Let’s try this again.
Yesterday’s lineup was experimental, to say the least. We tried going with the hot hands from spring, and only went with a couple of standbys. Suffice it to say, it didn’t work out.
A couple of things to note for today’s lineup.
1. I don’t trust Justin Masterson. His strong 2011 was, in my mind, a fluke. He crashed back to Earth last year and produced a bloated ERA of 4.93.
2. I’m playing the matchups again, with a bit of bias against the Astros pitching staff, and a strong bias against Masterson. I also don’t see the back end of the Indians bullpen being as good as they were in 2012. Last year, Chris Perez had a BABIP of .270, and set-up man Vinnie Pestano‘s was .263. Historically, batting average on balls in play balances out, so I foresee a different season for the Tribe pen. Also, I can see through brick walls and clip my fingernails by way of telekinesis.
That said, we’re going with another strange brew lineup.
(P) Yu Darvish TEX@HOU $9,500: I anticipate Darvish will carve up the Houston lineup, designated hitter and all. Not much to say here. Darvish is one of our shoe-ins for today.
(C) Jonathan Lucroy COL@MIL $3,300: Lucroy quietly hit .230 last year for the Brewers, and he’s facing Jorge De La Rosa, who quite frankly isn’t very good. The 26 year-old catcher had a nice game one for Milwaukee, winning it with a walk-off sac-fly in the 10th. Let’s see if he can keep up the heroics.
(1B) James Loney BAL@TAM $2,500: Loney has batted .310 in his career against Jason Hammel over a decent sample size of 29 ABs.
(2B) Ryan Raburn CLE@TOR $2,400: Before you laugh, read this article by John Dewan on potential breakout hitters. It’s very, very interesting. Raburn had a terrible 2012, but raked during spring training. Terry Francona may have breathed some life into him. This is another litmus test, so don’t blame me when he strikes out three times and drops a routine fly ball. The upside: he’s 3-for-6 against Dickey.
(3B) Danny Valencia BAL@TAM $2,400: Valencia, of all people, is 7-for-10 against David Price. Also, he was cheap, which allowed us to add a couple stars to today’s lineup. Fool me once, uhh…
(SS) Elvis Andrus TEX@HOU $3,300: He just signed a nice contract, and he didn’t get a hit in the opener. Factor a healthy mind in with the law of averages, and Andrus should produce. He might. We’ll see.
(OF) Melky Cabrera CLE@TOR $3,600: Lets see how those steroids wore off. More importantly, Justin Masterson has had an incredibly difficult time getting Cabrera out over his career. Melky is 11-for-21 off of Masterson, with no strikeouts and a .583 on-base percentage.
(OF) Jose Bautista CLE@TOR $4,400: Shoe-in. Also worth noting that he’s hit two home runs off of Masterson in 13 ABs, with 5 RBI.
(OF) Michael Bourn CLE@TOR $3,600: We have a bit larger sample size for the matchup againast R.A. Dickey: Bourn has batted .321 in 28 at-bats against Dickey, and even though they’re playing in that god awful Canada Dome, or whatever they call it, it will be nice and warm inside. This is consolation for those who believe cold weather affects the batter.
Total FanDuel Salary: $35,000
