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Fantasy Baseball Briefing for Sunday 5/28

Good morning and I hope you’re enjoying your long weekend! It’s Sunday so there’s lots of baseball today. The hitters below have had success versus the opposing pitcher and should be able to contribute to your lineups Sunday.

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These aren’t exactly the names you’re used to seeing on this list, like Bichette, Goldschmidt, Freeman, etc., but here’s why they’re on it:

Christopher Morel – all he has done since he was called up is mash, collecting a hit in each of his first 13 games. He was bound to cool off at some point, and is just 1-for-10 over his last three games. But that happens even to the best hitters. Morel is 3-for-5 off of Graham Ashcraft, including a double, so hopefully Sunday will see him get back on track. The wind is blowing in at Wrigley, however, so if you’re looking for HR, maybe this isn’t the best spot.

Whit Merrifield – in Whit’s 8 at-bats versus Bailey Ober, he’s collected 4 hits, including a double and a triple. While Whit isn’t lighting the world on fire with his bat, he’s been a solid contributor all year, hitting .292 so far and he is also 10-for-22 (.454) over his last 6 games. Like Wrigley, Target field has some wind today that could limit HR potential, but look for Whit to contribute hits and stolen bases – he’s got 10 in the month of May alone (14 on the season).

Yoan Moncada – he’s seen his division rival Eduardo Rodriguez quite a bit, and as I’ve mentioned before, with frequency comes familiarity. Since Moncada has come back from injury he’s been solid, going 14-for-53 (.264) including 3 doubles and a triple. He actually had his season average up to .318 before a four-game stretch that saw him go 0-for-13. But he is 4-for-9 the last two games and gets Rodriguez today, who is a lefty, and Moncada has much better splits this season vs lefties, batting .313 from the right side of the plate.

Yuli Gurriel – it’s a small sample size and Sandoval is a good pitcher, but Gurriel is 2-for-5 with 2 doubles off Sandoval, and zero strikeouts against him. You might be surprised to learn that Yuli is also riding a six-game hit streak, in which he’s gone 13-for-24 (.541) with a double and 2 triples, so he’s seeing the ball well right now.

Other Hitter Options for DFS

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The Braves tagged Cody Bradford for 7 hits (2 HR) and 6 earned runs in his lone start this year. The O’s don’t have the same pop as the Braves bats, but this could be a spot for the hot hitting Austin Hays to shine. He’s got a little four-game hit streak going and is 9-for-23 over his last six games. Per BaseballSavant.com, Bradford throws the 4-seam fastball most frequently, and Hays has the second highest expected batting average (xBA) off of the pitch of all the Orioles at .326. He’s got 6 HR on the season, so he’s got a little pop in his bat, although the wind also looks to be blowing in Baltimore. You could also look at Ryan Mountcastle or Anthony Santander in this spot, who have 11 and 8 HR respectively.

The Mets @ Colorado has the highest run total on the board (as usual being in Colorado) at 12.5, so you could look at some hitters here too. Pete Alonso is leading the world in home runs; he hit his 20th of the season yesterday. The Polar Bear is hitting .271 against lefties this season versus .225 against righties. Brandon Nimmo is hitting well this year and also hits lefties well, .348 versus .277 against righties. On the other side Charlie Blackmon is in the midst of an 8-game hit streak, and Elias Diaz (.333 average) is providing the Rockies with some pop, hitting 3 HR in his last 6 games.

Sunday Night Single Game Entry

Taking a stab at this for the first time in this article, but there’s just one night game on Sunday’s usually, so why not make it interesting? For the single game plays, you can choose an MVP (2x Points), a Star (1.5 points), and 3 Util spots. You can read the various strategies for these, some include going “contrarian” to win, where you use a lesser used player in the MVP and hope he goes off. Otherwise, you might be tempted to put Acuna in that spot, but chances are there’s a ton of other folks doing the same thing. If there is a lesser known guy with lots of history versus the other pitcher you could slot him in there in hopes he continues his success, but in this game we really don’t have that. So, I’m going a little in between. And with a relative unknown pitching for the Phils, I’m going heavy Braves (duh). You can’t choose all Braves though, so here’s my play:

MVP 2X – Sean Murphy (quietly has 11 HR on the year, riding 8-game hit streak)

STAR 1.5X – Ronald Acuna Jr.(HR, RBI, runs, stolen bases; you name it, he can provide it)

UTIL – Austin Riley (heating up, looking to snag a HR here)

UTIL – Alec Bohm (3-for-10, 1 HR vs Strider)

UTIL – Kyle Schwarber (1-for-9, 1 HR vs Strider)

Ozuna has been hot and has a HR in 3 of his last 4 games, 2 of which were against the Phillies, but I’m thinking they know that and may pitch him differently, so I’m just guessing here and avoiding, but he could be thrown in there too if you choose.

Betting Angle

Mets @ Colorado under 12.5 runs (-105) – I expect runs to be scored, but that number seems too high, with Colorado averaging around 5 runs at home and and Mets about 4.5 on the road.

Merrifield/Gurriel to get a hit parlay (-102) – see above reasoning on these two, but just asking for these guys to get one hit.

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