My goal for these slate breakdowns is to create an all-in-one place for new users to get an overview for each Game Week and use that information to pinpoint marketplace inefficiencies and construct a winning team.

I will be focusing on the limited tier cards when referencing market prices as this is where the majority of Sorare users will be playing, and where there is the most liquidity in the market.

You can find my slate breakdowns every Monday and Friday of the MLB season here on Lucky Trader, or subscribe to my newsletter to get them in your inbox

Let’s dive in!

Game Week Recap

Starting Pitcher

Jeffrey Springs led the way with 12 strikeouts against the Tigers, although he was pulled after the sixth inning despite having a no-hitter.

With this being their first start of the season, it's not uncommon to see short leashes on starting pitchers right now. In fact, Seth Lugo is the only pitcher on this list who pitched more than six innings.

This list isn't all that surprising as all five of these guys had plus matchups in GW1.

Relief Pitchers

 

The scoring for relief pitchers was much higher than I anticipated and I have several takeaways:

1. The new Sorare MLB scoring change of adding five points for a relief appearance is going to make a big difference this season. The Twins swept the Royals this weekend which gave way for Jorge Lopez to make a relief appearance in all three games in the series. That is fifteen points alone just for appearing in the game. He also had another fifteen points for earning one save and one hold each.

2. The other takeaway is it appears that relief pitchers from the same team could be correlated. This list contains two Twins and two Guardians. The aforementioned Twins swept the Royals in three close games where no victory was won by more than three rus. The Guardians won three out of four against the Mariners.

3. Lastly, it's worth noting that none of these guys are closers. This could just be variance as we are dealing with a one-Game Week sample size, but I can definitely see the case for taking the gamble with relievers. 

Hitters

• Adam Duvall 88

• Cedric Mullins 77

• C.J. Cron 76

• Wander Franco 60

• Xander Bogaerts 60

• Trayce Thompson 60

Based on this list it looks like we are going to get tons of offensive production this year. The two guys at the top, Duvall and Mullins, were trading blows against each other in the same back-and-forth series at Fenway.

My initial takeaway is that the new MLB rule changes are going to lead to a ton more stolen bases this year, which is going to drastically increase the overall scoring of hitters. It’s a small sample, but I think we can conclude that the FLEX spots should always contain hitters instead of pitchers.

Home runs are still going to be king, but if you can pick players who have both power and speed upside, you are going to find success. Cedric Mullins had three stolen bases and two home runs in this Game Week, and looks like a great candidate to fit that mold.

Game Week 2

Pitching Primer

Tuesday and Wednesday are the days we should want to target our starting pitchers in GW2. This is when each team is entering their fifth game and will reset their five-man rotation.

Here are the top starters on Tuesday:

• Max Scherzer at MIL

• Sandy Alcantara vs MIN

• Shane Bieber at OAK

• Luis Castillo vs LAA

Max Scherzer at MIL

Max Scherzer stands out on Tuesday facing off against the Brewers in Milwaukee. The Mets will come into this one having played one more game than the Brewers which will line Scherzer up against Milwaukee’s number five starter Wide Miley. In addition to positive win equity, Mad Max will take his 30.6% strikeout rate up against a team that struck out the eighth-most last season.

Limited price: ~$50

Here are the top starters on Wednesday:

• Hunter Greene vs CHC

• Shane McClanahan at WSH

• Gerrit Cole vs PHI

• Corbin Burnes vs NYM

• Jacob deGrom vs BAL

• Dylan Cease vs SFG

• Shohei Ohtani at SEA

Dylan Cease versus SFG

Cease gets a great strikeout matchup against the Giants who just had Gerrit Cole rip through them for 11 K’s on Opening Day. Cease brings a top-ten K% to the White Sox’ three-game series at Guaranteed Rate Field. The only thing that may get Cease into trouble is his 10.4% walk rate going up against a patient San Francisco team.

Limited Price: ~$42

Shane McClanahan at WSH

McClanahan looked sharp in his first start against Detroit and gets another great matchup against the Nationals. The Nats added both Jeimer Candelario and Dominic Smith who both have K% over 23%. Cease’s Limited Sorare floor price is the exact same as Cease’s and you can’t really go wrong either way. 

Limited Price: ~$42

Call To The Bullpen

Luckily for readers of the slate breakdown, this author spent a lot of time researching relief pitcher statistics this weekend.

The strategy I am going to continue to utilize is to prioritize relievers from teams who should find themselves in a leading position throughout most of the series. 

Astros

Houston should find themselves in one of the most mismatched scenarios this week in their three-game home series versus the Tigers starting today. I like all of these guys but would lean towards Montero and Neris the most, as they had themost innings pitched last season.

• Rafael Montero

• Bryan Abreu

• Hector Neris

• Ryne Stanek

• Phil Maton

Dodgers

The Dodgers begin a home series against Colorado today and should find themselves in a good position for success. C.J. Cron was a one-man wrecking machine in GW1 but we can’t expect that every week. This Rockies team is still weak, especially on the road, and the Dodgers will turn their starting rotation back over to Julio Urias on Tuesday after giving Michael Grove his first career start tonight. I wouldn’t be surprised if Grove had a very short leash in this one, paving the way for more bullpen innings. Dave Roberts is known for cutting his starters’ innings short.

• Shelby Miller

• Yency Almonte

• Caleb Ferguson

• Phil Bickford

• Andre Jackson

Bullpens that I would avoid: Red Sox,Pirates, Phillies, Royals, Cardinals, Rangers, Tigers

Stacks

With all the high-scoring hitters we saw in GW1, picking the right hitters is going to be a crucial part of building teams. We can still gain an advantage by correlating our hitters by choosing three or more from the same team

Orioles

I can’t express enough how high I am on this Orioles team for fantasy. The lineup is loaded with young talent that features both speed and power. We just saw the stack do damage in their series against the Red Sox. I tweeted this after Opening Day.

Here is the top of Baltimore’s starting lineup and their Sorare price:

• ~$58 Cedric Mullins

• ~$40 Adley Rutschman

• ~$19 Anthony Santander

• ~$24 Ryan Mountcastle

• ~$79 Gunnar Henderson

The Orioles will draw deGrom on Wednesday, but they can easily rack up points against Jon Gray tonight and Andrew Heaney on Wednesday. They go home for Camden Yards’ season opener on Thursday against the Yankees for one game which will be included in Game Week 2.

Red Sox

The Orioles/Red Sox series was the highest scoring series from GW1 and I have no problem going right back to some hitters at Fenway. I’m going to lean much more heavily onthe Boston side in this one even though their bullpen looks to be a liability this season. Pittsburgh could find some success here butthey underwhelmed in their series against the Reds and their lineup doesn’t have much upside. This Red Sox squad proved they can produce runs this weekend.

• ~$54 Rafael Devers

• ~$16 Justin Turner

• (N/A) Masataka Yoshida

• ~$22 Adam Duvall

• ~$19 Alex Verdugo

Other stacks to consider: Braves, Cubs, Yankees, Blue Jays, Astros

There you have it, the Sorare MLB Slate Breakdown for Game Week 2.

I will be releasing these every Monday and Friday prior to lineup lock to help you all with preparing for the slate and setting your teams

Thanks for reading!