Daily Fantasy Baseball 2015: Best MLB DraftKings Picks, Advice for August 5 – Bleacher Report

Nelson Cruz ($6,200) @ Rockies

There was nowhere else to start other than this gem from the Elias Sports Bureau on just how rare Nelson Cruz’s season has been:

HR in 5 straight games 2x in season via ELIAS
Harmon Killebrew (1970)
Frank Thomas (1994)
Barry Bonds (2001)
Chase Utley (2008)
Nelson Cruz

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 5, 2015

Cruz is on a tear! Check out this screen grab of his last four games (before last night, in which he also hit a homer,) according to DraftKings.com:

Five straight games with multiple hits and a home run? What a run for the big outfielder!

That ridiculous hot streak, plus the natural Coors Field bump, has Cruz priced $600 more than any other position player on the board. It’s a super steep price to pay, but the numbers say he should come through. Cruz is destroying left-handed pitching this season. Rockies left-handed starter Chris Rusin should know that, per FanGraphs.com, in 89 at-bats against south paws, Cruz is hitting .393 with eight jacks and 17 runs. 

Don’t Overspend On Starting Pitchers

According to DraftKings.com, there are seven pitchers that cost over $9,000. Of those seven, three (Madison Bumgarner, Matt Harvey and Johnny Cueto) make nice plays Wednesday, but only Matt Harvey jumps off the page. 

Harvey’s Mets are in South Florida to play the Marlins this week. Miami, per FanGraphs.com, ranks 26th in the league in batting average against right-handed pitchers. They’re also dead last in the league in wRC+ against righties. 

Harvey is coming off of a fantastic start against a quality Nationals team in which he pitched well into the eighth inning and struck out nine. He should continue his mini-hot streak Wednesday.

If you’re looking for cheap options, I like the Dodgers’ Brett Anderson, but I love the Rays’ Erasmo Ramirez.

In daily fantasy baseball on DraftKings.com, the goal is for a player to double (or more than double) his cost. So if a player costs $5,000, he is considered a “smart play” when he exceeds 10 fantasy points. 

Per DraftKings.com, Ramirez’s production has more than doubled his cost in eight of his last 10 starts. His production has even tripled his cost in five of his past 10 starts. 

So we’ve established that Ramirez is borderline criminally underrated by DraftKings.com, but that’s not the whole story. To boot, Wednesday night he gets to throw against the White Sox, who have, per FanGraphs.com, scored the fewest runs in the American League. 

Games To Stack

Stacking is a pretty common strategy in daily fantasy sports. Defined by rotogrinders.com as “loading up on players who play on the same MLB team,” stacking is the most common strategy amongst people in large tournaments. It’s a higher risk, but it brings on a higher reward.

Wednesday, watch for fireworks in Colorado and New York. Of the four pitchers going in those two games, only Taijuan Walker costs more than $5,000. Even he sports an ERA of 4.73. Any one of these four teams is a worthy candidate. 

My favorite team to stack out of those four? Seattle. Right now, you pretty much want anyone who is hitting anywhere near Nelson Cruz in the lineup, because he’s raking. Plus, per ESPN.com, Seattle has averaged nine runs per game in its current series in the thin air of Denver. 

Also, aside from Cruz, Seattle’s relatively cheap because it’s been a subpar offensive team so far this season. Entering Wednesday, according to FanGraphs.com, the Mariners rank 24th in runs scored per game.