Daily Fantasy Strategy – 9/14 – For Draftstreet

Sorry folks, no preamble for today but we’ve got some very gimmicky picks for you after the jump!

The Daily Five
Henderson Alvarez – $7,783
No, Alvarez isn’t particularly good, but neither are the Mets. In fact, they’re pretty awful, and while it doesn’t usually make sense to chase wins, Daisuke Matsuzaka being opposite on the hill doesn’t hurt the chances of a Marlins victory. Alvarez has a decent case as a low-upside play thanks to the 4.34 ERA and 3.10 FIP, since he walks nobody and doesn’t give up many fly balls. Could be worse, I suppose.

Jacob Turner – $8,449
Dare you do the Mets double-down? I suppose you could play just one or the other, especially since Turner struggled last time out and has really seen a dip in his strikeouts since mid-August. I couldn’t fault you, but I’m going somewhere with this doubleheader, and Turner still has a 3.43 ERA and an okay 4.32 FIP for the year. And again, the Mets have a .301 wOBA against righties and strike out 21.9% of the time.

Carlos Torres – $8,747
Yup, I just did that. The Marlins are even worse than the Mets, with a .273 wOBA against righties and a 19.7% strikeout rate. Torres, like the other two, doesn’t have huge strikeout potential but he walks fewer batters and gives up more fly balls – can that play against the Marlins? Probably. Plug any two of these three in and turn your head. Just don’t watch. Don’t.

Christian Yelich – $7,466
You’re damn right I quadrupled-down! Make sure you take the Matsuzaka match-up and check the line-ups (and again, don’t you dare watch). Anyway, Daisuke is downright horrible, so it’s just a matter of finding the right player to provide the fantasy value. The Marlins might suck, but a few players don’t, Yelich being one of them – he has a .293 wOBA against righties since being called up.

Jay Bruce – $7,942
You don’t know how badly I wanted to complete the piece with all five players from The Worst Doubleheader of All Time. Instead, we pick on Johnny Hellweg, who has never, not for a minute, figured out how to not walk batters. He’s got a groundball rate that could theoretically play in Miller Park, sure, but he’s also walked 13.9% of all batters he’s ever faced at Double-A or higher. Why Bruce over the others? Because he’s cheaper than Shin-Soo Choo and Joey Votto and because he’s my guy.

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