Jason Heyward- OF- CHC- Idea- Heyward has a very solid .291/.388/.521 slash line against RH pitchers. Trevor Williams brings a .294/.336/.431 slash line against LH hitters into the matchup. That makes it heavily favor Heyward. Value Play- Draft Kings salary $4400
Daniel Descalso- 3B- CHC- Cold- Descalso went 0-for-4 and his average now sits at .182. His BABIP is low at .252, but he has traditionally had a lower than average value, with his career average .289. Descalso has seen his Hard% plunge from 43.1% in 2018 to 32.0% and his FB% has gone down from 46.3% to 34.0%. After getting to double digits in homers the previous 2 seasons he has only hit 2 in 178 PAs in 2019. Descalso doesn't have a history of finishing strong, so if you were looking for a possible second half sleeper, look elsewhere.
Anthony DeSclafani- P- CIN- Hot- DeSclafani tossed 6 shutout IP against the Cubs. He allowed 5 hits and a walk while striking out 7. It was DeSclafani's first quality start since May 6 and only his 4th in 16 outings this season. He seems to be making progress in control and allowing homers, which have been his main issues this season. DeSclafani has only allowed 1 homer in his last 5 starts, covering 26.1 IP. He has walked 6 and struck out 29 in that span. Last season DeSclafani had a 6.07 FIP in the first half and a 4.06 in the second half. With a 4.35 ERA and 4.48 FIP so far and signs of improvement he could make a major jump in production.
Max Scherzer- P- WAS- Stats- Last Year, Scherzer had 6 starts where he threw more than 110 pitches. Four of those outings came before the All Star Break. While his 2nd half ERA of 2.72 was not much above his 1st half number of 2.41, his ERA in the final month of the season was 4.24.. In 2017, he tossed 5 high pitch count games before the Break and ended up seeing a 2.10 ERA in the first half change to a 3.24 ERA in the second half. That latter number was primarily driven by a 4.05 ERA in the last month of the season. This year Scherzer has already thrown 6 outings of more than 110 pitches after yesterday's 115-pitch effort where he allowed 1 run on 4 hits, walked none and struck out 14. It may not be directly correlated to throwing lots of pitches, but for the past couple of seasons Scherzer has experienced a drop in performance as the season ended. He will be turning 35 this month, so it wouldn't be surprising to see this trend continue.
Carlos Gomez- OF- NYM- Drop Value- The Mets designated Gomez for assignment yesterday, with the need for a roster spot for Noah Syndergaard. Gomez was hitting just .198 but had hit 3 homers in 99 PAs and stolen 4 bases in 34 games. It wouldn't be surprising to see another team acquire him as a veteran RH bat off the bench.
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