Hola! Welcome back folks! It’s my turn to take you on another adventure down some random lane that winds and turns to an eventual destination full of cash and Chuck Norris posters.

Weather

Sigh. Rain is no fun. Tonight watch for the little water drops in Pittsburgh, New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

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Positional Breakdown

Starting Pitchers

It doesn’t seem like it will be the easiest day to maneuver around the starting pitchers, weather and the rest of the variables in play. Yu Darvish pitches to a Yankees team that refused to score runs last night, however, he’s in one of those “watch” games. Should everything clear up there, Yu is obviously in play. He’s had a few rough starts in the last month or so, but the strikeout potential, and the chances that he dominates are too good to pass up.

If you’d like someone with great chances at success, Madison Bumgarner is a real nice fit. Bumgarner is also coming off a stretch of starts where you would have been burned if you used him, but I think he bounces back nicely against the Phillies tonight. He strikes out over one hitter per inning, an awesome statistic for a DFS option.

If you want to test the waters in your GPP’s, Stephen Strasburg at Coors Field might be really fun. The Rockies offense just lost Troy Tulowitzki (sad face), but they’re still getting a heavy dose of home field advantage tonight. Strasburg brings to the table all the stuff we want in a pitcher; lots of strikeouts, more strikeouts, fun fastballs that go really fast and strikeouts.

Catcher

Um, Dude? Salvador Perez flies so far below the radar, consistently. Probably because he plays on a team that only scores runs based on some sort of baseball gag reflex, but still. Perez was an all-star, and has provided excellent offensive skills all season long. I’ve mentioned in the past that his numbers in his career point towards better usage against left-handed guys, and tonight he gets Jose Quintana. If you’re into the whole BVP thing, Perez already has a couple homers off Quintana in his short career.

First Baseman

Here comes the sun, and my homerism. Anthony Rizzo is a beast. He is so good. I love him, so much. Alright, sorry, that was weird, but seriously, the guy is on fire. Another couple of homeruns last night against the Padres, and tonight he gets Ian Kennedy. Kennedy’s ground ball rate has gone up this year, but he’s still not a dominant ground ball thrower. Rizzo’s numbers speak loud enough. He leads the National League in homeruns and wants to keep hitting more.

Second Baseman

So long Darwin Barney. Darwin was never worthy of a mention here, but as a Cubs fan, I wanted to give him a crack at having his name below the heralded, “Second Baseman” heading. A real option tonight would be Jason Kipnis. Kipnis’ injury sort of derailed his entire season, and he hasn’t exactly gotten it going, but he still inherits a boatload of potential. He swipes bags, he can hit homeruns and he gets on base. Despite the .254 average, he’s getting on base at a .336 clip, which, let’s be honest, isn’t really that bad.

Shortstop

I already miss the days where I could just say Troy Tulowitzki, you guys followed, and he hit two homeruns. It’s not as easy anymore, and I’m really sad about it. I’ll go a different route, to a less likely homerun candidate and a less fun last name, Jose Reyes. So I like Reyes, a lot. I always wanted Reyes to end up a Cub and for the Cubs to win it all on the back of a Jose Reyes steal of home. It’s not going to happen now, but come on, could have been cool. Anyway, Reyes is still playing, and playing pretty well. In the month of July he’s hitting .333 and he’s only been caught stealing once on the year. He clobbered his eighth homerun last night, so sorry you probably missed out on one of those, but hey, give the guy a chance.

Third Baseman

I’m going to try the one name thing, and hope that it works and this guy hits two homeruns tonight. Seriously though, if you need any explanation, he’s facing Bartolo Colon, and he’s a good hitter. Kyle Seager. boom. (I feel like boom has more power if you do it in all lower case).

Outfield

I’m still awaiting results on that fight to the death between Giancarlo Stanton and Yasiel Puig, so if someone could fill me in, yeah, thanks. I’m going to make this one easy on you, because the last time I picked this guy in this spot, he was awesome. I’m expecting him to come through in the clutch and be awesome for me again, so I look cool, you feel cool, and we all are happy.

STAND UP JAYSON WERTH! First off, no one spells Jayson with a ‘y,’ that’s just silly. Secondly, if you do, you better hope your son grows up to be an above average hitter and one that we use a lot in DFS against left-handed guys. Ding ding ding! Did it! I don’t want to talk about his disgustingly less than I thought ISO against left-handed guys, but he’s getting on base at a .450 clip, plus he’s playing at Coors Field, plus he’s facing a southpaw, plus I said use him, plus this is my last clause.

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