Daniel Castro- SS- ATL- Idea- Castro has had success against LH pitching in his limited major league experience. He has a slash line of .346/.370/.538 against them in 26 ABs and hit his only homer off a southpaw. Adam Morgan has yielded 12 homers in only 60.1 IP against RH hitting and has a slash line of .283/.326/.508 against them. Castro has a good chance of continuing his hot streak and his minimal price makes him a bargain. Value play- DraftKings salary $2000
Anthony Rizzo- 1B- CHN- Great Player- Rizzo slugged his 30th homer of the season yesterday and now has back-to-back 30-homer seasons. After hitting 7 homers in May and 6 in June Rizzo's power dipped slightly with only 4 homers in July. Then he was back to 7 in August and 4 so far this month. Rizzo is hitting .278, just a point below his preseason projection. It looks like Rizzo is establishing himself as a consistent producer.
Brandon Finnegan- P- CIN- Rookie- Finnegan was drafted in the first round last year and is already on his second major league team, having been part of the Johnny Cueto trade. He will be making his first major league start today, his most frequent role in the minors and in college. For the long term Finnegan is probably better suited to a late inning bullpen role but the Reds will experiment as they play out the string. Finnegan has had issues with control in both the minors and majors this season, with 50 BBs in 84.1 IP total. Finnegan has the tools to justify his first round selection but he will need to find a role that best uses them.
Andrelton Simmons- SS- ATL- Hot- Simmons is 14-for-39 since September 7th after going 1-for-3 yesterday. Other than average it has been a fairly empty hot streak, with one double, 2 runs, and 6 RBI in 10 games. He hasn't walked in that stretch. Simmons only has 7 extra base hits in the 2nd half and all of them are doubles. His FB% has dropped from 31.2% in 2014 to 23.3% this year. Simmons' 17 homers in 2013, when his FB% was 39.1% and his HR/FB ratio was 7.9% (way above his 3.0% mark in 2015) is looking more like an anomaly.
Adam Lind- 1B- MIL- Hot- Lind went 2-for-3 last night. This came after a 2-for-10 skid. Lind has been fairly consistent this season and has been a major upgrade at 1B for Milwaukee over what they've had the past 2 seasons. Most importantly, Lind has stayed healthy, appearing in 135 games so far after only recording 96 for Toronto last season. He is right at the 19 homers projected for him in the preseason and so has a good shot to surpass that. His .286 average is well above the projection of .269. Lind has never had a BB% above 10% so if his current 11.8% holds that will be a dramatic improvement. That isn't a result of the Brewers trading away a good chunk of their lineup as his first half BB% of 12.0% is actually higher than his 11.5% in the second half. The Brewers will undoubtedly pick up Lind's option and he will benefit, as his average at Miller Park is .331.
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