There’s not much better than a Friday night of baseball as the summer sets in. But, one way to improve it is to get in on a MLB daily fantasy league over at Star Fantasy Leagues. You can even get a 40% deposit bonus by using the promo code “SJN”. So, here’s the team I’m rolling with tonight. See if you can do any better.
(C) Victor Martinez $6,009 – Martinez seems to finally be getting things going at the plate. He has hits in five of his last six games and two home runs in that stretch. Tonight, he faces Ubaldo Jimenez, against whom he has a .316 career average with two homers.
(1B) Paul Konerko $4,280 – Konerko is having a very disappointing season, so this pick is sort of a gamble. I’m basing it on his previous game against Jarrod Parker, in which he went 2-for-3.
(2B) Matt Carpenter $7,665 – Carpenter has been on a tear for the last two-and-a-half weeks. Since May 21st, he has a hit in each of his last 15 games and 13 in his last five alone. He’s also tied for the Major League lead with 49 runs scored.
(3B) Todd Frazier $5,880 – Frazier has two hits in each of his last five games. He has a tough matchup tonight against Adam Wainwright, but he is 2-for-8 against him with two extra-base hits.
(SS) Jose Iglesias $5,005 – I refuse to pick a shortstop other than Iglesias until he cools off or his price skyrockets. He’s on a 10-game hitting streak and is still hitting .435 on the year. Not bad for a “solely” defensive shortstop.
(OF) Domonic Brown $10,225 – It’s hard to go in a different direction than Brown right now. It’s been two whole days since his last home run and he had two hits and two steals last night.
(OF) Yasiel Puig $6,005 – Puig will be a constant in my lineups going forward for the same reasons as Iglesias. He has three home runs since his Major League debut on Monday and the Elias Sports Bureau says his nine RBI in his first four games has tied a MLB record. He’s not going anywhere.
(OF) Alejandro De Aza $6,004 – De Aza is riding an eight-game hitting streak and has multiple hits in five of them. He’s also due to hit a home run. He has seven on the year, but hasn’t hit one since May 10th.
(U) Howie Kendrick $6,884 – I was having a hard time choosing between Carpenter and Kendrick as my second baseman, so I’ll use them both. Kendrick is coming off a four-hit game on Wednesday and has 10 hits in his last four games. He also has a track record of success against Red Sox, posting a .325 average in 46 career games.
(SP) Matt Harvey $17,105 – There are plenty of front-line starters from whom to choose, tonight, but Harvey is my ace du jour as he gets the Marlins. He’s actually coming off his worst performance of the season, which also happened to come against Miami, in which he allowed 10 hits and four runs in just five innings. I don’t expect anything close to that when he faces them at home.
(SP) Hiroki Kuroda $12,889 – Kuroda faces the Mariners tonight and is 2-2 in four career starts against them with a 2.70 ERA. In his last start in Seattle, last year, he picked up the win, allowing just one run and three hits while striking out nine over seven innings.
(RP) Jim Johnson $2,180 – Baltimore is 6-2 over its last eight games, while Tampa Bay is just 2-3 since the start of last weekend. Maybe that’s a recipe for a save chance for Johnson tonight.
(P) Jordan Lyles $8,999 – Lyles has been pretty good in his last four starts, with two wins and a 1.90 ERA. That includes a start against tonight’s opponent, Kansas City, on May 22nd. In that outing, he went six innings, allowing six hits and one earned run.
