Top-Tier
Pete Alonso, NYM – Alonso is swinging a hot bat, hitting .260 with six home runs and 14 RBI over his last 14 games, bringing his home run total for the year up to 17 and his RBI total to 49. He has reverse splits for his career, slashing .2622/.349/.545 against righties, compared to .226/.336/.527 against lefties and he is hitting .264 against righties this season, compared to .227 against lefties (His OBP and SLG are both similar though). Today he gets to face a very low-tier righty in De Jong, who has a 5.08 ERA this season with a 1.55 WHIP and 1.6 HR/9. He also has a 6.34 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, and 1.7 HR/9 for his career. He has reverse splits against as righties are slashing an absurd .290/.362/.565 against him, compared to lefties who have produced a .278/.350/.500 line.
Bryce Harper, PHI – Harper is hot at the dish right now, hitting .308 with seven home runs, two steals, 16 RBI, and 15 runs scored over his last 17 games. He is currently riding a six-game hitting streak, hitting .423 in that span, bringing his average for the year up to .283 with 15 home runs and seven steals. He is slashing a ridiculous .294/.376/.595 agaisnt righties this season with 13 home runs and six steals, compared to .259/.388/.383 against lefties with two home runs and one steal. Today he gets to face Pivetta, who has struggled mightily at home this season with a 5.32 ERA and 1.49 WHIP, compared to a 2.89 ERA and 1.05 WHIP on the road. Harper has performed well in this matchup too, going 3-9 (.333) with a pair of dingers against Pivetta in his career.
Mid-Tier
Teoscar Hernandez, TOR – Hernandez is having another good season, hitting .297 with 11 home runs, six steals, and 48 RBI. He is swinging it well right now, hitting .308 over his last 12 games with five multi-hit games. He has crushed lefties this year, slashing .338/.371/.692 against them, compared to .284/.333/.407 against righties. This being a road game isn’t great for most of the Jays, but Hernandez actually has seven of his 11 home runs and 30 of his 48 RBI on the road this season with nearly identical BAs and OBPs, but a much higher SLG. Today he faces Hill, who has a 5.18 ERA and .270 BAA over his last five starts. Right-handed bats have done all the damage against him this season, slashing .228/.299/.423 with 11 home runs and seven steals, compared to the .154/.304/.262 mark lefties have produced with two home runs and one steal.
Kyle Tucker, HOU – Tucker should not be this cheap. He comes into this contest hitting .266 with 14 home runs, five steals, 20 doubles, 48 RBI, and 46 runs scored. However, he is hitting .326 with nine home runs, three steals, 16 doubles, 32 RBI, and 31 runs scored over his last 45 games. He is slashing .288/.355/.520 against righties this year, compared to .232/.276/.438 against lefties. He has been incredibly better at home too, slashing .313/.368/.578 in Houston, compared to .218/.280/.394 on the road. Today he gets to face a righty in Taillon, who has struggled with a 5.05 ERA and 1.30 WHIP. Left-handed bats have really hurt him as they are slashing .261/.331/.500 against him, compared to .259/.304/.418 for righties.
Bargain Bin
Paul DeJong, STL – DeJong has been awful this season, but he is hot right now, hitting .308 with four home runs, a steal and nine RBI over his last 14 games (11 starts). He has homered in back-to-back games too. He is hitting .015 points higher against righties this season and nine of his 12 home runs and all three of his steals are against righties, which isn’t that surprising considering that he has a career slash line of .250/.316/.459 against righties, compared to .217/.312/.401 against lefties.Williams has really struggled this year with a 5.51 ERA and 1.63 WHIP. On top of all that, DeJong is 7-20 (.350) with a home run against Williams in his career.
Harrison Bader, STL – Bader is swinging it well right now, hitting .300 with two home runs, two steals, seven RBI, and four runs scored over his last eight games, bringing his home run total to six and his steal total to five, despite just 31 games played this season, so there is a lot of power/speed upside on any given day for Bader. As mentioned above in DeJong’s section, Williams has really struggled and the idea of a nice mini-stack with DeJong and Bader at cheap prices is one that I really like today. Bader has also done solid in this matchup, going 3-11 (.273) against Williams in his career.
Ian Happ, CHC – BONUS PLAY. This is strictly a GPP play based almost entirely on BvP as Happ has dominated this matchup, going 8-17 (.471) with four home runs against Wainwright.