Advertisement

Daily Dime: Starting Adam Wainwright and digging for bargain hitters

Daily Dime: Starting Adam Wainwright and digging for bargain hitters

Adam Wainwright, SP, at Mil (Peralta), $9600 at FanDuel: His strikeouts are down, and it’s best to use pitchers in home starts, but Wainwright remains highly effective and gets a Brewers team that’s an MLB-worst 3-14 and missing Carlos Gomez and Jonathan Lucroy from their lineup. The Cardinals are -160 favorites, and Milwaukee has the lowest team OPS (.587) in all of baseball. Opposing starter Wily Peralta is off to a dreadful start (eight strikeouts over 19.0 innings) thanks in part to a noticeable drop in velocity.

[It's not too late to sign up for Yahoo Sports Fantasy Baseball!]

Justin Maxwell, OF, at Col (De La Rosa), $2600: His recent play has forced himself into the Giants’ everyday lineup, and Saturday he gets a lefty in Coors Field.

Dustin Pedroia, 2B, at Bal (Chen), $3000: He’s hitting atop one of the best lineups in baseball and has slashed .364/.462/1.000 against southpaws this season, yet Pedroia is a reasonable price, with nine other second basemen more expensive.

Mookie Betts, OF ($3100) and Xander Bogaerts, SS ($3000), at Bal (Chen): Like teammate Pedroia, both have also excelled against LHP and are available at extremely reasonable prices given their upside.

Justin Smoak, 1B, at TB (Ramirez), $2600: Tropicana Field is a tough place to hit, but the former top prospect is off to a career best start (.947 OPS), as the switch-hitting Smoak is being used strictly against RHP. He faces a pitcher making a spot start who’s been throwing batting practice this season, as Erasmo Ramirez has allowed six walks over 6.1 innings with a whopping .455 BAA. Dalton Pompey ($2800) is another sneaky play as a result.

Robinson Chirinos, C, at LAA (Wilson), $2400: This would be better at home, but Chirinos has belted eight homers over 101 at bats against left-handers dating back to last season.

Matt Joyce, OF, vs. Tex (Lewis), $2300: He doesn’t have a hit since April 15, but Joyce owns a career .258/.352/.456 line against right-handers and faces one Saturday who’s vulnerable to giving up the long ball. If you want to spend a little more, use teammate Kole Calhoun ($3400).

Jimmy Paredes, 2B, vs. Bos (Masterson), $2600: There’s no stopping him. Locked atop Baltimore’s lineup and facing a righty who’s typically shaky against LHB, the switch-hitting Paredes is still a major bargain at this price.

Carlos Gonzalez, OF, vs. SF (Hudson), $3100: He’s off to a horrendous start (.197/.231/.328), so it’s safe to question whether he’s playing injured. But Gonzalez had two hits Friday and looked good at the plate, and this is a career .334/.395/.615 hitter at Coors Field, so he’s unlikely to remain at this cost much longer.

Matt Carpenter, 3B, at Mil (Peralta), $4100: After looking at bargains, let’s go with one pricier player for Saturday, as few (if any) players are hotter than Carpenter right now. He’s destroyed righties this season (1.270 OPS) and has owned Wily Peralta throughout his career (1.202 OPS over 24 ABs). He’ll also be hitting in Miller Park, which has increased home runs for LHB by 39 percent over the past three seasons, with only GAB boosting them more during that span.

Follow Dalton Del Don on Twitter.