Top MLB DFS Plays 6/30 | Trust No One

June 30, 2019

Written by ZeroInDenver | @ZeroInDenver on LineStar | @zeroindenver on Twitter

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Happy Sunday everyone. Greg's taking a much deserved break and I'm filling in for him today. In other good news, Coors isn't on the main slate for both DraftKings and FanDuel. Instead, we get a solid 9-game slate (for both sites) that I'm pretty excited about.

At the time of this writing (late Saturday night) there's no weather concerns on the slate. However, keep in mind that most games on the slate will have temperatures in the 80s at gametime so we should expect to see a lot of offense today. Remember, bats win GPPs, and pitchers will cost you GPPs. If there are a couple pitchers that you like but are unsure on, make two lineups. It's much better to lose an extra few dollars than miss out on what could have been a big day if you took the other guy.

Stay up to date on all weather conditions and confirmed lineups as soon as they are released over on the Daily Dashboard!

Pitchers to Consider

Max Scherzer, WAS | DK: $12.3K, FD: $12.5K | RHP | vs. Detroit

Let's get this out of the way. This is the answer to the "Cole or Scherzer" question. (I'm not even considering Giolito or Snell in this equation). I have very little interest in Cole today. To be perfectly honest, I prefer picking a top-tier pitcher against Detroit than Seattle right now. Surprisingly, you can build some pretty solid lineups (at least on DraftKings) with Scherzer. I never think anyone is a must play (and never stretch your lineup to fit anyone in), but I'll have healthy exposure to him today.

Marco Gonzales, SEA | DK: $7K, FD: $7.1K | LHP | @Houston

I did an initial build and landed on Marco as my top SP2 on DraftKings. He doesn't have a lot of upside, but I feel that he has less downside compared to other options at that price point.

Jon Lester, CHC | DK: $8.7K, FD: $7.7K | RHP | @Cincinnati  

Like almost every day this season, there are not a lot of "safe" pitchers. Instead, we're picking the best of the worst every day. I'll admit, I don't feel good about this. I don't trust him and I'm kind of expecting to get burned on this one. I know he's going to give up some runs, but I just hope he can make up for it in strikeouts.

Team Stacks to Target

ZeroInDenver's Not-So-Quick Note: If you're playing a handful of lineups or less, don't force stacks. You stand a much better chance to sit at the bottom of the leaderboard with a 4-man or 5-man stack that failed. Instead, let your stacks happen organically where you happen to land on a 2-man or 3-man Washington stack of Turner, Rendon, and Soto because you like each of those players. I think you run a higher risk of your stack busting when you force a 4-man or 5-man stack from a team because you think you need to play that many from a team.

Kansas City Royals vs. Aaron Sanchez | RHP | Toronto

Aaron Sanchez is $4.4K on DraftKings and $5.6K on FanDuel. Surely there's going to be a good number of DFS players that try to convince themselves "if I pay down for Sanchez, I can stack Cleveland" or they'll ask "how bad could he be? It's only Kansas City." Merrifield, Gordon, Dozier, and Soler are my favorites.

Cleveland Indians vs. Gabriel Ynoa | RHP | Baltimore

It's true. Stacking Cleveland the last few days (well, this whole season if we're being honest) has been nothing but donations. However, Ynoa is terrible. I'm always going to stack against bad pitchers. Sometimes it's best not to over-complicate these decisions. (Remember the 💎 I gave before? Hint: Sort pitchers in the LineStar app by Daily Matchup and scroll to the bottom. Pick one of the bottom 4 teams.) Lindor, Santana, Kipnis, and Freeman are my favorites.

Texas Rangers vs. Blake Snell | LHP | Tampa Bay

If you were completely new to baseball and looked solely at Blake Snell's numbers this year, you'd have a hard time believing that he won the AL Cy Young last season. But here we are. His Statcast numbers are not good and haven't been good for a while. Maybe he turns it around at this point, but I'm going to continue to stack teams against him. DeShields, Santana, Mazara, and Gallo are my favorites

One-Off Hitters

Here I’ll highlight players at [roughly] different price points (high, mid, low) that could be used as a ‘one-off’ piece in lineups -- or perhaps part of a two man mini-stack. In other words, the who-should-I-play-if-I-play-one-person-from-that-stack?

Nomar Mazara, TEX | DK: $4.4K, FD: $3.2K | OF | vs. Blake Snell (LHP)

We hear it in chat every day. "I played this guy yesterday/last week/all season and he hits a homerun today." Purely a gut call, but I think he causes that type of tilt in chat today.

Colin Moran, PIT | DK: $4K, FD: $2.6K | 3B | vs. Zach Davies (RHP)

The Pirates have been DFS darlings lately, and I'm not going to look past them today against Davies. If you don't feel like stacking Pittsburgh, Moran is my favorite one-off this side of Bell.

Nelson Cruz, MIN | DK: $4.3K, FD: $3.7K | OF | vs. Lucas Giolito (RHP)

Gut call #2. I kept coming across Minnesota for teams that I want to stack. Cruz is interesting to me because I think that if people do stack Minnesota, they'll stick with lefties. All the more reason for me to like Cruz. That said, I don't think Cruz gets to Giolito, but the White Sox don't have a great bullpen and I think he gets a knock or two against them.

Final Thoughts: I try to be as honest and transparent with you all as possible, but please keep in mind that these are my personal thoughts and impressions. I don't own a time machine or a crystal ball. Always, always, always do your own research and play what you think will be the best lineup(s) you can make for the slate.

Best of luck today! Don't forget about the Weekend Edition On Deck Podcast with Joe and Chris. There's a link at the top of the newsletter!

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