The MLB Yahoo Cup Hot Corner: Round 16
Welcome to the MLB Yahoo Cup Hot Corner! This free-to-enter, single-entry contest consists of 27 rounds where the top 1,075 overall entries and the top 70 entries per round share $10,000, with $1,000 to first and $50 to first per round. Scoring will be cumulative across all rounds, with your seven lowest scores dropped at the end. You may join this multi-round MLB DFS contest at any point, but enter today to give yourself the best chance to take home the title. Click here to begin the chase!
Let’s focus on three players — one pitcher, one infielder and one outfielder — to be MLB DFS picks for tonight’s MLB Yahoo Cup contest.
MLB DFS Pitcher: Kenta Maeda — $36
Despite this being a 14-game slate, there is an obvious lack of aces at the top of the pitching board. Charlie Morton and Alek Manoah are rightfully deserving of their $49 salaries due to recent form and fantastic matchups, but rostering both makes fitting multiple top bats a virtual impossibility. So in order to find the savings for the desired stacks, dropping down to Kenta Maeda against a woeful Detroit Tigers offense feels like the right move. Awesemo’s Top Pitchers tool gives Maeda an 11.7% chance of finishing as a top-two pitcher on this slate but ranks him as the third-best value arm to target on the board.
While the Tigers have been showing signs of life at the plate in recent weeks, this is still a team striking out at a 26.4% clip against righties on the season, second worst in the majors. It is also a cooler day by Minnesota summer standards, with a first-pitch temperature of 70 degrees and a 10 mph wind blowing in from right. So despite Maeda’s struggles this season (4.88 ERA, 1.45 WHIP and a career-low 23% strikeout rate), this favorable pitching weather further bolsters the case to roster him in MLB Yahoo Cup lineups.
MLB DFS Infielder: Matt Olson — $20
When it comes to targeting one-offs, Matt Olson seems to be a clear and obvious choice on nearly every slate he appears. The rest of the Athletics lineup struggles to hit for power, but Olson has no such problem doing so, as evidenced by his 47% hard-hit rate this season. That has led to 21 home runs, tied for fifth-most in the American League, and now he draws a solid matchup against righty Jordan Lyles.
One of the more astounding stats from Olson in 2021 has been his improvement in plate discipline. After striking out at a robust 31.4% clip in 2020, he has improved that mark to 16.5% this year. That means more balls in play and more opportunities for slate-breaking upside out of a noted righty masher, making Olson a must-have in tournaments on Yahoo.
MLB DFS Outfielder: Wil Myers — $14
There are a number of viable stacks to fire up amongst the 28 teams in action this evening, but the Awesemo Top Stacks tool is singing the praises of the Padres in particular. While their 4.3% chance of finishing as the top stack of the night does not sound overly enticing, there is no team that exceeds even 8% on the Yahoo slate. That means gamers should be looking in the powerful Padres direction, especially because the public does not seem to be.
After scoring nine unanswered runs in an incredible comeback win against the Nationals on Thursday, San Diego will face southpaw Kyle Freeland and the Rockies tonight in an even better spot to inflict some damage. Freeland has given up a career .451 slugging percentage to right-handed bats, making the likes of Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Tommy Pham priority plays. But Wil Myers provides the salary relief needed to fit decent arms with this stack, making him and his .177 ISO a contrarian but capable addition to MLB Yahoo Cup lineups.
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