Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks for ScoreStreak 7/3/14

DFSR has partnered with ScoreStreak: a new, innovative style of DFS play. Gone is the salary finagling, mixing and matching, and hair-pulling that goes into setting lineups. ScoreStreak simplifies the process in an easy-to-use interface. Employing a prop-pick style, ScoresStreak leagues are specific outcome dependent with three categories: Total Bases, Hits, and for pitchers, Strikeouts.

New users who deposit through DFSR will get an extra $10 to play with. We are putting in picks every night and giving you some of our top plays each day. Two are on us, the third is all you. Or go your own way.

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Total Bases

Yasiel Puig
Matt Kemp
Welcome back to Coors all you DFS'ers out there! We don't have to think too terribly hard about some of our closer decisions when we have the greatest ballpark ever constructed, when we can take a trip out to Denver to watch balls soar into the night sky, virtually defying gravity and landing deep in in the cheap seats on a nightly basis. That thin Rocky air is the stuff offensive outbursts are made of and we want to take advantage. Both Puig and Kemp face Franklin Morales, a lefty who's "stuff" induces a lot of walks and hits. Puig is much better against lefties than Kemp, and the latter isn't waht he used to be, but I don't see it mattering too much when we are just looking to pile on the total bases. You will see, at least Puig, in many slots today as Coors is just too tough to fade. I'd have some exposure there for sure.

Hits

Marlon Byrd
This guy's been killing lefty pitching this season and it seems like the DFS world has taken notice. His price on traditional sites is up across the board. But the great thing about ScoreStreak is that we aren't limited by salary constraints. Byrd faces Brad Hand, a lefty with some K stuff who also can get a little wild. That's the only thing tempering me on Marlon just because is reduces his rate of contact. But all in all he's a lefty masher and I think you should have him somewhere on your board today.

Ian Kinsler
Honestly, my Kinsler love has cost me money this season. I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm a sample size guy and his career averages speak to a guy who prefers the lefty pitcher side of the platoon. It hasn't played out that way this season, but I'm willing to see it as a blip rather than a dark cloud on the radar. He is a contact guy going against Erik Bedard, a below average pitcher with some K stuff. The latter, like what I said for Byrd, is the only thing not going all-in on Kinsler in this format but I like him nonetheless and see him getting his swings in today.

Strikeouts

A few ace types going today.
Yu Darvish
This one is a little risky. The Orioles don't strike out at the rate I like to see from my top pitching play in this format as they only go down on strikes 19% of the time. That's a solid number meaning Darvish will have to really be on point to max his K's today. But this guy strikes out more than 11 batters per 9, which is about as high a number as you'll see these days. He'll need to more efficient than normal and limit his walks (which he is guilty of) but in terms of pure upside I'm having trouble seeing anyone as clear as him and...

Masahiro Tanaka
Doesn't have quite the K rate of Darvish at about 10/9 innings, but Tanaka can go deeper in games because he really limits the free passes keep them under 1.5 per 9. Against a team like the Twins who strike out 22% of the time and going in a pitcher's ballpark in Target Field, there is a lot to like about Tanaka today. I will have him and Yu 1-2 in my slots I think, possibly mixing and matching them to hedge a bit.