:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/54280385/usa_today_10006691.0.jpg)
How about that Ervin Santana call yesterday, eh? I hope someone out there used him because I let the weather concerns scare me away. Such is life for the humble-sized bankroll. I don’t want to lose my money to thunderstorms. Anyway, I still won my coin back and a tiny bit more, so it wasn’t a total bust. Almost every bat came through, and my main pivot (Jeremy Hellickson) put up a solid 31 FDP...enough to get you into the green if you chose the right bats.
The Easter version of this is going to be succinct. Succinct is such a nice word. On a related note, anyone who is into Words with Friends can hit me up. I am recently addicted to that game. Moving on.
We’ll focus on the Main slate, which is nine games strong and begins at 1:07pm ET.
Target: Dylan Bundy ($7,200) @ Toronto Blue Jays
Jon Lester is too easy of a call to make. We know that guy is great. He is also expensive. Bundy, meanwhile, is the cheapest of the “young guns” that litter this slate with their upside. At least one of Jerad Eickhoff, Jameson Taillon, or Bundy is going to have a strong showing today. For my part, I want the young Baltimore hurler. Bundy is a new guy this season, due in large part to the reintroduction of his slider. I will not go into superb depth about it, because someone else already has (and right here on SB Nation, too). Let’s just say the career 24.8% K-rate to right-handed hitters is probably going to get stronger. Against the ice-cold Blue Jays I will take Bundy and his nasty repertoire all day.
Stack Against: Matt Boyd with Cleveland Indians
This might sound too easy, but I will ride the defending American League champs today—the day after they dropped 13 runs on the Detroit Tigers and roughed up Justin Verlander. Right-handed hitters smack fly balls 51.2 percent of the time against Boyd and make hard contact 32.5 percent of the time. So I am looking very strongly at Francisco Lindor since I saved all that money on pitching.
Left-handed bats have a startling 18.6% HR/FB rate against Boyd to go along with a 30.5 percent hard contact rate. Lefties only hit fly balls 36.8 percent of the time against Boyd, but far more of those fly balls become home runs. In short, if there is a powerful left-handed bat on the Cleveland side that you like...feel free to get that guy in there. That would be a contrarian move, though, as most of Cleveland’s guys are switch hitters.
I focused mainly on pitchers in this one. Generally I will offer more about hitters I like, but I am consumed by Easter Egg hunts with my toddlers so I will need to peace out early this time. Let’s just say I like it when I can fit Mike Trout into my lineups...