This article is part of our Yahoo DFS Baseball series.
It's a big day for afternoon baseball Saturday. In fact, only four games are starting in the evening. As such, the main slate of contests on Yahoo kicks off at 4:05 p.m. ET. However, you get 12 matchups to select players from, and it's not so early in the day that you have to sweat getting your lineups in. Here are my recommendations.
Pitching
Triston McKenzie, CLE at BAL ($48): I like McKenzie as a pitcher, and this year he's been putting it all together. In fact, he's gone at least six innings in each of his last five starts – which is increasingly less common – and has posted a 2.12 ERA in those outings. The bottom-five in runs scored have "separated" themselves from the rest of majors for the moment, but the Orioles are sitting right above that group.
Nick Pivetta, BOS at OAK ($48): Speaking of the bottom-five, the Athletics are down there. They are also last in team OPS, and it's a tossup between whether or not Oakland or Detroit is the worst offense in MLB. After a bad start to the season, Pivetta has produced an 1.59 ERA from his last five starts and gets to go in Oakland's pitcher-friendly ballpark.
Zach Davies, ARI at PIT ($28): This is about the matchup and saving salary. I can't say Davies has been good this year, but I can say he's facing a team that ranks 29th in runs scored after finishing 30th last season. It's about as easy as Davies is going to get, especially pitching in the NL West. And if he picks up a win at this salary, he's going to provide plenty of bang for your buck.
Top Targets
The current avatar for the Coors Field effect is C.J. Cron ($21). He's registered an OPS over 1.000 at home since joining the Rockies last season and has hit 14 home runs in 2022. Spencer Strider will be making the second start of his career on Saturday, but I'm always down for having Cron at Coors in my lineup unless an ace is on the mound.
I don't care where his batting average is, Juan Soto ($20) is still Juan Soto. Even in the worst season of his career, he managed a .370 OBP, 10 homers, and four stolen bases. He also still has a .895 OPS against righties like Tyler Mahle. Mahle, by the way, has struggled to a 5.53 ERA through 11 starts.
Bargain Bats
Maybe you don't want to play in a fantasy football league with him, but Tommy Pham ($16) has produced six home runs and three stolen bases. That's not surprising given his two career 20-20 campaigns. Pham also lists a .763 OPS at home in his first season as a Red. This is definitely not lining up to be a pitcher's duel Saturday with Erick Fedde coming in with a career 5.17 ERA.
He slowed down after a hot start, but Owen Miller ($10) had a big game Friday and now boasts a .284/.337/.459 slash line. We're a quarter of a way through the season, so that's some degree of sustainment to those numbers. At this salary, I definitely like him against Tyler Wells, a pitcher with a career 3.93 ERA who's struck out a mere 5.77 batters per nine innings this year.
Stacks to Consider
Braves at Rockies (Kyle Freeland): Dansby Swanson ($24), Austin Riley ($24), Adam Duvall ($12)
I mentioned Coors Field earlier, so this stack probably felt inevitable. Freeland actually does a solid job suppressing homers, but still has posted a career 4.45 FIP. Coors is also a good park for hitting doubles, and those drive in runs. Since Freeland is a lefty, I have three righties.
Swanson is batting .280 with six homers and nine stolen bases. That comes after he went deep 27 times in 2021. Riley enjoyed a breakout campaign last year with 33 home runs, and this year has 13 while slugging .517. Duvall is all-or-nothing, but I want his power upside at Coors. Over the three seasons prior to this one, he slugged .512 and crushed 38 homers last season.
Astros at Royals (Ronald Bolanos): Yordan Alvarez ($20), Kyle Tucker ($19), Michael Brantley ($14)
We have the Royals projected to start Bolanos. He's traditionally a bullpen arm, so this could be the start of a bullpen game. I'm not terribly worried about this bullpen and Bolanos has gone as far as four innings in any outing this year. These guys might get a couple shots at him. It isn't as conducive to stack lefties, but I ended up with an all-lefty combo anyway.
Alvarez is an elite power hitter with 15 homers this year and a career .576 slugging percentage. Lefties haven't exactly shut him down with an .860 OPS against them since 2020. Tucker hit 30 homers and stole 14 bases last season. This year, he's already primed to reach double-digits in both categories with eight and nine of each. Brantley is the professional hitter type with a .271 this year to go with a .356 OBP and career marks of .297 and .355.
Mariners at Rangers (Glenn Otto): Julio Rodriguez ($18), Ty France ($17), Eugenio Suarez ($15)
Otto has posted a 4.33 ERA after a 9.26 in 2021. But at home, that number rises to 6.91 with a career 8.39. Otto doesn't seem to like pitching in Texas much, though the Mariners will enjoy hitting against him.
As a rookie, Rodriguez is batting .267 and racking up the counting stats with six homers and 15 stolen bases. He may lead the league in swipes and France may take home the batting title. He's at .341 and has shown a little extra power with a .493 slugging percentage. Suarez seems to have lost the ability to hit for average, but hasn't lost his power with 31 home runs last season and 10 this year.
