I’ll be heading to Texas to target Nick Tepesch tonight. Tepesch hasn’t been horrid, but he hasn’t been very good either. He’s a fly ball pitcher in a home run park. He’s been fairly lucky as far as homers are concerned, but the Angels have the best hitting road team in the league and get a hot summer night to blast away.
Be sure to check the weather tonight with storms forecasted for Minnesota/Cleveland and Kansas City/Detroit.
Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $50,000 Fantasy Baseball league for Wednesday night's MLB games. It's $25 to join and first prize is $7,500. Starts at 7:05pm ET on Wednesday. Here's the FanDuel link.
TOP SHELF
Albert Pujols – LAA 1B - Tepesch has allowed a .360 wOBA to righties this season and Pujols is hitting over .300 with 2 HR in the last 7 days. He just missed another last night, and I expect the Angels to roll over Texas yet again.
Buster Posey – SFG C - Posey is hitting over .500 with two extra base hits and two homers in the last seven days. He is also 8-11 with two homers off Collmenter. He’s not cheap and I usually like to go a little cheap on catchers, but he makes for a good tournament play.
Andrew McCutchen – PIT OF – Cutch is just coming off of three 3-hit games in a row and now gets the very hittable Williams in Philly. He’s only had three at bats against Williams, but has a homer off him and is 10 for 20 off Phillies pitching this season.
Also consider: Miguel Cabrera – DET 1B, Mike Trout – LAA OF, Giancarlo Stanton - MIA
BULK PURCHASE
Howie Kendrick – LAA 2B -- Kendrick is hitting .467 with two homers and 10 RBIs in the last seven days and he gets a great matchup against Tepesch in Texas. He’s no longer a bargain bin play, but his price hasn’t gotten out of hand.
Josh Reddick – OAK OF – Reddick has a .374 wOBA and .239 ISO against righties this year, while Bassitt is no good against lefties and gets to pitch with the wind blowing out a U.S. Cellular.
Neil Walker – PIT 2B -- Jerome Williams has allowed a .375 wOBA to lefties this season and Walker is the lefty on the team to take advantage of that. He ha a .363 wOBA and a .209 ISO against righties this season.
Also consider: Devin Mesoraco – PIT C, Kyle Seager SEA 3B, Evan Longoria TAM 2B, Dioner Navarro – TOR C
BARGAIN BIN
Matt Adams – STL 1B – Adam’s cheap price is too much to pass on after his hot start in Cincinnati. He’s hitting righties for a .320 average and also gets Simon who hasn’t been pitching well of late as he’s given up two home runs and nine runs in his last 11 innings.
Adam Dunn – OAK 1B – Dunn comes back to Chicago and faces a weak righty in Bassitt. He’s a good bet for a homer in this one as he’s hit righties for a .354 wOBA and a .225 ISO for this season.
Ben Zobrist – TAM 2B – Chris Capuano has allowed a .345 wOBA in his career to righties and Zobrist has a .384 wOBA against LHP this season and has three multi-hit games in his last six.
Also consider: Jordy Mercer PIT SS, Michael Bourn – CLE OF, Todd Frazier CIN 3B
STARTING PITCHER
Hisashi Iwakuma – SEA - Iwakuma is usually a lock at home where he has a 2.78 ERA. He has allowed a .272 wOBA this season, and has a 7.4 K/9. He has racked up some decent strikeout games vs. teams like the Astros who have a 23% strike out percentage against righties.
Matt Shoemaker – LAA - Shoemaker is 2-0 against Texas allowing just three earned runs and striking out 12. Texas has just a .296 wOBA over the last 2 weeks. Shoemaker has a 2.02 ERA in the 2nd half with an 8.7 K/9 this season.
Drew Hutchison – TOR -- The Cubs have a 27% strike out percentage over the last 2 weeks, with all their young bats. Hutchison has been inconsistent so is just a GPP play, but he has an 8.2 K/9 and really should get plenty of strikeouts.
Also consider: Tyler Matzek – COL, Dan Haren – LAD, Ryan Vogelsong - SFG