Good morning everyone! Thursday has officially arrived and baseball is right around the corner. If you read yesterday’s “Double Switch” surely you had a successful Wednesday night, as Chris Kay’s absolutely killed it yesterday. Hopefully I can lead you to similar success today!

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

Weather:

STL/NYM-Wind in from left at 24mph.

CHW/DET-Wind in from left at 14mph.

ARI/CHC- Wind out to left field corner at 24mph.

There are no rain concerns today.

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Positional Breakdown:

Starting Pitchers

While the most popular plays in last few days have been Cardinals’ pitchers against the lackluster New York Mets, my favorite play tomorrow is “Mad Max” Scherzer. Scherzer is a fantasy dream each and every time he takes the ball and today against a team that is striking out 22.4% of the time, he’ll help fulfill your dreams. Scherzer is currently sporting a K/9 of 11.33 and looks to continue that trend. He’s pricey, but isn’t actually the most expensive pitcher in today’s slate.

The most expensive arm today is Scott Kazmir. Kazmir gets to match up with a Houston Astros team that he faced in his last start. Kazmir turned in a quality eight-inning performance at home against the Astros, and I expect a similar performance tomorrow on the road. The Astros still lead the league in strikeout percentage and Kazmir has plenty of great strikeout potential.

Jordan Zimmerman is another one top pitching option today against the San Diego Padres. The Padres are fresh off of a series at Milwaukee where they only scored 6 runs in 3 games. The Padres offense is currently last in the league in runs scored and won’t be scoring many today at Nationals Park. If you don’t want to pay up for Kazmir or Scherzer, Zimmerman provides an excellent mid-priced option with an elite matchup.

Others to consider: Lance Lynn, Dan Haren. Tony Cingrani.

GPP Option: Brett Oberholtzer

Relief Pitcher

 With the arms that are available today, I think it’s best two try and grab two of the best starting pitchers and pair them with a reliever. It’s going to be really tough to fit three of the best arms and find hitters to match. If you decide to roster a relief pitcher today, Rafael Soriano is the guy to use. Soriano hasn’t given up an earned run this year and has recorded four saves already. Zimmerman has a great chance to get this ball to the back end of the bullpen with a lead, hopefully setting up a save opportunity for Soriano.

Catcher

Is Devin Mesoraco even human? After a one hit performance last night, his season average has dropped to .525. Disappointing, right? It hasn’t been just ten at-bats for Mesoraco, he’s stepped into the box 46 times this season and has been a nightmare for opposing pitchers. So far he is 15-30 this year against right-handed pitching, including all three of his homeruns. He’s still very affordable and expected Pirates’ starter Brad Cumpton does not frighten me at all.

Matt Wieters has a solid night last night collecting three hits one of which was a solo homerun. The ball was flying out of the Rogers Centre last night and nothing changes today. Vegas is expecting this to be one of the higher scoring games today thanks to a pair of mediocre right-handed pitchers and lots of explosive bats, don’t miss out.

Others to consider: Yadier Molina, Derek Norris, Miguel Montero, Yan Gomes.

First Baseman 

First base is going to be a position to pay up for today. Miguel Cabrera, Chris Davis, and Joey Votto all have excellent matchups on the slate. Miggy enjoyed his most successful game in recent memory on Monday night when he homered and doubled against a left-handed pitcher. Jose Quintana goes for the White Sox today, another left-handed pitcher that I expect Cabrera to take advantage of.

“Crush” Davis took a two-strike breaking ball over the fence in dead center last night and is presented with a great matchup against Drew Hutchison today. Left-handed hitters are slugging .500 against Hutchison and both of the homeruns he has surrendered have been to sluggers from the left-handed batter’s box.

There really isn’t ever any analysis needed for playing Joey Votto. Votto is consistently among the best hitters in baseball and is the safest of the first baseman today. Votto gets a cozy matchup with spot-starter Brad Cumpton and should be looking to unleash some power. People have questioned Votto’s patient approach, wishing he would be more aggressive, but I expect him to pick his spots well today. He’s a veteran hitter with a favorable matchup; play him with confidence.

Second Baseman

Brian Dozier has been a pleasant surprise for a Minnesota Twins team with not much to cheer about. Although I can’t say that anyone expected the surge of power that he has put together to begin the season, he has done an admirable job in the leadoff spot for the Twins. His six homeruns and five stolen bases present you with a lot of upside and he gets a favorable matchup against lefty Erik Bedard.

