Getty Mike Trout is the most expensive bats on tonight's slate.
It’s a small Monday slate for baseball.
Most teams are traveling, and there are four games in total for DFS action. If that wasn’t lame enough, only the Yankees-Tigers game (7:10 Eastern) starts before 10 p.m. on the east coast. But is that going to stop us degenerates? Of course not. With so few games available, we’re targeting home runs with several fly ball pitchers in action.
MLB DFS Pitchers
Julio Tehran
Julio Tehran has two hallmarks: he is garbage at home and gets rocked by lefties. Tonight he gets a near-dream scenario at San Diego, a light lineup in a pitcher-friendly ballpark. Tehran started out strong in May before getting rocked by those pesky Marlins, but bounced back with a decent start against Boston and a quality start against the Mets. If he can avoid Eric Hosmer in the middle of that Padres lineup, he could rack up enough points to be the highest scoring pitcher on the slate.
Nick Tropeano
Finding a second starter is a bigger ask for Monday. I would normally target the Diamondbacks, but they’ve seemingly woken up over the last week. Over the last seven days, Arizona has scored 42 runs with a .380 wOBA, making them one of the hottest teams in baseball.
Tropeano has strikeout upside, which helps against the team with the best K rate in baseball. The Royals don’t strike out but they also don’t hit much, sitting just 17th in wOBA over the last 30 days. Tropeano has at least five strikeouts in five of his eight starts this season, so we’re going with the consistency. It doesn’t hurt that Tropeano pitched six shutout innings against this lineup on April 12.
MLB DFS Stacks
Angels
Danny Duffy may have strung two quality starts together since referring to himself as “terrible,” but a few Angels have had some past success against the Royals ace. Mike Trout will be the top play on Monday night, sporting a healthy .417 average in 12 at-bats against Duffy. Justin Upton has also taken Duffy deep twice in 17 at-bats. Players should also strongly consider Ian Kinsler, who is red-hot right now and has faced Duffy a team-high 31 times.
Yankees
There’s never a bad night to stack Yankees. Mike Fiers hasn’t been terrible this season, but he’s an extreme fly ball pitcher going against one of the league’s best power-hitting lineups. Aaron Judge has taken Fiers deep once already in his young career, and he’s definitely a target along with Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorious. Besides the obvious names, lesser-valued power hitters like Greg Bird. Bird has a hit in five straight games, but has only one home run since coming off the DL. When that power returns, he’ll be a much more expensive DFS play.
Cheap DFS Plays
We’re going to try adding this at the bottom. Corey Spangenberg homered for San Diego yesterday, and he could be worth a look if you’re fading Tehran. He’s a lefty with decent pop, and he’s a bare-minimum $2,000 on FanDuel. Spangenberg could be replacing Christian Villanueva, who exited Sunday’s game with an ankle injury.
John Ryan Murphy went 0-4 Sunday against the Marlins, ending his streak of three straight games with a home run. Murphy is part of an offensive resurgence for the Diamondbacks, and is a dirt-cheap catcher facing fly ball pitcher Derek Holland.