MLB DFS: Sunday, July 21st is providing a ten game “main slate” with all of the action going off in the first two hours with both the Rangers and Rockies on the road, then we have a solid four game 4 o’clock game set 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.
Greetings Gamers! Welcome to the Sunday slate, it is going to once again be hot and humid in most places east of the Rocky Mountains, so kick back and get ready for some high scoring tournament action!
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For Sunday’s free Spotlight Pitchers article click here
Main Slate
Boston Red Sox at RHP Asher Wojciechowski – 7.8 implied run total
Going back to the well with this one, think of the last three seasons of MLB DFS and how many times have we seen a crummy pitcher in Coors Field facing an implied run total like this?! It is a whole new world where strikeouts are still the currency of the DFS realm and offenses are going gonzo.
RHP Asher Wojciechowski is not really a horrible pitcher, however, he is not really good either and would be better served as a swing-man from the bullpen getting 8-10 starts a year, but here we are with a 97-100 degree temperature at first pitch with a “feels like” 8-10 degrees more with the humidity in Baltimore.
This is the age 30 season for Wojciechowski and he has labored in various minor league systems for 951.0 innings with a 4.03 ERA, 1.293 WHIP and a middling 7.6 K/9… while he is a much better pitcher than you or I would ever dream of being, there is a distinct reason that he has only 94.1 innings in The Show between 2015 with the Astros, 2017 with the Reds and this season with the Orioles.
Once again we can literally look to everyone for Boston who makes the starting lineup as they are really cooking at this point and the Baltimore bullpen is suspect at best. ENJOY!
Mid-Afternoon Slate
Oakland Athletics at RHP Michael Pineda – 5.1 implied run total
Yeah, we wish “PineTARneda” has a little something under the bill of his cap, on his neck or on his forearm and while it is “only” going to be 80 degrees in Minneapolis with 50% humidity, we have to consider the Athletics as a “contrarian” option on the Sunday “main slate” and certainly on the 2pm ET game set.
This season against 231 same-handed hitters RHP Michal Pineda has allowed a .340 wOBA, .224 ISO with a 43.6 FB% and a 46.8 HH% and that counts those damn cold games at the beginning of the season when he was on a semi-limited pitch count.
Oakland does have some power in their lineup and they have been striking out at the #24 rate with a 19.8 K% against righties, with an 8.9 BB% which is #13 but that 108 wRC+ (weighted runs created plus is an advanced metric that neutralizes ballpark factors creating a league-wide baseline of 100) which indicates that the A’s are scoring 10% more than the average team against righties which is the #8 mark in the league this season with their current active roster.
If you want to be different, leave Khris Davis on the sidelines with his mega-slumping ways but focus on Mark Canha, Matt Olsen, Matt Chapman and surprise breakout hitter Ramon Laureno in the mix on both the full-slate and certainly for the short mid-afternoon action.
Late Slate
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at LHP Yusei Kikuchi – 5.8 implied run total
This is actually going to be a warm one in Seattle as the 1pm ET start should see the mercury around 80 degrees which is relatively rare for a game in T-Mobile Park (formerly Safeco Field).
This will be the FIFTH time that LHP Yusei Kikuchi is facing the Halos and they have had his number this season across only 15.2 innings in the four previous meetings compiling a .413 batting average against (at some point this should go down, but perhaps not on Sunday) 10.92 ERA, 2.68 WHIP and six home runs against only seven punchouts.
Kikuchi has allowed 20 home runs in his 102.1 innings this season which is the 11th worst total and all but one hurler ahead of him has logged more innings. In his 67 at bats against the Angles he has ceded a .418/.494/.761 triple slash line which would pretty much top every Hall of Fame number and a lot of single season team records across the league along with a dozen extra base hits in those LAA efforts.
Mike Trout is of course the crown jewel, but for some differentiation look to lefties in Shohei Ohtani and Kole Calhoun and round things out with David Fletcher, Albert Pujols and anyone else in the lineup.
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
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Everyone for Boston…..uh huh.