Editor's note: With fantasy football content ramping up, we will only publish three fantasy baseball DFS posts a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (which will include some weekend picks, too).
Thank you for understanding and I hope you continue to enjoy our content.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...
For those who are unfamiliar with my thought process, I aim to add as many home run hitters as possible to my daily fantasy baseball lineups. One way of doing that is to look at a player's isolated power numbers (ISO). The ISO statistic removes singles and provides a larger weight for each extra-base hit.
I also use the weighted on-base average (wOBA) metric. This stat takes every positive outcome into consideration.
Last year, the league average was a .150 ISO and a .313 wOBA. So, when you see me list a player's ISO or wOBA, you know why I do it.
5 Things to Watch:
1. Here are the three highest over/unders for Monday, provided by OddsShark…
MIL/TEX - 10
CIN/STL - 9
TB/CWS - 9
2. Jaime Garcia, and the Cardinals, are given the strongest odds to win tonight (-190). They face the Reds in St. Louis. In his last outing against Cincinnati, Garcia pitched six innings and allowed two earned runs while striking out eight batters.
3. The Cleveland Indians clinch the AL Central with a win tonight against Detroit. This season, Corey Kluber is 3-0 in three starts against the Tigers with a 1.88 ERA.
4. There is some rain in the forecast tonight, with the biggest concern in the D.C. area (ARI/WAS). Be sure to keep tabs on those developments if you plan to use a player or two, especially from the pitching department.
5. For the BvP crowd: Miguel Cabrera is 21-45 (.467) with five home runs against Corey Kluber…Chris Carter is 8-18 (.444) with two home runs against Martin Perez…Also, Jose Altuve is 15-35 (.429) with seven extra-base hits against Hisashi Iwakuma.
Must-Start of the day: Brad Miller, TB
He leads the Rays with a .268 ISO against righties this season. Miller is also batting .364 with five extra-base hits in the past week.
Deal of the day: Jaime Garcia, STL
We already mentioned the fact that Vegas loves the Cardinals tonight. Also, Garcia is at a surprisingly cheap price on DraftKings ($6,800). Making Garcia your SP2 should easily provide cap space to add some big bats to your DFS lineup.
Avoid of the day: Kyle Seager, SEA
He is 4-29 (.138) with 11 strikeouts against Collin McHugh.
Stack of the day: Texas Rangers
Always look to high over/unders in your stack, especially when one team is a strong favorite, much like Texas is tonight. Matt Garza is 1-6 with a 5.54 ERA on the road this season and was tagged for five earned runs in his last appearance. Adrian Beltre is a must. I would also add Elvis Andrus, Nomar Mazara, and Rougned Odor.
Starting pitchers:
Tanner Roark, WAS - His price tag is best for FanDuel ($8,500). Roark has struck out at least five batters in three consecutive starts and has allowed one earned run or less in each game during that span.
Jaime Garcia, STL - “Deal of the day.”
Collin McHugh, HOU - He has owned Seattle this season. In four outings, McHugh is 4-0 with a 1.08 ERA and has notched 24 strikeouts i 25 innings of work.
Catchers:
Yadier Molina, STL - He has a .333 wOBA against righties this year.
Wilson Ramos, WAS - He has a .347 wOBA against righties this season.
First basemen:
Chris Carter, MIL - (See “5 Things”)
Brandon Moss, STL - He has a .307 ISO against righties this season.
Second basemen:
Rougned Odor, TEX - “Stack of the day.”
Jose Altuve, HOU - (See “5 Things”)
Third basemen:
Adrian Beltre, TEX - He is batting .471 in the past week and has a career .423 AVG against Matt Garza.
Evan Longoria, TB - He has a .264 ISO against righties this season.
Matt Carpenter, STL - He has a .261 ISO against righties this year.
Shortstops:
Brad Miller, TB - “Must-start of the day.”
Elvis Andrus, TEX - “Stack of the day.”
Stephen Drew, WAS - He has a .276 ISO against righties this season.
Outfielders:
Trea Turner, WAS - He has a .265 ISO against righties in 2016.
Corey Dickerson, TB - He has a .267 ISO against righties this year.
Ryan Braun, MIL - He has a .270 ISO against lefties this season.
Nomar Mazara, TEX - “Stack of the day.”
