Written by Greg Landry | @glandry on LineStar | @GP_Landry on Twitter

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Another home run for Aristides Aquino. He's now the fastest player to hit his first nine career home runs (14 games) in MLB history. The record was previously held by Trevor Story who hit eight home runs in his first 14 games back in 2016. Aquino has a .570 wOBA, .636 ISO, and 257 wRC+ in 47 plate appearances. This level of production won't last forever but it's fun to watch right now. Even when regression starts to kick in the Reds appear to have an extremely productive hitter on their hands.

Full disclosure, this slate is pretty ugly. When your top priced arm is Yu Darvish, chances are your options are going to be pretty limited. If you decide to play anyway because you are a degenerate like me, I would strongly advise you scale back on the invested bankroll. Here’s a look at the Vegas lines:

Weather Outlook

There are two games with temperatures in the 90s where we can give a boost to the bats, in Atlanta where it will be 90 degrees and in Texas where it will be 96 degrees at first pitch. That game currently has an 11.5 O/U. Outside of the heat, there's little to report. Currently there is no rain in the forecast, winds look light across the board, and the rest of the games have cooler temperatures.

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

Sonny Gray, CIN | DK: $9.1K, FD: $9.8K | RHP | vs. St. Louis Cardinals

The "Revive My Career Tour" continues for Sonny Gray who has been borderline elite in the second half of the season. Since the start of July, he's 3-1 in seven starts with a 1.59 ERA (3.72 SIERA), 0.93 WHIP, 30.5% strikeouts, and a 50.5% ground ball rate. He's had at least seven strikeouts in six of his last seven starts and he's allowed a total of eight earned runs during that span. He's coming off two consecutive starts without allowing a run and striking out seven each time. The best part, however, is not only what he's doing, it's actually who he's doing it against. In his last seven starts he's faced the Brewers twice, the Cubs twice, the Braves, and he also threw seven innings of one run ball with nine strikeouts at Coors Field. His only bad start? Against the Pirates of all teams who have the league's worst record since the All-Star break (got to love baseball). He gets another fairly difficult match up today against a playoff contending team but given how well he's throwing the ball right now, there's simply no reason to not keep rolling with him.

Andrew Heaney, LAA | DK: $9K, FD: $6.4K | LHP | vs. Chicago White Sox

Heaney is extremely talented but he's never healthy. He looked good enough in his first start off the IL where I think we can risk it on a slate like this where basically no matter who we choose, it's a risk. In that start he allowed three hits, one run, and had four strikeouts in 3.2 IP. He was pulled after just 74 pitches when he started to get into some trouble. The Angels likely didn't want to push him too far. He'll look to build on the 74 pitches today. Prior to yesterday (Wade Miley got shelled last night) let's review the performances of the last few pitchers to face the White Sox:

• 8/13: Zack Greinke - 6 IP, 7 hits, 2 runs, 6 strikeouts

• 8/11: Chris Bassitt - 7 IP, 4 hits, 0 runs, 7 strikeouts

• 8/10: Tanner Roark - 6.2 IP, 6 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), 7 strikeouts

• 8/9: Mike Fiers - 7 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, 8 strikeouts

Seeing a pattern here? On the season Chicago has just a .300 wOBA, .143 ISO and they strikeout 25.8% of the time. They are 27th in home runs, 28th in runs scored, and 28th in RBI. On a full slate, I'd wait to see more from Heaney before I invested in him coming off an injury. Tonight, in this match up and on this slate, I'm willing to roll the dice that Heaney will have enough upside against this strikeout prone offense even if he can't make it through a full outing. I haven't even told you the best part. Heaney is $6.4K on FanDuel. That's $2.6K less than he is on DraftKings. If you like him on DraftKings today then you have to play him on FanDuel at that price.

Reynaldo Lopez, CWS | DK: $7.9K, FD: $8K | RHP | vs. Los Angeles

You know it's a tough slate when I'm recommending Reynaldo Freaking Lopez as an option. I went back and forth between Lopez and Alex Young. Ultimately, Young has the better match up today against a Giants team that has struggled with left-handed pitching all season and won just five of its last 13 games. But the ceiling is low, as he rarely pitches deep into games and has just one start with more than five strikeouts. Lopez meanwhile, has a non-existent floor, but his ceiling is double-digit strikeout territory which he's managed to do a couple of times this season. He's also pitched well since the All-Star break including a 2.13 ERA (4.58 SIERA), 1.21 WHIP, 23.3% strikeouts, and is limiting opponents to just 28.3% hard contact. He's allowed three earned runs or less in every start during that time frame and given up just one home run. That home run stat should really stand out, as Lopez is typically among the league leaders in home runs allowed. If he's found a way to start limiting them going forward, he could really turn a corner as a pitcher in this league. Again, on a normal sized slate, not going here against an Angels team that has the lowest strikeout rate in baseball. On a small, pretty ugly, eight game slate, Lopez is just the type of person that could throw a total gem and catch everybody off guard.

Team Stacks to Target

Quick Note: Keep in mind, there’s no rule saying you *have* to roll out four and five man stacks. Sometimes mixing and matching two and three man stacks with some one-off hitters is the better route to go in order to give yourself more exposure to different offenses.

