The first multi-game day/night slate of the week is set to go on Thursday with teams both beginning and ending mini/extended series. Winning your league or beating your opponent in heads up daily fantasy baseball competition is all about matching the studs with lesser valued players holding favorable match-ups. Even though there’s slim pickens, here’s what’s on the value menu for you to add to your roster at Draft$treet.com today.
Alex Gonzalez SS Milwaukee Brewers ($5,229) – Harang has thrown a ton of innings at the Brewers from his days of being a Red, and he hasn’t exactly gotten the ball past any of their hitters – he’s 5-5 with a 4.38 ERA & .297 BAA in 21 overall starts. Gonzalez is back from paternity leave and has shredded the Dodgers righty for seven hits and six RBI in 11 career at-bats. The combo of getting a reduced price at the SS position with the fact that Milwaukee’s 1-6 hitters have all hit him hard equates to a no brainer selection in this spot.
Matt Carpenter UT St. Louis Cardinals ($7,065) – With Berkman once again aggravating his calf injury on Wednesday, it opens the door for the Redbirds red hot offense to get even nastier with the reinsertion of Carpenter into the batting order. Last we saw the lefty slugger, he touched up the Cubs pitching staff for four hits (1 HR) and five RBI en route to churning out his biggest day as a big leaguer. Arroyo’s had trouble with lefties his entire career, which leads us to believe Manager Mike Matheny will be inserting every one he’s got in hopes of taking five of these division rivals first six meetings of 2012. You can’t go wrong with the fantasy combo of Descalso, Jay, Furcal, or Carpenter on any of your rosters today.
Jack Hannahan 3B Cleveland Indians ($5,151) – The Tribe invaded Safeco having scored an average of 9.4 RPG in their previous five games before getting stymied by lefty Vargas and the M’s bullpen in Game 2 Wednesday night. Felix Hernandez will no doubt be a tough cookie to solve, but Cleveland does possess a number of sticks that have gotten to him in the past led by Hannahan whose 7-for-15 lifetime (.466) with a pair of HRs and four RBI. After sitting last night’s game out against a lefty, he might just be the only player on the Indians roster salivating at the prospect of getting some licks in against “King Felix”.
**Value Hurler of the Night**
Phil Hughes P New York Yankees ($9,521) – The Yanks burly righty will be making his second Yankee Stadium start of the season off a truly embarrassing performance (8 H 2 HR 6 ER 6K 2 BB in 3.1 IP). That outing will keep many away from him in this daily fantasy MLB spot, but not us. Not a chance! A key to winning more than losing is to forget about past performance and not allow it to cloud your judgment moving forward. The Yanks hit Swarzak hard the only time they faced him, and Hughes has handled the Twins line-up with ease – save for Morneau – in a pair of career starts. His last outing gives us a reduced price to draft him at, and that only adds to the value in selecting him this evening.
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