Monday’s main slate is slightly smaller than usual, with nine games on the schedule. The main story, however, is the matchup imbalance for pitchers relative to their salaries.
If we lean solely on a team’s strikeout and run potential, then some of the least expensive pitchers on the slate have the best head-to-head matchups. Conversely, the more expensive arms are not necessarily walking into automatic high scores. Naturally, one side of this scale will tip, but it’s a rarity to go through so many options and have an imbalance between value and risk.
As for the hitters, the one glaring trend I noticed as I built my lineups is that paying up for some bats is a necessity on Monday. This isn’t how I normally operate, but each slate deserves its own game plan. As we will soon see, targeting expensive hitters is the approach here.
