MLB DFS: Best/worst plays for Wednesday, June 16th

To kick off the week, we had a 13-game slate and a 15-game slate in MLB DFS, making it tough to dissect what pitchers and hitters to use. Following the back-to-back colossal slates, we have a modest eight-game slate to pick apart on Wednesday. The good news — some would say GREAT news — is that Coors won’t be included on the main slate. On top of that, we finally have a couple of elite arms at our disposal.

Pitching

I shouldn’t have to explain how special Jacob deGrom has been for the New York Mets this season, but he deserves the praise. deGrom is the most expensive pitcher on DraftKings at $11,000, and I see no reason not to play him. The cerebral veteran is producing career-bests in K/9 (14.48?!?) and BABIP (.211). He will face the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday, who own the league-lowest BABIP to RHP over the last 30 days. Just insert deGrom into your lineup and be done with it.

Gerrit Cole comes in as the second-most expensive pitcher on the slate at $10,500, but I have little-to-no interest in playing him. While Cole is still one of the premier hurlers in the MLB, he squares off against the Toronto Blue Jays, a team that is slashing .264/.327/.457 to RHP. Cole has also surrendered 13 earned runs in four out of his last five starts. If you are looking to pay up for Cole, just scrounge up the extra $500 in salary to get to deGrom.

From early on in the season, Aaron Civale showed that he’s still capable of being a mainstay in the rotation for the Cleveland Indians. In Civale’s last start versus the Seattle Mariners, he threw a season-high 11 strikeouts, in large part due to limiting his slider usage and increasing his curveball usage. After possibly figuring out a better distribution of his arsenal, Civale faces the Baltimore Orioles, a team who boasts the league’s worst on-base percentage to RHP this season.

There aren’t many bargain pitching options that I’m fond of on Wednesday. But upon my first look at the slate, Anthony DeSclafani might be my favorite pitcher under $8,000 on DraftKings. DeSclafani is fresh off a complete-game shutout against the Washington Nationals on June 11th, which was his second complete-game shutout of the season. Following his dominant showing last Friday, DeSclafani takes the mound versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona has the second-worst wRC+ and the worst ISO to RHP in the last month.

Hitting

Did I mention how ecstatic I am that Coors isn’t on the main slate? With no Coors, one of the highest-owned stacks should belong to the Houston Astros. The Astros should thrive versus Jordan Lyles on Wednesday, who is mightily struggling on the mound this season. Lyles is currently permitting a career-high 39.4% hard-contact percentage and a career-worst 8.9% barrel percentage. The bad news for Lyles is that Houston is slashing .266/.341/.436 to RHP thus far. Of the viable players on the Astros, Jose Altuve, Michael Brantley, Yordan Alvarez, Yuli Gurriel, Carlos Correa, and Kyle Tucker all own 120+ wRC+ against RHP.

The other night, I elected to target Marco Gonzalez, who gave up eight hits, three earned runs, and two home runs against the Minnesota Twins. I’m going right back to playing the Twins against a southpaw on the Mariners. Justus Sheffield is expected to start for Seattle on Wednesday. Up to this point in the season, Sheffield has been dismal, notching a career-low 16.8% strikeout percentage and a career-worst 4.75 xFIP. It won’t get much easier for Sheffield as he will pitch to a Minnesota team that owns the second-best ISO and the sixth-best wRC+ to LHP this season. The primary targets on the Twins are Jorge Polanco, Josh Donaldson, and Nelson Cruz. But if you’re looking to be contrarian, Andrelton Simmons, Trevor Larnach, and Rob Refsnyder are all seeing the ball well versus LHP as well.

In recent years, the New York Yankees have been a team that is always a popular choice in MLB DFS due to the array of power hitters they possess. However, this season has been a perplexing one for the Bronx Bombers. That being said, they have a perfect opportunity for a get-right game against Ross Stripling on Wednesday. Stripling is playing with fire with his career-high marks in hard-hit percentage (43.6 percent) and barrel percentage (11.4%). Also, the Blue Jays are now playing in Buffalo, where the balls have been flying. My favorite Yankees to have shares of are DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, and Gio Urshela. Come time closer to lock, if New York has high ownership, you could differentiate by using Miguel Andujar, Rougned Odor, or Gary Sanchez.

Who is everyone else taking a liking to on Wednesday’s exciting slate of games?