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.
Welcome back MLB DFS grinders to the 2022 season! As always, FantasyCruncher will have several daily articles from pitching to stacking, to home run picks, to general cheat sheets to help you build your daily lineups. And the best news, it is all free! This year for 2022, we are changing up the scoring for the home run calls to be weighted based on the player’s salary. If one of our writers chooses a player with a salary over $5,000 it will be worth 0.5 points. Between $4-$4.9k is 1 point, $3-$3.9k is 2 points, and anyone $2.9k or below is worth 3 points. In terms of salary, we are going off of DraftKings salary for this article. Again, the scoring system is just a fun and friendly competition between our MLB content writers.
Today’s Picks
James: Trea Turner ($5,600) – Reds starter Reiver Sanmartin is a soft-tossing lefty who relies heavily on movement and location. While Sanmartin has never allowed a home run in the majors, that only spans around 14 total innings. More so, with the lack of velocity, the location is going to be the key to his success. In his first start of the season, Sanmartin walked five batters in just 2.1 innings. I also believe it needs to be noted in Sanmartin’s “successful” first 12-innings of pro ball, they all came against the Pirates. The Dodgers are a different breed here, with hitters who have mashed left-handed pitching in their careers. Turner over his career has a batting average of .321 against southpaws, and in 2021 that number was .392 and a slugging of .712. This play is a more expensive one, but Turner vs. lefties is just a matchup I can’t overlook.
Zach: Connor Joe ($3,400) – Justin Steele was excellent in his first start of the season pitching five scoreless innings with five strikeouts but I am not paying any attention to that first start. Instead, I am paying attention to his 1.89 HR/9 rate and the .494 slugging percentage allowed to right-handed hitters last season. Those are numbers that tell me to attack Steele with hitters, especially with this game being at Coors Field. While I like the chances of several Rockies players to go deep tonight I am going to go with Joe as Joe has already hit two home runs this season and had huge numbers against lefties a season ago in his first extended time in the majors. In his 59 plate appearances, last season Joe had an ISO of .245 while slugging .551 against left-handed pitching.
Jared: Max Muncy ($4,300) – I’m feeling pretty bummed that my fellow competitors have managed to get on the board with 6 total home runs thus far in 2022. I’m pretty pumped about my pick tonight, though. Muncy is one of the most powerful hitters in the game today, and has a great situation against what is expected to be a Luis Cessa / Reiver Sanmartin tandem for the Reds. Last year, Muncy had a .291 ISO vs LHP and a .273 ISO vs RHP, with plenty of homers against both. He is not a one-trick pony. Regardless of it being Sanmartin (LHP), Cessa (RHP), or a mediocre CIN bullpen – he’s a prime candidate to leave the yard thanks to elite splits at home as well (.424 wOBA) that far exceeds his numbers on the road (.335 wOBA by comparison), at a very fair price.
Overall Standings
| James | 5.5 (4 total home runs) |
| Zach | 4 (2 total home runs) |
| Jared | 0 |
