Daily Fantasy Baseball 2015: Best MLB DFS DraftKings Lineup for June 10
DraftKings players, lean heavily on the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon. The team with the best record in the major leagues will be taking on the Colorado Rockies in the final contest of a three-game series. The Cards have the sixth-highest team batting average in the majors.
Despite the fact that the Redbirds are facing the Rockies' hot starting pitcher Chad Bettis, I love a few of the Cardinals to have big games on Wednesday.
Let's start with the team's leading hitter, Jhonny Peralta ($5,000).
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The 33-year-old Dominican has been incredibly consistent. He's had just one stretch with back-to-back hitless games all season. Extra-base hits and RBI are what win DK contests, and Peralta can supply what you need.
No middle infielder in the major leagues has a higher slugging percentage than Peralta's .525.
Peralta is in the midst of his best month yet. He's hitting .343 already in June with a home run on Tuesday night. He should be your shortstop on Wednesday afternoon.
I also like Peralta's double-play partner on Wednesday. Kolten Wong ($4,800) has been almost as good at the plate as Peralta. He's hitting .299 with seven home runs and 27 RBI, and he's already homered in the series against the Rockies.
Bettis is a right-handed starter, and the left-handed-hitting Wong has shown the majority of his power against righties. Six of his home runs have come against right-handed pitching. I think he's a good bet to go yard on Wednesday and do well from a fantasy standpoint overall.
Take a look at the rest of my ideal lineup for Wednesday.
| P | Gio Gonzalez | New York Yankees | $8,300 |
| P | Tom Koehler | Toronto Blue Jays | $5,700 |
| C | Wilson Ramos | New York Yankees | $3,900 |
| 1B | Mark Reynolds | Colorado Rockies | $3,400 |
| 2B | Kolten Wong | Colorado Rockies | $4,800 |
| 3B | Matt Carpenter | Colorado Rockies | $5,200 |
| SS | Jhonny Peralta | Colorado Rockies | $5,000 |
| OF | Bryce Harper | New York Yankees | $5,600 |
| OF | Jon Jay | Colorado Rockies | $3,700 |
| OF | Randal Grichuk | Colorado Rockies | $3,800 |
Aaron Sanchez ($6,000) vs. Miami Marlins (Scratched)
(UPDATED)
Replacement: Tom Koehler ($5,700) at Toronto Blue Jays
Originally, I had the Toronto Blue Jays' Aaron Sanchez in this spot, but he was scratched, per Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star. Originally, I'd debated whether to tab Sanchez or Koehler here, but elected to draft Sanchez.
With him skipping this start, it made the decision for a replacement easy.
Koehler rebounded from a disastrous start against the New York Mets on May 30 with a solid outing on June 5 at the Colorado Rockies. The rarified air didn't affect Koehler as he went seven strong innings with just one earned run and six strikeouts. He retired 14 men via ground ball outs which is a necessity in Colorado.
For the season, Koehler has been a consistent, but less than spectacular performer for the Miami Marlins. His ERA is 3.72 and WHIP is a respectable 1.33. He may not rack up 30-plus fantasy points, but he should keep your second pitcher slot from being waste of DK salary.
Gio Gonzalez ($8,300) at New York Yankees
Like most of the starters in the Washington Nationals rotation, Gio Gonzalez hasn't been as good as the team had hoped. That said, he's still one of the best pitching options for the early games on Wednesday.
Gonzalez comes in with a 4-3 record, 4.57 ERA and underwhelming 1.51 WHIP, but he is striking out a good number of hitters. He has 62 K's in 65 innings, and that still scores fantasy points.
Gonzalez should get an opportunity to pitch comfortably with the lead in this one. New York Yankees starter Nathan Eovaldi has been torched by the current members of the Nats roster to the tune of a combined .301 batting average.
Pitching with a cushion is nice and should push Gonzalez to a respectable performance.
Bryce Harper ($5,600) at New York Yankees
While the Cardinals look to be the team set to explode offensively on Wednesday, Bryce Harper is a singular explosion waiting to happen. The Nats star has blown Eovaldi up regularly when he's faced him.
In 14 at-bats, Harper has six hits against Eovaldi, and one of them was a home run. Look for another one—or two—to leave the yard off Harper's bat on Wednesday.
Harper has made an adjustment to pitchers working him away—which is what Eovaldi will probably do. As ESPN's John Buccigross tweets, Harper has no problem going long the other way:
Harper hit his 20th home run (second in MLB behind Giancarlo Stanton's 21) on Tuesday night off Masahiro Tanaka. Look for No. 21 and possibly No. 22 to go flying out of Yankee Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
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