Platoon splits often help us find the best guys to roster on a given day. Today’s no-brainer platoon splits play is Anthony Rendon. Rendon has been excellent to star the year for the Nats and has been exceptional against left-handed pitching. In 14 at-bats against left-handers this year, he’s recorded seven hits, two of which are homeruns. Matt Williams does a lot of shuffling with the batting order but you can be sure that Rendon will be hitting in a marquee spot tomorrow. Plug him in with the utmost confidence.

Others to consider: Dee Gordon, Dustin Pedroia and Ben Zobrist.

Shortstop

When Troy Tulowitzki isn’t playing, shortstop always seems to be a difficult position to fill. However, today there are plenty of weak pitchers to pick on and value players to plug in at shortstop. Xander Bogaerts gets to face off with a much skinnier C.C. Sabathia at Fenway Park today as the Yankees and Red Sox continue their rivalry. While Bogaerts is still growing into his power, his price and matchup make him a top play today. He’s hitting .333 against left-handed pitchers this year and tallied his only homerun against a lefty.

Jose Reyes is back! Reyes is one of my all-time favorite fantasy options and he’s back atop the Blue Jays lineup. Reyes was a part of the slugfest last night at the Rogers Centre and “touched ‘em all” for the first time. Hitting in front of Melky Cabrera, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, pitchers are going to have to go right after Reyes and he should see lots of fastballs all year. I’d like to see him get the chance to swipe some bases and really test out his hamstring, but regardless he makes for a solid option in a potentially high scoring game.

Others to consider: Ian Desmond, Hanley Ramirez and Starlin Castro.

Third Baseman

Have you seen Josh Donaldson’s hair? His hairstyle nor his defense have me dropping my jaw, but I’m only concerned with his offensive production today. Donaldson gets a park-factor bump today as the A’s travel to Minute Maid Park in Houston for a game against the Astros. Matching up with Brett Oberholtzer, Donaldson is my favorite third baseman today. Last year he hit .335 against left-handed pitching with eleven homeruns and has started 2014 with a .297 average against south paws.

Matt Carpenter’s price is not where we will see it at the end of the year on DraftStreet. Priced well below the rest of the all-star third baseman, Carpenter gets a nice matchup with the ageless wonder Bartolo Colon today. Colon throws roughly 85% fastballs and Carpenter is an excellent fastball hitter. Carpenter’s short, compact swing should suit him well tomorrow and set up the rest of the Cardinals lineup for runs tomorrow.

Others to consider: Trevor Plouffe, Luis Valbuena, and Evan Longoria.

Outfield

There are a lot of outfielders to try and take advantage of today, but I’ll give you three of my favorites. Matt Joyce continues to fly under the radar of all pricing algorithms on DraftStreet. He continued swinging the bat well last night, hitting a double and driving in a few runs. Joyce will be hitting third in the order again against the miserable Ricky Nolasco. Nolasco is often a target for daily fantasy sports players and I think tomorrow will prove more of the same. Joyce is hitting .395 with a couple of homeruns against right-handed pitching, a positive sign headed into the game today.

Will Chris Colabello slow down? He hit his third homerun last night and drove in another four runs. He’s made quite a story, making his way from the Indy Leagues to the Twins starting lineup and not disappointing. He’s been red hot all year long and continues to hit at a .333 clip with a .208 ISO and a .460 batting average on balls in play! Hopefully Erik Bedard attacks Colabello, if so, you might see him add to that homerun total.

Matt Holliday is the second “Matt” that I like from the Cardinals’ lineup tomorrow. I mentioned the amount of fastballs that Bartolo Colon chucks to the plate each time he takes the mound and that’s not going to change. I expect Carpenter to find his way on in front of Holliday and give a pair of Matt’s (Adams and Holliday) a chance to drive him in. Holliday only has one homerun this year, but is hitting .304 over his last seven days and finds himself in a great matchup today.

Others to consider: Andrew McCutchen, Jay Bruce, Yoenis Cespedes, Jonny Gomes and Alex Gordon.

Mini Stacks:

Tampa Bay – Joyce, Longoria, Loney

Minnesota – Dozier, Plouffe, Colabello

Oakland – Lowrie, Donaldson, Cespedes

Baltimore – Wieters, Davis, Jones

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