Every day this season, our team shares who we believe has the best chance to leave the yard. From one-off plays to core parts of daily stacks, we hope this fun article will help you build winning lineups along the way.
Today’s Picks
James: Nelson Cruz – “Brad Keller… Isn’t having a good season. Keller carries a 6.67 ERA and a massive 1.88 WHIP. He has allowed eight or more hits in four of his last five starts and also nine walks over his last 10 innings. So while he has only (only) given up 12 home runs on the year, he is being mashed beyond belief. When Keller is right he will generate a lot of ground balls with his sinker, but he ranks in the bottom 9% for HardHit%, bottom 18% for Barrel%, and bottom 16% for Exit Velocity. Keller strikes out relatively no one and walks many. Each side of the plate here has six homers to their name, and each side is hitting .316 or better. Righties have a slight slugging advantage here, so why not just take one of the best pure power bats in the league. If Cruz sees a pitch to hit, I like the chances of it being a hard-hit ball. Maybe that ball will be a hard hit gapper, but Cruz has the power to put one out on a pitcher who is creating negative value.”
Zach: Gavin Sheets – “Matt Manning has had a really rough start to his career. In his 14.1 innings of action, he has allowed 13 runs and three home runs. That works out to an ERA of 8.16 and an HR/9 rate of 1.88. Hitters are slugging .567 with an average exit velocity of 92.2 miles per hour against Manning. Those kinds of numbers put the whole White Sox lineup in play. My favorite of the group is Sheets who has had a hot start to his career. In his 21 plate appearances, the hitter with a 70 raw power grade has two doubles and two home runs. Sheets has is slugging .778 with an ISO of .444 and an 11.8% barrel rate.”
Jared: Josh Donaldson – “When I look across the slate today, all signs lead me to the Twinkies. And, within the Minnesota lineup, Donaldson stands out among the group. In his last week of action (24 AB), he has a 38.5% barrel rate, 100.7 mph exit velocity and 19.2 degree launch angle. When you match that up against Brad Keller who leads the slate in barrels allowed over the last month, it’s a nice recipe for success in the HR department. Just in case Donaldson sits this out, my pivot is Jesse Winker.”
Overall Standings
| James | 16 |
| Zach | 15 |
| Jared | 26 |
