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 MLB DFS lineups along the way.
As always, FantasyCruncher has 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: Mike Trout ($6,300) – There is no disputing that Lucas Giolito has elite stuff, but that stuff just has not been on full display yet this year. Giolito carries an ERA of 5.40 and a WHIP of 1.56. More so, he has allowed 15 homers on the year and nine over his last five starts. The reverse splits are on full display here as right-handed hitters have a .344 batting average against Giolito and a .702 slugging. 13 of the 15 long balls have come to righties. With righties hitting Gio so hard, it is hard to not look at Trout tonight.
Zach: Oneil Cruz ($3,800) – Cruz does not have the best all-around numbers in his short career but he has shown flashes of why he is one of baseball’s best prospects. In his eight career games, Cruz has four extra-base hits including a home run and 10 RBIs. The left-handed-hitting Cruz has had the most success against right-handed pitching in his short career with an ISO of .227 and a .367 wOBA against them. Tonight Cruz faces an average at best right-handed pitcher in Erick Fedde who for his career has an HR/9 rate of 1.44 against left-handed hitting and I like Cruz to hit his second career home run in this one.
Jared: Alejandro Kirk ($4,100) – I have to keep riding the hot hand here. Especially against a guy making his second major league appearance in Connor Seabold. All that Kirk’s done in the last month or so is mash the baseball. In his last week, he has a 333 wRC+, .643 wOBA, .600 ISO and 27.8% barrel rate. His exit velocity is magnificent (96.4 mph) and he’s left the yard 4 times in that span, too. I’m going to stick with the talented young RHB one more day here, as it seems that he’s going to keep on hitting regardless of who takes the mound for the opposition. If Kirk sits (as catchers – even those who are part-timers behind the dish – often do from time to time after 3 consecutive starts), I’ll pivot to Jesse Winker, with Cal Raleigh being my #3 fallback just in case Winker’s suspended after the Sunday melee and doesn’t appeal.
Overall Standings
| James | 20.5 (17 total home runs) |
| Zach | 25.5 (17 total home runs) |
| Jared | 22 (16 total home runs) |
Did you know FantasyCruncher is on TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram? Follow along and never miss out on any of our free content!
