Daily Fantasy Baseball 2015: MLB DraftKings Ideal Lineup Picks for June 18
There are two primary games to focus on for Thursday's afternoon DraftKings contests. The Houston Astros at Colorado Rockies and the Baltimore Orioles at Philadelphia Phillies are the contests that should produce the majority of the highest-scoring batters in the early games.
The Orioles have outscored the Phillies 29-7 through the first three games of the two teams' home-and-home four-game stretch. With the Phillies set to send the 1-5 Sean O'Sullivan to the mound, there's reason to believe the O's will keep putting up crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
O'Sullivan's ERA is 5.08, and he has a very mediocre WHIP of 1.46.
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His presence on the mound should provide an opportunity for Chris Parmelee to continue his torrid hitting. In just two games in the majors, Parmelee already has three home runs. The 27-year-old slugger homered twice in his debut and again on Wednesday in the Orioles' 6-4 win. After the game, per Steve Melewski of MASN Sports, Parmelee said, "Pretty good way to start, right?"
I'll say.
There should be at least another week before an adjustment is made against Parmelee that then requires the Baltimore rookie to make his own tweak to remain effective. On top of that, the Phillies are just plain bad right now.
Parmelee will continue to feast on their awful pitching.
Manny Machado
Another Baltimore hitter who is in line to play well on Thursday is third baseman Manny Machado. Despite the fact that Baltimore's offense has exploded against the Phillies, Machado has only gone 3-for-11 during the three games thus far. He did hit two home runs during the O's 19-3 rout on Tuesday, but two hitless games sandwiched that performance.
Don't expect Machado to put up another zero.
He's had just one stretch with two straight hitless games since the first week of the regular season, and he's hitting .328 with four home runs and 11 RBI so far during the month of June. The average is his high for any month this season, and just a little over halfway through June, he's one shy of equaling his high in April and May in both homers and RBI.
Look for him to stay hot with a big game against O'Sullivan and the Phillies bullpen. Here's a look at my complete lineup for Thursday:
| P | Jaime Garcia | Minnesota | $9,300 |
| P | Kendall Graveman | San Diego | $6,600 |
| C | Yadier Molina | Minnesota | $4,200 |
| 1B | Chris Parmelee | Philadelphia | $3,100 |
| 2B | DJ LeMahieu | Houston | $4,000 |
| 3B | Manny Machado | Philadelphia | $4,900 |
| SS | Carlos Correa | Colorado | $4,800 |
| OF | Jason Heyward | Minnesota | $3,600 |
| OF | George Springer | Colorado | $5,700 |
| OF | Ben Revere | Baltimore | $3,800 |
It's hard to get behind Collin McHugh or David Hale on Thursday. Neither pitcher has thrown the ball especially well all season. The Astros' McHugh is 6-3 with an ERA of 5.08 this season, and he has surrendered 15 earned runs in his last 16 innings pitched.
The Rockies' Hale has been a little bit better. He's 5-1 with an ERA of 4.56, and he's given up 11 earned runs in his last 19 innings. That said, he's facing a red-hot Astros offense that has thoroughly enjoyed swinging the bats at Coors Field.
The Astros have scored 22 runs through the first three games of the four-game home-and-home set and will be looking for more on Thursday.
George Springer
Few have been as hot as the Astros' George Springer. It all seems to be coming together for the promising young prospect. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com said this after Springer helped the Astros beat the Rockies 6-3 on Monday:
"George Springer may have played his best all-around game in the major leagues on Monday night. He hit a couple of homers, made a couple of diving catches in right field and was the kind of dynamic presence offensively and defensively the Astros know he can be."
The 25-year-old outfielder is on a 10-game hitting streak. During the streak, he is hitting .476. For the month of June, Springer is hitting .400 and has an on-base percentage of .449.
He's well on his way to serious consideration for National League Player of the Month honors. He was 3-for-5 with an RBI on Wednesday and shows no signs of slowing down. I like Springer's chances to have another strong game Thursday.
DJ LeMahieu
The Rockies' LeMahieu has been raking all season. He's hitting .330 with three home runs and 31 RBI this season. He has remained consistent all year long. He doesn't hit for much power, but LeMahieu is hitting .313 this month and hasn't had his batting average fall beneath .283 in any month so far this season.
He's had just two games in June where he didn't get a hit, score a run or have an RBI. Consistency and McHugh's struggles make LeMahieu a good bet to be involved in the Rockies scoring Thursday.
Jaime Garcia
Finding strong pitching is a task in Thursday's early games. When in doubt, look to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards have the lowest ERA in the majors, the second-lowest opponents' on-base percentage and are tied for third in overall WHIP.
On the mound for St. Louis on Thursday is Jaime Garcia.
He is just 2-3 on the season, but his ERA is 2.83, and his WHIP is a dazzling 0.89. He's had five starts this season and allowed more than two runs in just one of them. Garcia and the Cards will be finishing up a home-and-home four-game stretch with the Minnesota Twins.
The Twinkies have struggled to score runs against the Cards during this stretch. Minnesota has just seven runs in three games and is averaging just 2.45 runs per game over its last 11.
Because of his success and Minnesota's recent struggle to score runs, Garcia is my top pitching choice on Thursday.
Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter.
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