Happy Wednesday #Family and we are nearly midway through the work week as we now enter September. The season is starting to wind down, but there is still plenty of time for DFS. There are 11 games on the slate tonight and we have a strong number of high-level pitching arms that we might want to try to avoid today. However, we have a couple of young pitchers, and a few vets as well that are pretty awful so there are definitely avenues for success. Before hitting submit on those lineups be sure to consider the following players. 

Top Tier

Vlad Guerrero, 1B, TOR – The hit parade of 2021 continues for Vlad as he now is just one dinger away from 40 after he hit his third in two nights on Tuesday. Today is the perfect storm for Vlad and he might be my favorite play of the slate. He is far superior against right-handed pitching with a .328 average and 33 of his 39 home runs against them. Tonight, he will face Matt Harvey who he has five hits in seven at-bats against including a home run. I can’t believe that Baltimore still uses Harvey who has allowed 12 earned runs including four homers in his last four starts. Guerrero is also an assassin at home with a .320 average and 27 of his 39 home runs in wherever Toronto has called home even with eight fewer at-bats there. 

Kris Bryant, 3B/OF, SF – He has been dealing with some soreness in his side, but Bryant has played the last two games so there is no reason to think he won’t be out there tonight. He also has three hits in the last two games, so it appears all is well. The story of Bryant’s success this year has been against left-handed pitching. He is hitting .305 with a 1.015 OPS. He is also homering once in every 13 plate appearances against lefties as opposed to over 23 plate appearances against right-handers. Brett Anderson takes the mound for the Brew Crew tonight and he has allowed 12 earned runs over his last three starts that spanned just 12.2 innings. Bryant has hit .375 against him in his career with a double and a home run. 

Mid-Tier

Amed Rosario, SS, CLE – He crushed it last night with five hits and two home runs and I like Rosario again today. He has been a great source of production as he has hit .404 with four home runs over the last 14 days! I want to target Royals starter Jackson Kowar at least once today as he has made two starts and one relief appearance this year and allowed ten earned runs in just five innings. 

Justin Turner, 3B, LAD – He has four hits in the last two days as Turner’s really solid season continues. For the year his hard-hit rate is a very solid 40.3% and his wOBA is a respectable .371. He has five hits in seven at-bats against tonight’s starter for Atlanta, Max Fried. It is a small sample size but two of those hits are a double and a home run and his OPS against Fried is 2.000! His batting average is a little higher against left-handed pitching, but Turner homers at a more frequent rate versus lefties than he does against righties. Fried has had a solid season but is prone to a big blow up game from time to time and he hasn’t had a lot of success against this powerful Dodgers lineup. 

Buster Posey, C, SF – Earlier I mentioned that Kris Bryant against a lefty is a sure thing, well you can add his teammate Buster Posey to that list as well. He has been scuffling of late, but a matchup against Brett Anderson should be a slump buster for him and his salary is a little lower than at other times. He has three doubles among his seven hits against Anderson in their careers, and Posey is hitting an impressive .365 with a 1.038 OPS against left-handed pitchers this season. He is also hitting .310 at home and this one is at AT&T Park. 

Value Tier

Bryan Reynolds, OF, PIT – This one isn’t the easiest matchup as the Pirates will face Carlos Rodón, but Reynolds is such a great, cheap option when facing a lefty. He is hitting .336 against left-handed pitching which is more than 50 points higher than he hits against righties and his OPS against southpaws is a tidy .942. He doesn’t have too many games where he truly blows up the box score, but he is a very good, consistent weapon who can bring you a nice return on his salary on a regular basis. 

Josh Harrison, 2B/SS, OAK – He has five hits in the last two games and eight hits in the last five, including two doubles, a homer, and three RBI. In fact, he has hit .381 over the last seven days. He has hit for a better batting average against left-handed pitching but tonight the Tigers throw Wily Peralta to the mound. He is just coming off of the Injured List after a blister problem but had allowed seven home runs in his previous six starts. Harrison also has five hits in just 12 at-bats against him (.417 average) and is a solid option at a nice salary to help you pay up for studs.