Giants (Alex Wood, LHP) @ Nationals (Jake Irvin, RHP)
Royals (Alec Marsh, RHP) @ Yankees (Clarke Schmidt, RHP)
D-backs (Tommy Henry, LHP) @ Reds (Ben Lively, RHP)
Mets (Kodai Senga, RHP) @ Red Sox (Kutter Crawford, RHP)
Phillies (Ranger Suarez, LHP) @ Guardians (Gavin Williams, RHP)
Dodgers (Tony Gonsolin, RHP) @ Rangers (Andrew Heaney, LHP)
White Sox (Lance Lynn, RHP) @ Twins (Joe Ryan, RHP)
Braves (Mike Soroka, RHP) @ Brewers (Freddy Peralta, RHP)
Pirates (Johan Oviedo, RHP) @ Angels (Shohei Ohtani, RHP)
Astros (Framber Valdez, LHP) @ Athletics (JP Sears, LHP)
Blue Jays (Yusei Kikuchi, LHP) @ Mariners (Bryce Miller, RHP)
Good morning! It’s Friday, so congratulations on making it to the weekend. We’ve got eleven games to draft from today, which is the high end of the goldilocks zone for slate size. I’ve been flirting with first all week, and am starting feel good about my process again. I’ve increased my volume since the All-Star Break, and I regret to inform it’s made a noticeable difference. I’ll expand on that at the end. Let’s get into some lists + musings first.
Pitching Preferences
- Framber Valdez
- Joe Ryan
- JP Sears
- Yusei Kikuchi
- Bryce Miller
- Kodai Senga
- Ranger Suarez
- Kutter Crawford
- Clarke Schmidt
- Lance Lynn
- Johan Oviedo
- Mike Soroka
Favorite Teams
- D-backs
- Braves
- Dodgers
- Rangers
- Reds
- Nationals
- Yankees
- Giants
- Red Sox
- Mets
Batter Ranks
- Ronald Acuna Jr
- Shohei Ohtani
- Corbin Carroll
- Mookie Betts
- Freddie Freeman
- Matt Olson
- Austin Riley
- Matt McLain
- Spencer Steer
- Christian Yelich
- Will Smith
- Giancarlo Stanton
- Christian Walker
- Ketel Marte
- Corey Seager
- Nathaniel Lowe
- Jose Ramirez
- J.D. Martinez
- Josh Jung
- Edourard Julien
- Carlos Correa
- Luis Robert Jr
- Masataka Yoshida
- Francisco Lindor
- Kyle Schwarber
- Julio Rodriguez
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr
- Chas McCormick
- Rafael Devers
- Alex Bregman
- Michael Conforto
- Gleyber Torres
- Lane Thomas
- Kyle Tucker
- Alex Verdugo
- Jonathan India
- Ezequiel Duran
- Trea Turner
- Taylor Ward
- Bryce Harper
- Joey Meneses
- Anthony Volpe
- Alex Kiriloff
- Max Kepler
- Stone Garrett
- Mike Yastrzemski
- Wilmer Flores
- Salvador Perez
- Bobby Witt Jr
- Mickey Moniak
Today will be a ton of fun to draft. I love when JP Sears pitches at home, because the field loves to stack bats against the A’s without any context. We’re not seeing yesterday’s level of hype as they fell flat in that game, but their top 4 is going in nearly every draft.
One of the best spots today includes both the D-backs and Reds in Great American Small Park against two pitchers that are over-performing. I will be stacking both sides of this game in hopes the regression monster comes out to play in a big way.
Another game that I like both sides of is Giants @ Nationals. It’s the ideal spot for both teams – Nationals get a lefty, Giants get a righty. One issue for the Giants is whether LaMonte Wade Jr plays or not. Fortunately, we can draft him anyways and get a swap to someone low owned on the Giants if he is not. For the Nationals, Lane Thomas, Joey Meneses, Stone Garrett, and Keibert Ruiz are my favorite targets here. But you should probably include the 7-9 spots of that lineup once it comes out.
I won’t be taking any Pirates tonight. It was nice to see them leave the Guardians series with one win, but Shohei Ohtani is very likely to overpower this lineup tonight. On the flip side, I’m not including any Angels outside of Ohtani. Johan Oviedo is better than people give him credit for as I’ve alluded to on previous posts. I won’t be drafting him as a SP today, but I’ll get “exposure” to him via the Angels fade.
I am struggling with Mets @ Red Sox. I love Kodai Senga, and Kutter Crawford might be good? But they’re playing in Fenway with the 2nd best park factor for hitters, and I’m not sure I trust them to overcome that tonight with these two lineups on paper. Pete Alonso (again per Tuma, shoutout to the goat) might still be hurt. He’s certainly playing like it, and with Starling Marte on the IL as well this team just isn’t that threatening right now. I’ll stack them once or twice and hope I get lucky if they get it together for tonight’s slate.
That is where I will call it today. I still have drafts to complete and as I was alluding to earlier, I find myself having much more success when I put in high volume and get exposure to more teams as opposed to playing less and condensing my player pool. That’s just anecdotal note from myself and not advice for you, because everyone is different. Good luck today!
Nez
Take Sheet 