Chalk Stack(s)

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Jordan Zimmermann

There isn’t many pitchers worse than Jordan Zimmermann that continue to maintain their job. Zimmermann has been flat out atrocious for sometime now and unfortunately for Detroit, they’re saddled with his contract until after the 2020 season. We thought Zimmermann was bad last year but that pales in comparison to the start of 2018. Thus far this season he’s allowed wOBA’s of .441 and .396 to righties and lefties respectively. 17 earned runs in 19.1 innings isn’t any good either. Righties have an elite hard hit rate of 45.1-percent as well.

The Rays have six guys with a wOBA over .330 against right-handed pitching and their best power-hitter, C.J. Cron , is not one of them. Daniel Robertson and Denard Span are where we should start. Span has been en fuego over his last 10 games hitting .333 with an OPS north of 1.000. Robertson has been similarly hot, but it’s really been for the entire year as he’s slashing .355/.500/.597. He has a .445 wOBA versus right-handed pitching as well. Not much more to it.

Matt Duffy , Wilson Ramos , Mallex Smith and Joey Wendle are the other four with wOBA’s of .330 or better against righties. Duffy, Smith and Ramos profile as primary plays while Wendle, the platoon player, profiles as a secondary play. Carlos Gómez and C.J. Cron will not be left out of this discussion, however. Cron has flashed monster power this year, especially of late belting four homers in his last 10 games. Gomez, although he hasn’t hit well, is a big reverse splits guy. He hit 15 of his 17 homers last year against righties and had an average nearly 50 points higher against them as well.

 

Primary Play(s): Daniel Robertson , Denard Span , C.J. Cron , Wilson Ramos , Mallex Smith , Matt Duffy (GPP)

Secondary Play(s): Carlos Gómez , Matt Duffy (Cash), Joey Wendle

 

Contrarian Stack(s)

Cincinnati Reds vs. Jhoulys Chacin

I’m not sure how “contrarian” this will be, but it’s one of the best pure stacks of the slate. Jhoulys Chacin has had a huge problem retiring lefties for sometime now. In 2017 he allowed a .338 wOBA to LHH, but that’s actually a watered down number because he pitched his home games at Petco Park. On the road against left-handed bats last season, he posted a .411 wOBA. This year hasn’t gotten any better for Chacin. In fact, it’s gotten worse, as LHH have posted a .333/.429/.542 slash while making hard contact 40-percent of the time.

Joey Votto comes into this game as one of the top plays of the entire slate. He’s homered in four of his last six games and has a 1.218 OPS over his last 10. Pairing Votto with Scooter Gennett , Jesse Winker and Scott Schebler seems like quite the four pack. Winker should lead off and is only $3.2K on DraftKings, viable in all formats. Over a 68 game span during Winker’s year-plus in the Major League’s, he’s slashing .323/.421/.516, which equates to a .937 OPS against right-handed pitching. Gennett has been on fire lately hitting .350 over his last 10 games and has been consistently hitting fourth in the Reds lineup. Schebler’s 40-percent fly ball rate plays big time in Cincy as the ball carries so well there.

I do also have some interest in Tucker Barnhart , hitting from the left side, and some of the righties here like Adam Duvall and Eugenio Suárez . The lefties are the primary plays, but these guys from the right side have a ton of thump and will be far lower owned than they should be.

 

Primary Play(s): Joey Votto , Scott Schebler , Jesse Winker , Scooter Gennett

Secondary Play(s): Tucker Barnhart , Eugenio Suárez , Adam Duvall

 

New York Yankees vs. Charlie Morton

Let me preface this by saying this is going to be very contrarian and could kill your bankroll if it fails, but there are a lot of reasons why I like this stack. One, the Yankees offense is clicking on all cylinders right now. In five of their nine wins on this nine-game winning streak, the Yankees have scored seven or more runs, twice going into double-figures.

The offense now runs into Charlie Morton , who is one of three pitchers on DraftKings main slate that is priced over $10K. The reason I like the Yankees is because Morton is a reverse splits pitcher facing a lineup full of right-handed bats. The Yankees “Big Three”, now “Big Four” with Didi Gregorius in the mix, are all right-handed in Aaron Judge , Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sánchez . While lefties have a .195 wOBA off of Morton, righties have had much more success posting a .335 mark. It wasn’t much different in 2017 either; LHH - .249, RHH - .345. Morton has also given up four homers this year...all four to the right side of the dish. Sense a trend here?

Right off of the bat, we look at Giancarlo Stanton who is 9-for-18 with a home run off of Morton throughout his career. Stanton has been better against lefties all year long and hasn’t done much against right-handed pitching, but that short porch in left field is calling his name. It’s also impossible to ignore the fact that Aaron Judge has a .342 AVG with a .454 wOBA against them as well. Miguel Andujar is tied for the league lead with 12 doubles and started the year at Triple-A. Gary Sánchez ’s average has barely crept over .200, but he went deep on Sunday and has eight extra-base hits (four doubles and four home runs) over his last 10 games.

Gleyber Torres is a secondary option since he’s hitting from the right side, but nothing more than that. Until he flashes real power potential, I’m not sure what his DFS potential is.

 

Primary Play(s): Giancarlo Stanton , Aaron Judge , Gary Sánchez , Miguel Andujar

Secondary Play(s): Gleyber Torres, Austin Romine (if Sanchez Sits)