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Did you know that on even a ten game MLB slate, there are approximately 250 TRILLION lineup combinations you can make? To be able to hit on the 1 lineup out of those combinations is harder than winning the lottery. A reduced player pool, though, can give you a significant advantage by reducing the possible lineup combinations you can make. If we limit our choices to only 5 players per position (a few extra for OF), you now have far fewer possible lineup combinations you can make (pricing helps reduce this number even lower). Sure, it’s still a lot of lineup choices (in the millions) but it’s only .000008% of the total possible lineup combinations everyone else is working with. That is a SIGNIFICANT advantage for you if you’re choosing from a strong reduced player pool. That’s where we come in to help.

    Bankster DFS, The Home of the Reduced Player Pool, has teamed up with Fanball to give you a daily sneak peak of three of the plays we have included in our Bankster DFS reduced player pool. We aren’t lineup sellers; we write full articles that explain which players we like, why we like those players, and how we like to build our teams. We are a learning site more than anything, and you can see that in heavy member interaction on our various Slack Chat channels (we have one for every sport that we cover – NBA, AAF, NFL, NHL, MLB, EPL, PGA, MMA, CBB, WWE, sports betting, and Best Ball 10’s). You can get the rest of our reduced player pool, our daily articles, our members only slack chat, and Fanball exclusives with a Bankster DFS membership. That membership costs only $2.99/wk and you get everything mentioned above with it. You can contact me about membership on Twitter @bankster17 or sign up for service here.

Let’s look at the MLB Triple Play for Monday, June 24

On The Hill (Starting Pitcher): Jon Gray (COL/RHP) at San Francisco Giants

    The top end pitching options really don’t do it for me today. Lucas Giolito is amazing but he’s going into Boston to face a Red Sox team that just doesn’t strike out all that much against RHP (just 23% K-rate). Meanwhile, I question the upside of Clayton Kershaw since he’s yet to surpass 8 strikeouts in any game this year and is going into Arizona to face a D’backs team that has the best SLG and 2nd best AVG against LHP this year. I’d use him in cash because of his consistency, but I won’t love it. That leaves me to move down a little further to Jon Gray. He’s heading into SF to face the Giants; a really bad offense that he’s done well against in the past. San Francisco doesn’t strike out a ton, but with a discount on Gray of over $1000 compared to the top pitchers I can live with that. As I said, it’s not like Giolito and Kershaw have otherworldly matchups. The biggest appeal with Gray is his strikeout rate; he’s had 7+ K’s in seven of his last nine starts so it’s reasonable to think that he may be able to get a few more strikeouts than the Giants are used to giving us. Remember that on Fanball innings and strikeouts are what drives our pitching point totals; Gray should be able to give us both. Six of his last nine starts have resulted in 29+ Fanball points; a strong number for a pitcher at his price point of $10500. AT&T Park is VERY pitcher friendly, so we have that going for us over Giolito (at Fenway) and Kershaw (at Chase Field); both of whom are pitching at hitter-friendly ballparks.

Starting Nine (Stack of the Day): Kansas City Royals (at Adam Plutko- CLE/RHP)

    Really? The Royals?? Have I lost my mind? Nope! Kansas City is in a great spot today and I’m starting my GPP’s with them. Adam Plutko has been pretty good for the Indians this year but he has a weakness, and that weakness is right-handed bats. He’s giving up a .293 BAA against RHB this year and KC is full of righties who can take advantage of that. Let’s take a look at how the Royals do against RHP (courtesty of MLB.com):

Hey look at that, the top three guys on KC against RHP happen to be right-handed bats! Hunter Dozier (3 for 11 with 1 HR and 5 RBI since his return three games ago) and Whit Merrifield (.349 AVG with 5 XBH and 8 RBI over his last ten games) are on fire at the moment, while Jorge Soler (4 HR his last ten games) is an all or nothing big bat who has legitimate double dong potential. Alex Gordon is a fine play as part of a Royals stack, but I’d almost rather spend all the way down and use Martin Maldonado as a punt catcher instead. He’s been serviceable, with points in six of his last eight games. That’s more than ok from a punt position since all you’re looking for is a non-zero score. Cheslor Cuthbert (a righty) and Nicky Lopez (a lefty) are both hitting well and are in play if they are in the starting lineup today.

