Daily Fantasy Strategy — June 25 — For Draftstreet

Finally, we have a little day baseball today. Four day games, to be exact. In one of those games, Marco Gonzales will be making his major league debut. In Coors Field, of all places. Luckily for Gonzazles, his best secondary offering is a change-up. That’s huge considering breaking balls don’t work quite as well in Colorado’s thin air.

Utilizing his change-up, fastball, and command, Gonzales has produced admirably while shooting through the Cardinals’ minor league system. He’ll make his major league debut after being drafted in the first round of last year’s draft. Gonzales was projected to move quickly, and he has; striking out 28.8% of the Double-A batters he’s faced in 38.2 innings at the level since being promoted.

I’m a fan of change-ups, therefore, I’m a fan of Gonzales. His fantasy impact seems a little iffy right now, though. For one, we’re not sure how long he’ll be up. Secondly, his first two starts will be in Colorado and then versus the Dodgers. Those two games aren’t easy tests. Then again, this game, especially at the major league level, isn’t supposed to be.

Alex Wood is back in Atlanta’s rotation today. Funky mechanics aside, Wood has been very good as a starter. In 101 innings, he has a 3.30 ERA (3.14 FIP) and strikeout/walk rates of 23% and 7.3%, respectively. The Braves need him to pick up where he left off. And they need him to do so immediately.

Today’s schedule is packed with front of the rotation arms: Anibal Sanchez, Corey Kluber, David Price, Hisashi Iwakuma, James Shields, Mat Latos, and Stephen Strasburg are pitching today. Zack Wheeler, Garrett Richards, and Collin McHugh, too.

There’s plenty of talent on the mound today, but there are also some arms that are exploitable. Ubaldo Jimenez, Hector Noesi, Marco Estrada, Christian Bergman (Yohan Flande), Edwin Jackson, and Nick Tepesch (Joe Saunders) are all decent options to target.

The Daily Five

Henderson Alvarez – $13,924

Admittedly, Alvarez’ upside isn’t huge, due to his lacking of a true wipeout pitch. He does excel at eating innings fairly well, though, averaging over six innings per start.

Jay Bruce – $6,966

After battling injuries and a slow start, Bruce has looked more like himself of late, posting a 137 wRC+ mark in June.

Indians stack

Lonnie Chisenhall – $6,193
Carlos Santana – $6,003
Jason Kipnis – $4,836

Santana, like Bruce, has been much better of late. He’s been scorching, actually. Kipnis will be fine, as Eno noted. Anderson is a nice pitcher, with a nice changeup, but I like the high reward that could be possible using Cleveland today.

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