Good afternoon Fantasy Fix goers! Welcome to another edition of Daily Fantasy Baseball Strategy for tonight’s late slate at DraftKings.

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Below I have listed a discussion on tonight’s pitching options, the best teams to stack from as well as a set of individual player rankings. Good luck!

Forecast

The only game with any weather concern during the late slate is the game in Philadelphia which looks to have chances of thunderstorms. Make sure to monitor the forecast before setting your lineups.

Pitching Perspective

More often than not this year, I feel like I’ve been bombarded with days without any pitching selections. Tonight, you have but one to choose from. Corey Kluber should be the “lock” for your cash games and should be highly regarded in GPPs as well thanks to his ability to pitch deep into ball games and rack up plenty of strikeouts. Kluber’s opponent, the Rays, strike out in the top-10 in the league, and are a beatable lineup with some “easy outs” mixed in their starting nine. Focus on Kluber for this slate.

You’ll have to roster a second pitcher, though and that is where things get a little bit messier. The fight for your second pitching spot should come down to Noah Syndergaard and Dallas Keuchel, although we all know that in a real fight, Syndergaard (or Thor) would take the cake easily.

Syndergaard gets to face a Braves lineup that, much like the Rays lineup, has holes. The difference between the two teams is that the Rays strikeout, and the Braves really don’t. This diminishes some of Syndergaard’s value as strikeouts are king on DraftKings.

That reason alone is why I’m slightly pushing Keuchel over Syndergaard for cash games on DraftKings. Keuchel gets a huge positive park shift as the Astros travel to Safeco Field to face a Mariners squad that is fairly left-handed. Keuchel will have to get around Nelson Cruz but otherwise will shut down the platoon advantage on the Mariners’ next best hitters, Cano and Seager. He’s fairly pricey, but I like KidKeuchy tonight.

The last arm I’d feel alright with using in cash games is John Lackey. Lackey’s skills don’t get me too excited, but his opponent does. An ongoing trend this baseball season has been to pick on the Philadelphia Phillies and it continues tonight. If the weather holds, Lackey should be considered a cash game option against a terrible lineup that struggles to score any runs. The one downfall here is that Lackey doesn’t pick up many strikeouts (6.86 K/9) and the Phillies actually strikeout near the bottom third of the league. However, the salary relief that Lackey will provide you might be worth the difference.

Throw Carlos Frias and Taijuan Walker into the GPP category for me tonight. Both get great parks to pitch in but face opposing lineups that can do damage. Walker will have the chance to pick up more strikeouts, so he’s a little bit higher on my list, but I like Frias’ strikeout ability in what is likely a low scoring game at Dodger Stadium.

Stack Options

Again, without many pitching options, you’d think there would be plenty of stacks to choose from. Think again.

The positives from this late slate is that there are a lot of good hitters parks on the table, so that’s where I’ll be focusing my offensive mindset for both cash games and GPPs.

Games in Great American, Yankee Stadium, Chase Field and Citizen’s Bank Park all have superiority tonight.

I’ll start with the game in Great American. A pair of ex-teammates and hard throwing right-handers will take the mound for the Reds and Marlins tonight, looking for a pitchers’ duel. They probably won’t get it. Vegas sees this as one of the best offensive outputs of the night with an opening total of 8.5. Great American is a prime spot for home runs, and although someone like Giancarlo Stanton doesn’t need a huge park shift, it doesn’t hurt him either. The Marlins’ top four, including Derek Dietrich who has flashed decent power, should be on your radar, but more or less for tournament play. The Reds side of this game has a little bit more cash game appeal for me. I really love Joey Votto against right-handers, and especially at his home ballpark. Throw in the magical Todd Frazier and a healthy Jay Bruce and you’ve got the makings of a great mini-stack. I don’t like Billy Hamilton and his price is a little high for my liking, but his stolen base upside makes him a must in Reds stacks in tournaments.

The Yankees and Tigers will square off in Yankee Stadium and again it will be a pair of right-handers taking the mound. The Tigers see a less substantial park shift but nonetheless a positive one. The difficulty of their offense is the pricing, which is typically somewhat inflated for a team of really good hitters. However, at the present time, they’re actually quite affordable, making a full stack an option tonight against Nathan Eovaldi. I particularly like 1-6 and think all of them have cash game appeal as well. V-Mart is just back, but could be a steal at his price point and premier lineup spot.

We saw what the Cardinals were able to do last night in Citizen’s Bank Park, and I wouldn’t put it past them again tonight. Their lineup is really banged up, which actually helps us for DFS purposes, as it puts cheaper players in premier lineup spots and good matchups. Kolten Wong and Matt Carpenter are my favorites from this lineup, but if Mark Reynolds, Randall Grichcuk or any others sneak into the top-5, they become really nice salary relief options for me. It’s tough for me to feel safe about a complete stack because of the shallowness of this lineup, but if you’re feeling good, it could be worse.

Last but not least, the game at Chase Field could see some runs. I’m normally a strong believer in Tyson Ross because of his strikeout and groundball upside, but this matchup and scoring environment have me off of him for tonight. The Diamondbacks aren’t a star-studded lineup, but Paul Goldschmidt is strong enough to carry an entire organization on his back. I also love AJ Pollock at the top, but the fillings of David Peralta and Jake Lamb near the top of the order make for great salary relief and are two of my favorites.

The Padres have not been the offense every Padres fan hoped for, but tonight could be a night to shine. They have a huge positive park shift in their favor and they’ll be facing a left-hander that doesn’t miss many bats (5.91 K/9). Derek Norris and Justin Upton destroy left-handed pitching, and are two of the top options at their respective positions today, but anyone else near the top of this lineup is in play.

Player Rankings

Catcher

1. Derek Norris -$3,800 – San Diego Padres

2. Brian McCann -$4,200 – New York Yankees

3. Yadier Molina -$3,300 – St. Louis Cardinals

First Basemen

1. Joey Votto -$4,800 – Cincinnati Reds

2. Miguel Cabrera – $5,200 – Detroit Tigers

3. Paul Goldschmidt -$5,600 – Arizona Diamondbacks

Second Basemen

1. Kolten Wong -$3,900 – St. Louis Cardinals

2. Derek Dietrich -$3,400 – Miami Marlins

3. Ian Kinsler -$3,900 – Detroit Tigers

Third Basemen

1. Todd Frazier -$5,500 – Cincinnati Reds

2. Matt Carpenter -$4,300 – St. Louis Cardinals

3. Alex Rodriguez -$4,400 – New York Yankees

4. Jake Lamb -$3,600 – Arizona Diamondbacks

Shortstops

1. Jhonny Peralta -$4,000 – St. Louis Cardinals

2. Francisco Lindor -$3,700 – Cleveland Indians

3. Didi Gregorious -$3,200 – New York Yankees

Outfield

1. Justin Upton- $4,800 – San Diego Padres

2. David Peralta -$3,000 – Arizona Diamondbacks

3. Joc Pederson -$3,900 – Los Angeles Dodgers

4. Yoenis Cespedes -$4,300 – Detroit Tigers

Starting Pitchers

1. Corey Kluber -$10,400 – Cleveland Indians

2. Dallas Keuchel -$9,900 – Houston Astros

3. John Lackey -$7,900 – St. Louis Cardinals

4. Noah Syndergaard -$9,100 – New York Mets

5. Taijuan Walker -$7,400 – Seattle Mariners

6. Carlos Frias -$4,500 – Los Angeles Dodgers