Saturday’s main slate is an early one, starting at 1:05 PM ET and featuring 11 games. At first blush, the pitching options leave a lot to be desired, but they’re a fun group of volatile hurlers with upside who play well in GPPs. The large slate features a number of value hitters with thump as well as some elite players worth ponying up for. A few teams are featured prominently with the Dodgers and Twins standing out from the pack.

Create DraftKings lineups using our DFS Lineup Optimizer tool

Value Plays

Pitcher

 
The value pitchers are a risky bunch. Bundy will be making his first start for his new team, the Angels. He’s teased with bat-missing stuff that includes a pair of pitches with swinging-strike percentages north of 18% in his changeup that featured an 18.1 SwStr% last year and his slider that generated a jaw-dropping 22.2 SwStr%, per FanGraphs. One of his biggest issues that have prevented him from putting it together is avoiding the long ball, but he’ll get a hand from pitching in Oakland today. RingCentral Coliseum has the eighth-lowest park factor for homers (0.881), according to our park factors.

Burnes crashed and burned as a starter last year and never righted the ship. That’s not to say there weren’t positives, and the biggest of those positives was his superb 17.2 SwStr%. He’s impressed his teammates and dazzled in Summer Camp, as Brewers beat reporter for MLB.com Adam McCalvy wrote in this piece. Michael Ajeto also discussed reasons to be optimistic about a breakout from the former highly-touted prospect over at the Pitcher List. Burnes’ strikeout ability is tantalizing, and his low salary mitigates some risk of rolling the dice on him. Having said that, if he reverts back to serving up homers like he did last year, the floor’s still a negative scoring output.

Perez’s 2019 season got off to a promising start but got off the rails in the second half with him tallying a grotesque 6.27 ERA. Not all was terrible, though. Perez began using a cutter, and it was a damn good pitch ranking as the second-best cutter among qualified pitchers, per FanGraphs pitch value leaderboard. It was his first year using the pitch in his lone season with the Twins. Perhaps a change of scenery to the Red Sox will allow him to tweak things and get more out of the rest of his arsenal. Regardless, the matchup is favorable against a bad Orioles lineup. He and the Red Sox are commanding -200 moneyline favorites, per the BettingPros consensus line. He merely needs to hit double-digit fantasy points to be worth his bargain bin price, and that’s well within his range of outcomes.

Catcher/First Base

 
Last year’s National League Rookie of the Year Award winner and home run champion, Alonso, is underpriced. He slugged 14 homers with a .354 OBP, .347 ISO, and 141 wRC+ in 178 plate appearances against southpaws last year, and Max Fried’s .326 wOBA served up to 544 right-handed batters faced in 2019 serves as further incentive to use Alonso at just $4,500.

I, like many gamers, often like punting at catcher. Jansen makes for a very attractive punt after retooling his swing last season. Back in early March, I wrote about Jansen extensively as a lottery ticket in season-long leagues while discussing his swing changes more thoroughly. His swing changes give him upside beyond his underwhelming 2019 season, but his 91 wRC+ in 151 plate appearances against lefties in his career is already playable at the offensively devoid catcher position.

Second Base

 
Muncy’s included above with the first basemen and catchers, but this is where he stands out. He’s far and away my favorite second base option and grossly underpriced. Among qualified hitters facing right-handed pitchers since 2017, he ranks 10th in OBP (.388), third in ISO (.299), and fifth in wRC+ (150). That’ll play.

Kingery’s strictly a high-risk pivot for his power. After a highly forgettable rookie season in 2018, he picked things up in his sophomore campaign. Against lefties, he took an all-or-nothing approach with just a 3.9 BB% and 31.0 K%, but strong .268 ISO and 56.0 hard-hit%. Gonzalez fits best as a punt and/or part of a Twins stack. The switch-hitting utility man is a few ticks above average against southpaws with a 109 wRC+ in 435 plate appearances against them since 2017.

Third Base

 
Turner’s listed as a medium risk only because of the opportunity cost using him instead of Donaldson at the same cost. In 1,022 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers since 2017, he’s totaled a tidy .383 OBP, .174 ISO, and 131 wRC+. Gausman’s no great shakes in same-handed matchups after surrendering a .333 wOBA to them last year.

Donaldson is probably my favorite play on the entire slate, cost considered. He’s one of a number of certified lefty-mashers in Minnesota’s high-powered offense, and he boasts a .388 OBP, .288 ISO, and 143 wRC+ in 325 plate appearances against southpaws since 2017. Toss in Keuchel’s below-average strikeout ability and the .339 wOBA he yielded to right-handed batters last year, and Donaldson a set-it-and-forget-it play in cash games and an elite play in GPPs, too.

Nunez is strictly a GPP pivot for dinger chasers. Opposing starter Perez coughed up 22 homers, a .476 SLG, and .353 wOBA to 589 right-handed batters faced in 2019. Nunez managed a .240 ISO and 14 homers in 221 plate appearances against lefties last year. I wouldn’t recommend firing too many bullets on him, but gamers multi entering GPPs can give him a look for contrarian purposes.

