Good morning everyone! Another wonderful Saturday of baseball today as the weekend is finally upon us. Plenty of day games on the docket as well as a late slate to keep you satisfied all day long!

New depositors to DraftStreet can earn a 100% deposit bonus up to $200 by using this link. 

Weather

The only potential weather issues seem to be in New York today, but at first glance, there doesn’t seem to be any seriously threatening weather. Should be a beautiful day of baseball!

[am4show have=’p3;p4;p7;p11;’ guest_error=’Front Office’ user_error=’Front Office’ ]

Positional Breakdown

Starting Pitchers

Perhaps my favorite game on the slate, and the one I’ll be attending is the Pirates and Nationals game at PNC Park. Both Stephen Strasburg and Gerrit Cole are two of the games finest young arms and they will be squaring off against each other in what looks to be a pitcher’s duel. Strasburg and Cole have posted similar numbers on the season, but obviously give the strikeout edge to Stephen today.  Keep in mind, PNC Park is pitcher friendly and both of these offenses do not provide much power, both arms should be high on your radar.

I’m finally going to do it. I’m going to say Dallas Keuchel. Can you really ignore what this guy is doing this season? He’s been absolutely fantastic with a sub three earned run average and almost a second straight complete game in his last start against the Angels. The Mariners are not a scary offensive team and are primarily left-handed. Give Keuchel the advantage in that department as the southpaw will own the platoon advantage against most of Seattle’s top hitters. Sadly, I’ll be rostering him today.

Others to consider: David Price, RA Dickey.

Catcher

Another Astro finds himself in my plays and we are only on the catcher position so far. Jason Castro is always one of my favorite catcher plays against right-handed pitching, especially bad right-handed pitching. Castro gets matched up with homer prone Brandon Maurer today at Safeco Field. Castro provides a lot of power when he gets the chance against right-handed guys and his price is too sweet to pass up! All six of Castro’s homers have come against right-handed pitchers and hopefully tonight he gets number seven!

Consider: Yadier Molina.

First Basemen

Adrian Gonzalez is one of my favorite first baseman to watch thanks to his sweet stroke and solid play all around. Today, he becomes one of my favorite first base DFS options as well. Gonzalez is facing young right-hander David Buchanan who is drawing the start for the injured Cliff Lee. Citizen’s Bank Park is a great hitting environment and the Dodgers should have no worries as a team tomorrow against the rookie Buchanan.

If you’re looking for a good matchup for hitters, always look to John Danks. Danks is just an unbelievably bad pitcher and really shouldn’t have a home with any team. However he still gets thrown out there every five days and because of that, I like Mark Teixeira today, despite swinging it from the right side. Normally I tend to use Tex against right-handers, but today at US Cellular, it’s tough to pass him up.

Others to consider: Freddie Freeman and Anthony Rizzo.

Second Basemen

On the other side of the Yankees game, I’m a big fan of Gordon Beckham. I’ve gotten to watch quite a bit of Beckham this year and he just seems to be stinging the ball fairly well in a lot of his at-bats. Add that in to the fact that he gets to face the left-hander Vidal Nuno at home at the Cell and I’m all for it. Beckham is crushing left-handers at an average of .417 with a pair of homeruns on the young season; roster him confidently.

Should you be looking for a homerun from your second baseman, perhaps look to Brian Dozier. Dozier has simply been on a power surge this season and leads all second basemen in the homerun category. Dozier gets to square away with Ryan Vogelsong who has seen his groundball rate drop to around 36% this season and is allowing close to one homerun a game. The Twins don’t possess much power so that one homerun could be in Dozier’s hands.

Others to consider: Ian Kinsler and Chase Utley.

Third Baseman

Unfortunately I just don’t really see a whole lot of third baseman jumping out at me tomorrow so I’m going to go by the wayside and throw out a potential value third baseman that you can jump on tomorrow. Perhaps you remember Todd Frazier’s name from somewhere and it’s not the homerun board from last night. You’re correct, he was a LLWS hero from New Jersey. Frazier is far from home tomorrow but should be right at home in the box against left-hander Jaime Garcia. The Reds lineup is pretty watered down right now but Frazier is one of the sticks that is capable of doing some damage. He has plenty of homerun potential and has been much better against left-handed pitchers in his career. He makes for a solid GPP play.

Shortstop

So despite playing away from Coors Field, Troy Tulowitzki gets a left-handed pitcher. Does that mean we should go ahead and roster him everywhere? Let’s see…in his career, Tulo has a career average of .316 and nearly as many walks as he has strikeouts against southpaws. I’d say he sees the ball pretty well off of them. I know his price is through the roof, but I think you might actually get a break in ownership tomorrow and could reap great rewards should he do some damage.

If you believe in story lines and picking on John Danks, why not test your hand with Derek Jeter? Surely Jeter doesn’t have the same potential he once did, but this is pretty strictly a matchup play. I think the Yanks score a bunch of runs today and I don’t want to miss out on a guy who could be in the middle of it. Jeter is going to come at a discounted price and has a prime matchup. He’s actually going to find his way into some of my lineups today.

Outfield

Outfield is always the most difficult to recommend on a given day just because of the vast amount of players to choose from. Today is no different, but I’m going to do my best to give you three of my favorites anyway. I feel like I have to mention Yasiel Puig right now. If you’ve watched any of Puig this year you can definitely see the maturation process that’s ongoing while he’s at the plate. He’s keeping off difficult pitches and getting himself into much better counts and doing damage when it’s in his favor. He had three hits again last night and has just been on a tear. Give me Puig in a hitter’s park today.

Yes, Alfonso Soriano is back in Chicago, just on the other side. He’s playing at US Cellular with the rest of the Yankees and has the incredible matchup with John Danks today. I’ve explained numerous times now why you need to play guys against John Danks so I’m not going to overdo it here. Use Soriano, watch him hit homeruns; thank me later.

Last but not least, I feel it’s my duty to mention Brandon Moss against all right-handed pitchers for the rest of eternity. I don’t know how he continues to do it, but seemingly every time he sees a righty, Moss homers. Yes, Moss hit another homerun last night and will hopefully do the same today against R.A. Dickey. It’s tough to recommend guys against a knuckleball, but I’m sure Moss will find a way to handle it.

Others to consider: Michael Brantley, Dexter Fowler, Andre Either, Carl Crawford and Carlos Quentin. 

[/am4show]