Pinch Hitter (HuLo play): Christian Walker (ARI/1B) vs Clayton Kershaw (LAD/LHP)

Arizona has struggled the last couple of weeks, but Walker is starting to heat up on his own. He has four games of 11+ FB points in his last five and will only cost you $4600 to lock down your 1B or UTIL positions. On top of that, he has 2 hits in 5 AB against Clayton Kershaw this year and both of those hits are HR. I like those odds and have no problem throwing him into a GPP today.

Riding the Pine (Fade of the Day): Clayton Kershaw (LAD/LHP) at Arizona Diamondbacks
    Like clockwork we are going to make this play every fifth day. Why would you use Clayton Kershaw as the most expensive pitcher on this slate? He’s a consistent player but he lacks upside. Yes, I know he’s been in that 27-32 FB point range for a while now, but he really hasn’t gone too far beyond that either. If I’m paying top dollar for a pitcher, I want them to have 40+ FB point upside, and Kershaw just doesn’t. Today he’s got a matchup against a struggling D’backs team, but it’s a D’backs team that crushes LHP. They have the highest SLG vs LHP in all of baseball, and the second higher AVG. I get that pitching is pretty weak today, but I just don’t see the point in paying $11800 for the relative safety of Kershaw when you can spend $10500 for Jon Gray to get a similar start (especially on a night where you’re going to want to save money for bats; so many bats).
Don’t forget that you can access the rest of our Reduced Player Pool as a Bankster DFS member. $2.99 per week gets you access to all the content we produce for all the sports we cover, our members only Slack Chat, and exclusive Fanball bonuses. Contact me @bankster17 or you can sign up for a membership here. Thank you for checking out our Fanball MLB Triple Play. You can find us here every day throughout the MLB season.

Did you know that on even a ten game MLB slate, there are approximately 250 TRILLION lineup combinations you can make? To be able to hit on the 1 lineup out of those combinations is harder than winning the lottery. A reduced player pool, though, can give you a significant advantage by reducing the possible lineup combinations you can make. If we limit our choices to only 5 players per position (a few extra for OF), you now have far fewer possible lineup combinations you can make (pricing helps reduce this number even lower). Sure, it’s still a lot of lineup choices (in the millions) but it’s only .000008% of the total possible lineup combinations everyone else is working with. That is a SIGNIFICANT advantage for you if you’re choosing from a strong reduced player pool. That’s where we come in to help.

    Bankster DFS, The Home of the Reduced Player Pool, has teamed up with Fanball to give you a daily sneak peak of three of the plays we have included in our Bankster DFS reduced player pool. We aren’t lineup sellers; we write full articles that explain which players we like, why we like those players, and how we like to build our teams. We are a learning site more than anything, and you can see that in heavy member interaction on our various Slack Chat channels (we have one for every sport that we cover – NBA, AAF, NFL, NHL, MLB, EPL, PGA, MMA, CBB, WWE, sports betting, and Best Ball 10’s). You can get the rest of our reduced player pool, our daily articles, our members only slack chat, and Fanball exclusives with a Bankster DFS membership. That membership costs only $2.99/wk and you get everything mentioned above with it. You can contact me about membership on Twitter @bankster17 or sign up for service here.

Let’s look at the MLB Triple Play for Friday, June 21

On The Hill (Starting Pitcher): Chris Sale (BOS/LHP) vs Toronto Blue Jays

    I have this new game that I play every morning when I wake up. I look at the slate and I ask myself, “Is Chris Sale pitching today?” If the answer is “yes” then I plug him in and spend my morning worrying about what bats I want to use. If the answer is “no” I grumble and complain because I have to research both hitting and pitching. As it were, today the answer was “yes” so I’m plugging and playing Mr. Sale today. The guy has 10+ strikeouts in nine of his last eleven starts (and in one of those misses he had 8 strikeouts). He’s going up against a Blue Jays team that has a 27% strikeout rate against LHP this year. What really interests me about today is that the one time Sale faced the Blue Jays this year he got shelled for 5 runs in 4 innings pitched with only 3 strikeouts. If you don’t think that he’s going to be on a mission to come out and dominate then, um, hmm, you’re wrong. We want innings and strikeouts and there’s no pitcher on the slate who can come close to giving us the upside Sale can. On a 14 game slate there’s no worry about finding enough value to make this play work. Lock and load.

