Daily Dime: Lind, Valencia, a handful of Padres
Attacking the Saturday night evening card? Good, so am I. Here’s the preliminary lineup I’ll use for the nine-game slate. Make sure you double check the weather and lineups before locking in.
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With Clayton Kershaw ($70) slotted out of my price range, I wanted two heavy favorites who are somewhat on the affordable side. This leads me to Cole Hamels ($54, -185, home against the Mariners) and Carlos Carrasco ($40, -163, home against the White Sox).
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Francisco Lindor might seem like a pricy pay up at $17, but he’s a .348/.397/.513 slasher against left-handed pitching, and he’s been out of his mind in the second half (No. 1 fantasy shortstop by a mile). And Carlos Rodon hans’t been as effective when Tyler Flowers isn’t behind the plate (though his one Rob Brantly start was effective).
Will Myers has come around over his last nine starts (three homers, .576 slugging), and for Saturday he gets the platoon advantage against an ordinary lefty (Yohan Flande) and the backdrop of Coors Field. Sounds like a reasonable play for $14.
Jedd Gyorko doesn’t have pretty slash numbers, but his OPS jumps to .781 against southpaws and he’s clocked 11 homers in 56 second-half games. Let’s add to our San Diego exposure at Coors.
A.J. Pierzynski is never a bad punt play, even if the lineup around him stinks. He’s cleanup for Saturday, a mere $8, and facing an up-and-down Jerad Eickhoff. AJP is hitting .304 against righties this year.
When Adam Lind is at home against a righty, good things happen: .349 average, 10 homers in 189 at-bats. His BB/K ratio in these instances is almost 1/1. Opposing pitcher Josh Smith has been a mess in his brief MLB experience (more walks than strikeouts, 7.36 ERA).
Danny Valencia ($13) is always worth a look against a lefty, and he’s hit three homers in his last five games, including two Friday night.
I don’t remember Matt Kemp ($16) doing much when I give him the DFS nod, but he’s sitting on 14 homers and a .533 slugging percentage in the second half, and he’s part of our plan to jump on Flande in Colorado.
I go back and forth on the DFS worthiness of Ryan Raburn ($9); while he’s a platoon specialist and slotted fourth for Saturday, there’s also a risk he’ll get removed from the game later, be it for platoon reasons or defensive reasons (man, is he terrible in the field). But this is the last slot I have to fill for the Saturday card and at nine bucks, we don’t need much to return a profit.
