*Austyn Varney*
MLB Fantasy Lineup Today – June 26, 2017
Welcome to Lineup Lab’s Best MLB Fantasy Lineup Today, where we feature our top players for our MLB Lineup Optimizer on Fanduel and Draftkings. Put your favorite stacks from the article below in our lineup optimizer and hit calculate. You can let it fill in the rest of the spots for you or choose your personal favorites from the MLB Player Lab.
Starting Pitchers
Chris Sale
Opponent – Vs. MIN
Park – Fenway Park
Vegas Favorite (BOS -193)
Vegas Total (8.5)
When Chris Sale is pitching you can certainly expect to find him in this spot. He is always going to be the top pitcher on the slate and I actually thought he would be more expensive tonight. That’s not to say he’s cheap, still forcing you to pay down in numerous spots to afford him. The problem is you don’t really have a strong alternative. Sure, there are some talented guys on the slate. There is nobody who compares to Chris Sale in Fenway Park. Sale has been absolutely dominant to start this ’17 campaign, posting a combined wOBA of .242. He’s also striking out 12.2 batters per 9 innings, which is very telling in itself. His peripherals suggest, if anything, he’s actually just getting a bit unlucky. The point is Chris Sale is amazing and he’s going to have some insane games on the season. This could certainly be one, facing off with the Twins at home in Fenway. The Twins offense is slightly scary, but hot too bad. Miguel Sano and Brian Dozier are the only 2 real worry spots, albeit very real ones On a side note, I actually don’t hate rostering either one of the guys in large-field tournaments. Getting back to this match-up, the Twins leave a lot to be desired. They strikeout 22% of the time against lefties and have a few guys who have simply no shot against Sale. Kepler, Polanco, Grossman, and Castro have all struck out over 25% of the time against lefties and have absolutely no chance against Sale. If you want to play cash games on this slate, I would advise finding a way to fit Sale. He’s the clear top options and makes for the top player in both formats.
Jeff Samardzija
Opponent – Vs. COL
Park – AT&T Park
Vegas Favorite (SF -120)
Vegas Total (8.5)
After Sale, we see a pretty steep fall to the number 2. There are definitely a lot of ways you can go here, but I ended up on Jeff Samardzija. Jeff “Shark” Samardzija is a guy who will consistently put up solid games, though he’ll rarely step out of that comfort zone and wow. He has a very safe match-up tonight, facing the Rockies porous offense in AT&T Park. A lot of people have the perception that the Rockies are an elite offense. If you put 25 of these MLB offenses in Coors Field for half of their games, they would be better. The Rockies ranked 26th in terms of wOBA in 2016 on the road and can’t get away from it at AT&T Park. It has ben in the bottom 3 for hitting for many years in a row now and against righties, good luck. Samardzija has held a .302 wOBA against righties, so the likes of Arenado, Reynolds, and LeMahieu should be held down at the top of the order. CarGo and Blackmon are the 2 obvious trouble pieces and it may come down to whether or not he can avoid them. When looking at the other options you have to choose from, I’ll take Samardzija in AT&T Park. Some may also make an argument for his counterpart in German Marquez, which I don’t hate, but only in tournaments.
Offensive Stacks
Los Angeles Dodgers Vs. Los Angeles Angels (Ricky Nolasco R)
Park – Dodger Stadium
The Dodgers are a pretty easy offense to love tonight. For god’s sake, they face Ricky Nolasco. Ricky Nolasco was a pitcher who used to stifle offenses, but that was about 50 years ago. He’s now posting a .390 wOBA against righties and a .360 against lefties. He moves into Dodger Stadium, which is actually a slight upgrade from Angels Stadium. The Dodgers are obviously one of the more lethal offenses in all of the league, possessing bats from both side of the plate that rakes righties. We start off with Babe Ruth. I mean Cody Bellinger. Bellinger and Corey Seager have been ridiculous against righties this season and look to be the future of this franchise. They will both remain in every Dodgers stack I create. You then work into Justin Turner, who is very safe as well. As a righty, he swings it better against opposing righties, which plays into Nolasco and his reverse splits. Once you get past Turner, you can go a ton of different ways, wait for the lineup to come out and take your pick.
Main Stack – Corey Seager, Justin Turner, Cody Bellinger, Logan Forsythe/Chase Utley (leadoff)
Sneaky Stack – Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Yasiel Puig
New York Yankees @ Chicago White Sox (Dylan Holmberg L)
Park – Guaranteed Rate Field
The Yankees offense is another pretty obvious one on this slate. This slate is a bit odd, with only a few games and a few offenses that stand far above the rest. Even if the Yankees do end up being popular, I see the merit in going here. They are raking what seems like every night and I certainly don’t see Dylan Holmberg slowing that down. Holmberg has been decent in hos own right, but not really. A .220 BABIP throws absolutely every number out of the window. The regression monster is going to come and it’s probably going to come tonight. Gary Sanchez may seem like the obvious choice, but he’s actually better against lefties. That’s not to say I’ll be avoiding him. I just think he sees an inflated ownership tag. Aaron Judge is my favorite of the bunch with Aaron Hicks emerging next, both holding a .400+ wOBA against lefties. You then get into Starlin Castro and Matt Holliday, who are very safe and have HR upside as well. After that, you don’t have a lot with this team. You know where to look and who to target. Guaranteed Rate Field is a + park for hitting and the righties should have a better time here than they do at home in Yankee Stadium. All in all, the Yankees are one of the top offenses on the day and you will want to make sure you get exposure one way or another.
Main Stack – Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Starlin Castro, Matt Holliday
Sneaky Stack – Aaron Judge, Matt Holliday, Gary Sanchez, Aaron Hicks