2013 Fantasy BaseballFantasy BaseballJosh Kay

2013 Fantasy Baseball Daily Fix: August 17th, 2013

Daily Fantasy Baseball Fix

 

First of all, I would like to sincerely apologize to all of the Fantasy Fix readers for this extremely late Draft Kings team of the day update. Last night my neighbor directly across the street had their house get struck by lightning during a massive thunderstorm. Our house briefly lost power, and after that it was all about consoling the other family and playing host to them. It was an absolute war zone as their house had a massive electrical fire that took five hours and eight fire engines full of fireman to put out.

Today I am playing the $750 Moon Shot challenge, but don’t forget about the $100k Sweet Spot Challenge that Draft Kings is holding on August 23rd. The qualifiers continue to run up to then, and it takes as little as $2 to attempt to qualify for a spot.

I had excellent success yesterday in the $1,250 Moon-Shot challenge that had 750 entrants. I got 50th place which netted me $5. I did some in-depth research about certain pitch types as well as the normal platoon split stuff. My pitching was god awful but my hitters were excellent.

The real secret to winning these is putting research into the hitting and hoping to strike gold with some cheap pitchers. Good pitching is always an excellent anchor, but that really can only guarantee you a spot in the top 33% of the field. In order to get in the Top-5 your hitting must be top notch. Here is my lineup for today’s nightly games challenge $750 Moon Shot.

Garrett Richards- Los Angeles Angels- vs. HOU- $7,900: Richards has been very hot of late and the Astros struggle on the Road quite frequently. Richards has tossed three straight quality starts. Additionally, he has pitched deeper into the game in each of his past four games. He allowed no runs in five innings on July 27th vs. Oakland, went six innings in his next start against the Blue Jays, seven innings after that against Texas, then held the red-hot Yankees to just two runs in eight innings his last time out (again all were quality starts except the Oakland start which was a five inning shutout).

Andrew Albers- Minnesota Twins- vs. CWS- $8,200: If Richards has been hot than Albers has been untouchable. Albers has given up six hits in two starts, throwing a complete game in his last start and going 8.1 innings the start before that. The 27-year-old lefty out of Kentucky does just have those two starts this season on his resume, but going up against the light hitting White Sox should be a chance for another great outing.

Wilin Rosario- Colorado Rockies- @ BAL- $4,200: Rosario went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI in yesterday’s game against the Orioles. Now he faces Bud Norris who is prone to giving up home runs. Expect a high scoring game.

Adam Lind- Toronto Blue Jays- @ TB- $3,300: Lind has had great success against the artist formerly known as Fausto Carmona (Roberto Hernandez). In 13 at-bats against Hernandez this season, Lind is 5-for-13 with two home runs and a double, one walk and zero strikeouts. He has a 1.352 OPS against him. Overall Lind has struggled lately as he’s back down to a .277 batting average. However, this is once again because he is struggling against left handed pitching, hitting .229 on the season against them now after excelling against them in a short sample earlier in the season. Lind is currently hitting .291/.372/.507 against right-handed pitching this season. In addition, Hernandez is absolutely putrid against left-handed batters, yielding a .306/.373/.541 slash line against them this season. This opposed to a .247/.277/.365 line for right-handed batters against the 29-year-old Hernandez.

Skip Schumaker, Los Angeles Dodgers- @ PHI- $3,200: Schumaker has a .375/.400/.708 slash line against the Phillies starter for today, Kyle Kendrick. Schumaker is hitting a robust (for him) .284 against right-handed pitching this season and he does very well against the fastball. Kendrick has also struggled mightily recently so I expect the hot-hitting Dodgers to jump all over him.

Hanley Ramirez, Los Angeles Dodgers- @ PHI, $5,000: I used Hanley yesterday since he owns Cliff Lee and Lee had been struggling recently and it paid off brilliantly. Hanley hasn’t quite enjoyed as much success against Kyle Kendrick, but much of that data comes from other years. Hanley is hitting .571 and slugging .857 in 28 at-bats with just one strikeout against the sinker from right-handed pitching. Kendrick only throws a sinker (not a four-seam fastball) as his hard pitch, and righties have had good success against Kendrick this year especially against that pitch (hitting .306 off it).

Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers- vs. KC- $6,400: Cabrera owns Wade Davis to the tune of a .357/.412/.857 slash line. Need I say more?

Jay Bruce, Cincinnati Reds- @ MIL- $3,600: Bruce has struggled recently but his remedy for that always is a matchup between him and Yovani Gallardo. Bruce hits .406/.457/.688 against him in 32 career at-bats. Also, Gallardo has been putrid this season and this is his first start back from the disabled-list.

Wil Myers, Tampa Bay Rays- vs. TOR- $3,800: Myers is still way underpriced and he owns left-handed pitching, especially pitchers with weak fastballs. Also, this is J.A. Happ’s return to the Trop after an incredibly scary incident where he got hit in the head by a line drive. There is bound to be a lot of nerves for Happ.

Yoenis Cespedes, Oakland Athletics- vs. CLE- $4,300: Cespedes is 3-4 with a home run against Ubaldo in his career with a walk as well. Ubaldo has struggled mightily against right-handed batters this year, posting a 16.2 percent walk rate against them against just a 8.6 percent walk rate against left-handed batters. Also Yoenis crushes sinkers and that’s Ubaldo’s best pitch (but struggles with it against right-handers).

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1 Comment

  1. Jon
    August 17, 2013 at 5:39 pm

    Wow this is the worst lineup ever put together. You wouldn’t win any league with this.