This article is part of our DFS NPB series.
We begin a new week of NPB play with a formidable arsenal of pitchers taking the hill, which could certainly make it a low-scoring night overall for fantasy purposes. The array of strong arms leaves us with pitching options at every price point, even all the way down at $5K where the talented Kodai Senga makes his season debut. There are still some bats that stand out – including some sporting some bargain prices relative to upside – but only one, rather unlikely club that seems to offer solid stack potential.
We'll roll out more pitcher suggestions than usual today and will still break down five bats across the salary scale worthy of consideration, before wrapping it up with a 2-3-4 group of hitters that could pay off when used together in your lineup.
Pitchers
Hayato Yuge ($12,500) comes into Tuesday's contest averaging an impressive 22.1 DK points per start after stifling the Fighters and Marines in his first pair of outings. Yuge has averaged just under a strikeout per inning and has yielded just a single home run thus far over 12.2 frames, while the opposing Hawks come in with a pedestrian .230 team batting average. Yuge doesn't come cheap, but as he demonstrated in his first start of the season with 28.6 DK points, the young southpaw is capable of delivering when he's on.
Shosei Togoh ($10,300) offers the upside of a higher-priced player, as he's demonstrated with respective tallies of 25.4 and 18.1 DK points over his first two starts of the season. Togoh always has the benefit of a powerful Giants lineup to support him in his quest for a win as well, and the right-hander has certainly done his part by starting the year off with an impressive 1.00 WHIP and .182 BAA across 13 innings. The quality of the matchup shouldn't be discounted, either, with the opposing Tigers checking in with a co-NPB-worst 4-10 record and Central League-low .221 team batting average.
Masato Morishita ($8,700) shapes up as a bargain after posting 28.2 and 24.9 DK points against the BayStars and Dragons to start the new season. Morishita has racked up 15 strikeouts over 15.2 innings while issuing just three free passes over that span, and even more impressive is the fact he's accomplished all it on the road. He now makes his first home start of 2020 in a rematch versus Yokohama, which he blanked over seven frames back on June 21. While there's certainly risk involved when a pitcher sees a team a second time within a condensed span of time, Morishita's price makes him worthy of consideration.
ALSO CONSIDER: Albert Suarez ($12,700); Kodai Senga ($5,000)
Top Targets
Seiya Suzuki ($7,900) is showing no signs of slowing down 13 games into the 2020 campaign, as he's now slashing .400/.474/.800 following yet another multi-hit outing Sunday. Suzuki is averaging a whopping 13.6 DK points per game, and the veteran outfielder is simply offering an encore of the caliber of numbers he's made the norm over the majority of his career. Suzuki came into the season having hit at least .300 and 26 home runs in four straight seasons, and he's already hitting .455 (5-for-11) and averaging 17.3 DK points across three games against BayStars pitching in the current campaign.
Sho Nakata ($7,300) has cut down on his strikeouts over the last couple of seasons compared to earlier in his career, and he remains as powerful as ever. The veteran already has six home runs over his first 64 plate appearances in 2020, and he came into the season having hit between 24 and 30 round trippers in seven of the previous eight campaigns. Nakata also checks in with double-digit fantasy-point tallies in four of his last eight contests, and he's slugged five of his aforementioned six homers this season when on the road. Tuesday, Nakata will face off with southpaw Andrew Albers, who has already allowed three home runs over his first 10 innings of the season after surrendering a 1.7 HR/9 in 2019.
Masataka Yoshida ($5,900) is surprisingly priced under $6K despite a .339/.439/.571 line across his first 15 games. Yoshida is arguably due for a long-ball breakout as well, as the modest three homers he's slugged over his first 66 plate appearances has him slightly off the pace of his last two campaigns (55 combined home runs). Yoshida also operates out of the favorable No. 3 spot in the order and comes into Tuesday's game with five multi-hit efforts in his last seven contests.
ALSO CONSIDER: Adam Jones ($6,300)
Bargain Bats
Jerry Sands ($4,300) displayed some prodigious power in a couple of minor-league stops stateside early last decade, and even though he's gotten off to a highly sluggish start to his NPB career, he represents low-owned access to some power upside in tournaments. Sands may be hinting at a bit of an ascension as well after hitting in three straight games, with his most recent contest Sunday against the Carp featuring his second homer of the season. The veteran has also encouragingly struck out only once over his last four contests after whiffing on four occasions across his first two games, another sign he may be starting to find his groove at the plate. As alluded to earlier, Giants starter Shosei Togo won't be an easy matchup, but Sands can pay off a modest salary with one swing of the bat.
Takayuki Kajitani ($4,000) sports a price worthy of a double-take, considering he's slashing .356/.449/.525 with a pair of homers and five RBI across his first 15 games. Kajitani is averaging an impressive 10.8 DK points across his first six road contests as well, and his leadoff role could well facilitate his paying off an extremely modest salary very comfortably, despite what shapes up as a tough matchup versus Carp starter Masato Morishita.
Stacks to Consider
Buffaloes vs. Toshihiro Sugiura: Aderlin Rodriguez ($5,100); Masataka Yoshida ($5,900); Adam Jones ($6,300)
As mentioned earlier, it's shaping up as a potentially lean day on paper for offense Tuesday due to the quality of pitchers on the slate. As such, the one stack that I'd feel most comfortable recommending ironically belongs to one of the more underwhelming offenses in NPB so far in the form of the Buffaloes.
We start with No. 2 hitter Aderlin Rodriguez, who's slashing a rock-solid .281/.369/.456 across his first 15 games. Rodriguez displayed plenty of power during a long minor-league career stateside, slugging over 20 homers in three of his last four stops. Therefore, he's bound to pick up the pace after launching just a pair of round trippers across his first 63 plate appearances of the season.
The case for Yoshida was made earlier, while cleanup hitter Jones, who boasts one of the more distinguished MLB resumes in recent NPB history, is an excellent way to top off the Orix trio. Like Rodriguez, Jones has the talent to produce at a much better clip than he has so far, despite also getting off to a serviceable start. Jones current sports a .276 average, but he has just four XBH (two doubles, two homers) over his first 60 PAs after lacing between 50 and 74 in seven of his last eight MLB campaigns.