Shortstop

 
Correa and Seager are a pair of established, young, offensive-minded shortstops in stacked lineups. They’re nearly each other’s equals with the former tallying a 122 wRC+ against righties since 2017 and the latter amassing a 123 wRC+. Seager’s discounts nice, but mixing and matching them shouldn’t be too difficult with a lack of high-end pitching worth investing in. Adames makes for a sneaky GPP play at just a couple hundred dollars cheaper than Seager. The right-handed-hitting shortstop is likely to hit in one of the last three lineup spots, but he’s the owner of a reverse platoon split (which, admittedly, may gravitate towards a more normal split with a larger sample) and has an excellent 120 wRC+ in 616 plate appearances against righties in his career.

Outfield

 
McCutchen and Brantley represent the old reliable veterans with long track records of excellence against opposite-handed pitchers. Since 2017, Cutch owns a .397 OBP, .238 ISO, and 148 wRC+ against southpaws. In the same time frame facing righties, Brantley’s raked to the tune of a .379 OBP, .200 ISO, and 138 wRC+. McCutchen should leadoff for the Phillies, and Brantley’s likely to hit cleanup, putting both in dreamy lineup spots.

Gallo’s strictly a high-upside power chase. His prodigious power is well known, and among players with a minimum of 100 batted ball events, Gallo ranked third in barrels per plate appearance percentage and first in flyball and line-drive exit velocity at a blistering 101.2 mph, per Baseball Savant. His multi-homer upside always makes him a defensible GPP option, and at only $4,400 he’s rather affordable.

Davis and Verdugo comprise the sub-$4,000 options. Davis is coming off of a breakout campaign in his first with the Mets and ripped lefties for a .227 ISO and 139 wRC+ in 155 plate appearances against them last year. Verdugo sat in his first game with the Red Sox with them facing a lefty starter Friday night, but he should be in the lineup today. After a couple of cups of coffee with the Dodgers in 2017 and 2018, Verdugo played in 106 games for them last year. In 242 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers, he stroked 10 homers with a .336 OBP, .190 ISO, and 111 wRC+. Solid if unspectacular numbers, but he gets a bump in value from the talent up and down Boston’s lineup and a drool-inducing matchup with Alex Cobb.

5 Studs Worth Their Salary

• Yu Darvish, CHC ($10,500): After a few rough starts to open last year, Darvish shoved. His elite strikeout potential makes him the one stud arm worth paying up for.
• Ronald Acuna ATL ($5,500): Acuna’s power/speed combo is tasty, as is his 145 wRC+ against lefties in his young career.
• Bo Bichette TOR ($5,100): In just 63 plate appearances against southpaws last year, Bichette smashed them for a .298 ISO and 180 wRC+. Have no fear, according to his Baseball-Reference minor-league splits, he hit lefties in the minors, too.
• Nelson Cruz MIN ($4,900): Since 2017, Cruz owns a .401 OBP, .311 ISO, 156 wRC+ against lefties. He’s the challenger to Donaldson for my favorite play on this slate, but there’s no reason to overthink it, use both.
• Miguel Sano MIN ($4,800): In fact, add Sano and his .346 OBP, .300 ISO, and 136 wRC+ against lefties since 2017 to the mix as well and make it a Twins stack today.

5 Notable Players to Fade

• Zack Wheeler, PHI ($10,100): Wheeler’s 23.5 K% last year was above league average, but it’s not five-figure salary good. He’s overpriced. Pass.
• Sean Manaea, OAK (10,000): If Wheeler’s overpriced, I’m not sure what that makes Manaea since his case for a five-figure salary is worse. His 1.21 ERA last year is in stark contrast to his 3.86 SIERA. Pass.
• Rich Hill, MIN ($7,500): Initially, I was tempted to include Hill among the value pitchers. His skills are still strong when he’s healthy, but the Pale Hose makes for a challenging matchup after ranking eighth in wRC+ (107) against lefties last year. Adding veteran slugger Edwin Encarnacion and supremely talented prospect Luis Robert to the mix should only make them more lethal against southpaws.
• Christian Yelich MIL ($6,000): There’s no denying Yelich’s excellence, but he’s too expensive to justify paying up for in a road tilt. Yelich’s road numbers with the Brewers are nothing to sneeze at, but he’s been considerably better at home.
• Nolan Arenado COL ($5,000): Speaking of players with home/road splits, Arenado’s made the most of playing in his hitter’s paradise at Coors Field. He’s not home, and Globe Life Field isn’t Globe Life Park. There will be no benefit of blazing temperatures helping the ball carry farther in the Rangers new ballpark with a retractable roof.

Create DraftKings lineups using our DFS Lineup Optimizer tool

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | SoundCloud | iHeartRadio

Whether you’re new to fantasy baseball or a seasoned pro, our Fantasy Baseball 101: Strategy Tips & Advice page is for you. You can get started with our Sabermetrics Glossary or head to more advanced strategy — like Maximizing Your Potential in Multi-Lineup Contests — to learn more.

Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.