Starting Nine (Stack of the Day): Texas Rangers (vs Reynaldo Lopez- CWS/RHP)

    There are a number of ways you can go with today’s slate, but the Rangers at home against a pitcher as bad as Reynaldo Lopez is going to be way too hard to pass up. This is especially true given how inexpensive the Rangers bats are today (allowing us to spend up on a second big stack and a big pitcher). Getting back to Lopez, let’s look at how bad he is. He has a 7.28 ERA and .314 BAA on the road this year. His 1.8 HR/9 on the road isn’t awful, but he’s a fly ball pitcher (0.44 GB to FB ratio is BAD) who doesn’t strike out enough batters (8.4 K/9) to make up for the fact that Globe Life Park is an unforgiving environment. His 2.3 HR/9 at home, a hitter-friendly environment, is a much better representation of what we can expect today at the second best hitter’s park in all of baseball (behind only Coors Field). The weather is lining up really nicely for a Rangers stack; hot and humid – the ball is going to fly today. The Rangers average 5.7 runs/game at home this year and have a .463 SLG (7th best in MLB); numbers that will increase now that we are officially in the summer months. The Rangers blast RHP (courtesy of MLB.com):

Willie Calhoun is one of my favorite plays on the slate at only $4900. I’m going to look to stack him with guys like Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo, and Elvis Andrus. A stack of those four guys with Chris Sale leaves you $5700 per player to fill out the rest of your lineup (hello, Mike Trout!). One name you won’t see on the chart above, but who is very much in play, is Rougned Odor. He’s been struggling to produce but that doesn’t mean he’s playing poorly. Zac Green, a hardcore Rangers fan who watches every game, tells me that Odor is crushing the ball and just missing taking it yard. He says Odor is locked in and ready to explode. Zac is usually good on these calls so Odor is going to find a place on my Rangers stack as well.

Pinch Hitter (HuLo play): Freddie Freeman (ATL/1B) vs Stephen Strasburg (WSH/RHP)

Generally I like to go with a cheaper play here but every once in a while I’ll look to get a higher priced stud that I think will carry a low ownership (hence the HuLo – high upside, low ownership). Few players have the upside of Freddie Freeman and today he’s going up against a pitcher who he has dominated over his career. In 50 AB against Strasburg, Freeman has a .340 AVG with 9 XBH and 16 RBI. For the season, Freeman has dominated RHP with a .312 AVG and .601 SLG; over his last ten games he’s had 18+ Fanball points eight times. The dude is locked in and he’s going up against a guy who he loves hitting against. If we can get him at a low ownership I’m all about that play.  

Riding the Pine (Fade of the Day): Dallas Keuchel (ATL/RHP) at Washington Nationals
    Dallas Keuchel is back!! Hooray!! Yippee!! Yeah, don’t get cute here folks. We’ve got a loaded pitching slate (Sale, Strasburg, Bueheler, Boyd, Nola, Bauer) and you can absolutely afford to spend up on one of them today. The Nationals are playing very well offensively at the moment (6.7 runs/game with a .573 SLG – 2nd in baseball – over the last week) and aren’t team I’d want to send any pitcher up against right now, let alone a pitcher who they hammer (.357 AVG; .512 SLG as a team in 84 AB against Keuchel). Add in the fact that this is Keuchel’s first major league start of the year and we have a recipe for disaster. I get that Keuchel is a really good pitcher, and I think he has the ability to come out and have a strong game, but that’s not the most likely scenario and I’m not willing to chance it with so many other options on the slate today. If this was two days ago when there was so much uncertainty on the mound I’d have taken this shot, today that’s not the case. Spend up on a top arm and save Keuchel for another day.

Don’t forget that you can access the rest of our Reduced Player Pool as a Bankster DFS member. $2.99 per week gets you access to all the content we produce for all the sports we cover, our members only Slack Chat, and exclusive Fanball bonuses. Contact me @bankster17 or you can sign up for a membership here. Thank you for checking our our Fanball MLB Triple Play. You can find us here every day throughout the MLB season.