This article is part of our DraftKings MLB series.
We don't quite have all 30 teams to work with on our main slate, but Tuesday is still a great day with 13 games included. It's a very strong day for pitching with at least some minor inefficiencies in price to take advantage of. There are also plenty of opportunities to stack and grab value on the hitting side of things. Let's jump in.
Pitching
We can start at the top of the pitching market. Cole Ragans ($9,500) is back on track after a slight downturn coming out of the All-Star break. He faces the Angels, a lineup that has been decent against lefties overall this season. However, they've been so bad overall in the last month that paying up for Ragans is a good bet.
Based primarily on matchups and a gentle decline in terms of the quality of pitchers, I'm willing to jump down in price a bit after Ragans. In the mid $8,000 range, we're presented with a choice between playing the matchup or relying on a steadier pitcher. The matchup against the White Sox is excellent for Robbie Ray ($8,600), but we saw the downside for him when he was shellacked by Atlanta and lasting just two-thirds of an inning in his most recent start. The story for Bailey Ober ($8,400) is the inverse. His season-long numbers are still plagued by his Opening Day start (eight earned runs in 1.1 innings), but he has the fifth-best SIERA of the day and fourth-best of pitchers with a meaningful sample this season. He'll still be an uncomfortable choice due to a matchup against the Padres, who have struck out at just a 16.1 percent clip in the last 30 days with a .353 wOBA (fourth-best in the league).
There are a couple of cheaper options to consider as well, even if they don't quite reach punt territory. Dean Kremer ($7,300) has been inconsistent of late, but he has starts of 20.7 and 17.3 DraftKings points in his last four outings. The Mets aren't an easy matchup, but they do have a 24.7 percent strikeout rate in the last 30 days.
Since joining the Padres, Martin Perez ($6,800) has put up 23.7, 20.8 and 25.8 DraftKings points. That's not necessarily predictive of what will happen Tuesday, but he is underpriced even heading into a tough matchup against the Twins.
Top Hitters
Nick Pivetta's undoing continues to be his home run rate, as he's allowed 1.9 HR/9 for the season. That sets things up to play one-off options from Houston, and Yordan Alvarez ($6,000) has finally started to hit for power in the last few weeks.
Jose Berrios has had unimpressive peripherals most of the season, but he has gotten strong results overall. Like Pivetta, he's also been plagued by the long ball. That combination leaves me uninterested in stacking the Reds, but individual plays such as Spencer Steer ($5,300) are good options.
Value Bats
Parker Meadows ($3,300) has spent all of August in the majors and he appears intent on not returning to the minors. In that span, he's maintained a .348 average and .927 OPS with six extra-base hits in 12 games. He's also leading off for the Tigers. That's a combination that makes him way too cheap.
Austin Slater ($2,500) used to be a player to automatically roster any time his team was facing a lefty. He's lost some effectiveness in that role, but he's still led off for the Orioles against southpaws. That should be the case again in a matchup against Jose Quintana.
Stacks to Consider
Seattle Mariners vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (Walker Buehler): Victor Robles ($3,700), Cal Raleigh ($4,500), Randy Arozarena ($4,600)
Recommending a Mariners stack is a dangerous proposition. The team strikes out at a prolific rate, and Julio Rodriguez never got going this season. There is still upside, though. Robles has taken over as the leadoff hitter for the club and excelled, while Raleigh is one of the top power-hitting catchers in the league. The real draw is the specific matchup against Buehler, whose minor-league reset didn't appear to accomplish much to get him on track at the big-league level. He has walked more batters than he has struck out in his return (3:4 K:BB ratio).
San Francisco Giants vs. Chicago White Sox (Davis Martin): Tyler Fitzgerald ($5,200), Heliot Ramos ($4,600), Matt Chapman ($5,000)
Martin has gotten good surface results since joining the White Sox in late July, but his underlying skills tell a different story. Most notably, he's allowed a 12 percent barrel rate and maintained only a 9.0 K-BB percentage ratio (the worst of the day). The Giants aren't a particularly fun team to stack, but they do have a variety of options at various points of the lineup and at different price points. LaMonte Wade ($3,500) is a particularly appealing value option, as he should appear in the top half of the San Francisco lineup.
