Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks for ScoreStreak 8/19/14

DFSR has partnered with ScoreStreak: a new, innovative style of DFS play. Gone is the salary finagling, mixing and matching, and hair-pulling that goes into setting lineups. ScoreStreak simplifies the process in an easy-to-use interface. Employing a prop-pick style, ScoresStreak leagues are specific outcome dependent with three categories: Total Bases, Hits, and for pitchers, Strikeouts.

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Total Bases

Mike Trout
Been up here a lot lately, but that's mostly because he's the best player of his generation. So he has that going for him, which is nice. Had been slumping a bit, but started to come out of it last night. He should have more opportunity to pad his stats with a matchup against Allen Webster today. Webster's been heavy doses of garbage in his time in the majors, walking more than he strikes out and putting up an xFIP in the sixes. Angels should be able to get to him early and often today with Trout doing some major damage in Fenway.

Salvador Perez
I try not to overrate Coors Field, and I think our system does a decent job of properly weighing Coors' effect on a given player on a given day. So I don't typically just make blanket recommendations about playing guys when they visit Denver. But Salvador's in a good spot against the lefty Matzek. Perez has had a rough go of it against lefties this season thanks in part (but not completely) to a depressed Babip. I think you can play him today with the idea behind separation in a bigger field because I doubt many others will be on him.

Hits

Jose Altuve
Dude's a hit machine this season. One amazing stat is that against lefties he has an OPS over 1.000 with having hit only three home runs and never taking any walks. That's amazing. This is large part to a contact rate (and inflated Babip) that are off the charts. He's tearing it up this season and lefties just can't get him out. Capuano's been (annoyingly) decent this season, but I'm not concerned with Altuve handling his at bats. The little man is ripping it up this season.

Michael Brantley
When focusing specifically on hits, I want to look for matchups in which the ball is likely to be in play. This is one of those moments. Brantley only walks and k's about 7% of the time, respectively, against right handed pitching. He is making contact in about 86% of his plate appearances. That works well when facing Kyle Gibson who strikes out less than five batters per nine and walks less than three. Both these guys are looking for contact and when that happens, hits follow.

Strikeouts

Stephen Strasburg
He's my runaway favorite to hit nine K's today and I know that Scherzer is dealing on the mound today. I still prefer Strasburg at home against the Diamondbacks who strike out about 20% of the time against right handers. The D-Backs rank out in the bottom half of the league against righties and Stras has been dealing this season with all of his numbers (outside of ERA) reflecting a dominant pitcher. I'll have him in my nine K's slot without hesitation. Remember, Scherzer is facing the Rays who K the lowest in the league against righties. I'm no fading the guy completely, but he doesn't seem a sure thing.

Scott Kazmir
Looking to sneak out six or seven K's from a pitcher, this could be your guy. Kazmir's strikeout numbers don't shoot the moon, but he is putting down about 7.5 batters per nine. The big thing I'm looking at here is the Mets. They are atrocious against lefty pitching coming in at 28th in the league in team wOBA and striking out a whopping 24% of the time against lefties. The latter piece is the big story as Kazmir stands to have a nice swing and miss day against the Metropolitans.