precipitation problems with the games in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Cleveland on the “main” game set.

If you haven’t signed up for Yahoo Fantasy DFS, click this link and use the promo code Awesemo when making your first deposit and you will be eligible for $30 of “free play” which Yahoo will match through the first $30 of your deposit (this bonus will be received in Yahoo Sports Rewards Points aka YSRP which can be used to enter any paid contest immediately).

Early Slate

Minnesota Twins vs LHP Jason Vargas – 6.0 implied runs

The Giants and Rockies are wrapping up their four game series in Coors Field with a game time temperature that will be in the mid-90s and RHP Shaun Anderson is taking the mound for San Francisco, you don’t need me to tell you what to do there.

Now for a different approach, the Twinkies will make this article for the second straight day as they get back-to-back southpaws, this time it is LHP Jason Vargas who seems to be living on borrowed time with actual results that are dramatically outperforming his career and recent numbers and the underlying metrics are not too friendly for him either. His curveball is down to about 13% of his pitches which is 3-7% less than the last few years and his changeup is being used 3-5% more with his fastball about the same, so I do not believe the 36-year old veteran of fourteen MLB campaigns has learned anything new.

As mentioned yesterday, Minnesota is among the top three teams in the league against southpaws with a 124 wRC+ (weighted runs created plus is and advanced metric that neutralizes park factors and creates a league-wide scoring efficiency baseline of 100) meaning they score 24% more than the average team does against lefties.

Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano lead the way as the power hitters and it will be interesting to see if C.J. Cron plays in the day game after a night game where he returned from the injured list. Marwin Gonzalez  and Jorge Polanco are other options and if we want to get a little contrarian then Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario can hold their own in lefty/lefty matchups.

Main Slate

Washington Nationals at RHP Aaron Brooks – 5.8 implied run total

Keep an eye on the weather as there are going to be scattered thundershowers by several of our East Coast games which could make things dicey, though we are only looking at hitters here. RHP Aaron Brooks will be good for 30-35 pitches before giving way to one of the worst bullpens in the league as the Orioles have some of the worst numbers in the league with a 5.31 ERA #32, 4.92 xFIP #32. 1.63 HR/9 #31, 8.28 K/9 #26 though on the bright side their 3.71 BB/9 is only #22.

The Nationals get a bonus with the designated hitter slot as that will allow them to play both Ryan Zimmerman and Matt Adams who fall in line behind Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto as our primary targets and ahead of Trea Turner, Adam Eaton, Howie Kendrick, Victor Robles, Brian Dozier and the catcher.

Late Slate

Arizona Diamondbacks at RHP Jesse Chavez – 5.1 implied run total

This was a tossup as I do not mind targeting against RHP Ivan Nova who will be facing the Kansas City Royals for the third time this season, but ultimately the Arizona Diamondbacks getting to utilize the designated hitter slot so they will be able to roll out both Christian Walker and Kevin Cron (yes, brother of C.J.) along with Jake Lamb, Eduardo Escobar and Ketel Marte has more power upside than the Royals in my humble opinion.

RHP Jesse Chavez has performed far better than expected after moving out of the bullpen and back into a starting role, but the wheels are starting to come off the wagon for the twelve-year veteran hurler as he is in The Show with his ninth MLB franchise.  We know as a starter, his strikeouts per inning drop off and his home runs allowed increase… it is going to be in the upper-90s in Arlington at game time, so this is a nice situation to used to our advantage.

On DraftKings, there may be some gamers that talk themselves into Chavez as an SP2 for the price savings, particularly if we lose a game or two with pending East Coast precipitation spots.  There is some merit to this, though my hope is that I do not resort to rolling with that many Chavez lineups, but I certainly will have my share of the D’Backs.

As always, you can reach out to me in Awesemo.com Premium Slack or on Twitter @EMacDFS if you have any questions.
Good Luck Gamers! ~ EMac


Awesemo YouTube

Of course, please do stop by our Awesemo YouTube channel for loads of FREE MLB DFS content, including fantasy MLB lineup advice on The Strategy Show with Josh Engleman and Loughy, as well as MLB picks on Four Corners with Chris Spags, and the MLB Deep Dive with Awesemo, Loughy and ShipMyMoney, where they’ll discuss Awesemo’s MLB rankings.

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].

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