Globe Life Park Disclaimer: I'm going to skip over talking about stacking the two teams in Texas tonight. Similar to Coors slates, this game just stands out above the rest with an 11.5 total and temperatures approaching 100 degrees. We know offenses can put up big numbers in that ballpark. You will want exposure to both of those teams tonight. It's a bit obvious though so let's look at some other teams that might be able to compete with that game instead.

New York Yankees vs. Adam Plutko, CLE

Here's my issue with Plutko. If we look at his last seven starts dating back to June 24th he has a 4.78 ERA (5.94 SIERA), 1.25 WHIP, only 10.9% strikeouts, and he's allowing nearly 50% fly balls (46.9%). Plus, the BABIP against him sits at .260 during that span. His SIERA is a full run higher than his ERA which already means some regression is likely AND the BABIP suggest he's actually been a little more lucky than good. If you also also consider who he's pitched against during this time frame it makes the story even worse for Plutko. His last seven starts have been against the Royals (three times), Baltimore, Detroit, Angels, and finally the Twins. Five of these seven starts where he's had less than impressive numbers were against bottom five offenses in baseball. So, how do you think he'll do against the Yankees, in Yankee Stadium, today? The entire lineup is in play today. We obviously have interest in the regular guys like Judge, Torres, and Urshela. I also wanted to highlight a few less obvious options. Brett Gardner is knocking the cover off the ball right now with a 58.8% hard contact rate in the past two weeks. Mike Tauchman owns a .870 wOBA+ISO in his last 55 plate appearances against right-handed pitching. Cameron Maybin has a ridiculous 1.034 wOBA+ISO in his last 45 plate appearances against right-handed pitching. Maybin is one of my favorite bats on the slate today.

Cincinnati Reds vs. Michael Wacha, STL

It's incredible how just one player can change the dynamic of an entire offense. Since they recalled Aquino on August 1st the Reds have played 13 games. They have scored at least five runs in nine of those 13 games. They have scored at least seven runs in four of those 13 games. Not bad for a team that traded away one of its best hitters at the deadline in order to acquire Trevor Bauer. As long as the Reds keep putting up runs (and Aquino keeps hitting dingers) we should continue having exposure to these guys each night. Today, they'll face Michael Wacha who owns a 5.65 ERA, 1.65 WHIP and a 72/42 K/BB ratio in 20 appearances this season. He hasn't pitched more than four innings since all the way back on June 28th and he's allowed 21 home runs in just 89.1 innings pitched this season (2.12 HR/9). Man, if only there was someone on the Reds who could take advantage of Wacha's high home run per nine ratio?

Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Dereck Rodriguez, SF

If you're looking to get some exposure to a team that will go under the radar, the Diamondbacks have a great match up tonight. Rodriguez will be called up to make a start today for the Giants. He was crushed in his last start at the MLB level allowing eight hits, seven runs (four earned) over three innings. On the season he owns a 5.32 ERA (5.41 SIERA), 1.48 WHIP, and only 14.6% strikeouts. He's also allowing 45.4% hard contact which is even more concerning given how much he relies on contact for outs because of the low strikeout rate. Arizona is down but they are not out. They are obviously way behind in their division which includes the Dodgers but they are only 3.5 GB of a wildcard spot sitting at 61-60 on the season. Nick Ahmed is on absolute fire right now with three double-digit fantasy performances in his last four games. He has an .849 wOBA+ISO against right-handed pitching in his last 47 plate appearances. Eduardo Escobar has a .670 wOBA+ISO and 2.44 FP/PA in his last 59 plate appearances against right-handed pitching. Carson Kelly, Ketel Marte, and Christian Walker all have tremendous upside in this spot. The best part about Arizona is these guys are pretty affordable. Only Marte is over $5K on DraftKings tonight.

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.

Yuli Gurriel, HOU | DK: $4.4K, FD: $3.7K | 1B/3B | vs. Mike Fiers

Despite five double-digit fantasy performances in his last eight games including three with over 30 fantasy points, Gurriel has seen an unexplained drop in his price over the past week. He was all the way up to $5.3K on August 10th and today he's $900 less despite continued production. I'm more than happy to take advantage of the savings. He has an outstanding .985 wOBA+ISO and 3.36 FP/PA over his last 67 plate appearances against right-handed pitching.

Evan Longoria, SF | DK: $4K, FD: $2.9K | 3B | vs. Alex Young

Remember this guy? It's been a long time since we've talked about him in one of these articles. With several games now under his belt after a lengthy trip to the IL, Longoria is heating up a bit with two double-digit fantasy performances in his last four games. He's a career lefty smasher and he's picking up where he left off, including an .878 wOBA+ISO and 3.05 FP/PA in the past 22 plate appearances against left-handed pitching. He's a cheap one- off with some power upside against the lefty Alex Young tonight.

Jose Abreu, CWS | DK: $3.9K, FD: $3.6K | 1B | vs. Andrew Heaney

If you decide to bet against Heaney tonight (or at the very least you want to hedge a little) Abreu is in a great spot for very cheap (especially on DraftKings). He's put up double-digit fantasy points in seven of 13 games so far in August and has a 40% hard contact rate and 91.3 mph average exit velocity during that span. He's always hit left-handed pitching well including a .410 wOBA, .247 ISO, and 2.17 FP/PA over his last 150 games against a righty. There's a lot of room for ROI on his salary today.

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