The New York Yankees must have read my last DFS article. In it, I commented about how at least one team tends to align its starting rotation with my writing schedule, leading to a top ace on the mound. For Monday, said ace is Gerrit Cole.
There is a twist in this story, however. The comment I continue to recycle about the top starting pitcher usually produces only one such ace on the mound. On Monday, we have two.
We also have a slightly smaller slate than in prior installments. This, alone, will condense ownership levels, but those numbers might be pushed ever further if fantasy managers opt to avoid using hitters against Cole or Yu Darvish. We will keep this in mind as we work through the set of games ahead of us.
Check out today’s MLB Grand Slam contest at FanDuel 
The New York Yankees must have read my last DFS article. In it, I commented about how at least one team tends to align its starting rotation with my writing schedule, leading to a top ace on the mound. For Monday, said ace is Gerrit Cole.
There is a twist in this story, however. The comment I continue to recycle about the top starting pitcher usually produces only one such ace on the mound. On Monday, we have two.
We also have a slightly smaller slate than in prior installments. This, alone, will condense ownership levels, but those numbers might be pushed ever further if fantasy managers opt to avoid using hitters against Cole or Yu Darvish. We will keep this in mind as we work through the set of games ahead of us.
Check out today’s MLB Grand Slam contest at FanDuel
Monday’s Starting Pitcher Strategy
I wrote about the ace of the night in the introduction to this article, but the rest of the options after Gerrit Cole and Yu Darvish felt incredibly uncomfortable. Of course, someone will surprise and turn in a better performance than the numbers indicate, but it’s important to tread lightly. For this reason, I find it impossible to fade Cole in either DraftKings or FanDuel — if I need the money with only one starting pitcher, I would have to pivot, but I don’t actively want to. I’m less confident in Darvish than I am in Cole, and I personally won’t be using him in my lineups. Still, he deserves the respect of being the second-best option of the night, and he is a solid cash-game play.
I’m going to lean rather heavily on Casey Mize on Monday, as he will face a Mariners team that, among teams in-play, ranks in the bottom-five for runs scored and top-five for strikeouts. Mize’s numbers haven’t been great, but his fastball velocity is up, and he’s about to make his 15th career start. For someone with his prospect pedigree, it would not be a surprise for him to develop in front of our eyes suddenly.
Cash Game Recommendations: Gerrit Cole, Yu Darvish
GPP Recommendations: Gerrit Cole, Casey Mize, Taijuan Walker, Adbert Alzolay, Madison Bumgarner
Top Lineup Stacks
Mets
White Sox
Angels
View the best player prop bets for today’s slate with our MLB Prop Bet Cheat Sheet
We were *this* close to the perfect setup for Mike Trout, where he would have entered a new series against a new team on a six-game hitless streak. That would have put him into must-start territory for me at basically any price, where we can look for a major correction after such a cold streak. His ninth-inning single on Sunday obviously stopped the streak, but I’m still buying into Trout before his inevitable next surge.
Francisco Lindor follows a similar “cold streak” path as Trout, but Lindor’s has lasted since the start of the season while Trout’s has been in place for roughly one week. Really, Lindor will not hit under .200 for much longer, so the short-term future is bright for him. His price is also so low that he could have fit into the Value Plays section — at least, on FanDuel.
Yoan Moncada and Pete Alonso round out my core players as part of the aforementioned stacks. Moncada has gone in the opposite direction of Trout and Lindor — he’s been hot, of late — while Alonso’s only hit of the last three games was a solo home run.
Given the cost associated with my preferred pitching options and hitting stacks, it should not be a surprise that I dove deep into the Value Plays for Monday. This also helped me gain exposure to the lineups of the White Sox and Tigers. I specifically wanted to use at least one hitter from Detroit since I am not playing Seattle’s Yusei Kikuchi. When possible, I like to go ‘all-in’ with fading a pitcher by using a bat against him. Nick Madrigal is my current choice at a low price. As for Detroit, I am attacking J.A. Happ, but I want to hedge and not pay a premium. If Happ pitches well, it will not have cost my lineup a tremendous salary.
Monday’s Hitter Strategy
I’ve now mentioned it in every section, but money was tight for this build. I forced Gerrit Cole into my lineups on both DraftKings and FanDuel, but the hitters’ prices on FanDuel are usually so forgiving that paying up for a pitcher is not a problem. Not this time. I was filling my lineups with Value Plays and building around Cole and Mike Trout.
It will be worth monitoring the starting lineups for Monday mainly because the Value Plays are somewhat interchangeable as part of stacks or the exposure against a certain pitcher — as I wrote in the previous section. Don’t hesitate to swap out a JaCoby Jones or Miguel Cabrera for a different member of the Tigers upon release of the lineups.
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Mario Mergola is a featured writer at FantasyPros and BettingPros and the creator and content editor of Sporfolio. For more from Mario, check out his archive and follow him @MarioMergola.
