Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, DraftDay and StarStreet 8/1/14

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Pitchers

Chris Sale - FD 11000 DK 12600 DD 22350 SS 33000
Not exactly going out on a limb to recommend the most expensive pitcher on the board, but you're not reading to see us go out on limbs, you're reading to hear the best picks. Sale is just that. With nearly 10 strikeouts per 9 innings and a 1.55 BB/9 rate, Sale stands to have a huge outing against Logan Darnell and the mediocre Twins.

Danny Salazar - FD 7300 DK 7000 DD 13500 SS 17600
Hot damn, I'm out on a limb again. Listen, I get that the 4.97 ERA is an eyesore, but Salazar is as capable of a huge game as anyone. The K rate is phenomenal, and the match-up against Jerome Williams actually gives him a pretty high floor in this game as well. If there are a bunch of expensive hitters who capture your fancy today, you could do a lot worse than running a few Danny Salazar lineups. We will.

Mike Minor - FD 6800 DK 7200 DD 12250 SS 20700
Minor has been wildly unlucky this year - posting an ERA over 5 but an xFIP of 3.64. The K rate is great, the BB rate is reasonable, and the match-up is to die for. The Dads are the 3rd easiest team in the league to strike out, and have the worst wOBA of any team by a country mile. And Eric Stults is a great guy to go up against. Terrific upside here.

Also considered: Dan Haren, Mat Latos

Catchers

Mike Zunino - FD 2800 DK 3200 DD 7700 SS 5400
With 3 home runs in his last 4 games, Zunino has been fulfilling the promise suggested by our projection system this whole season. The upside is considerable - Zunino has a wOBA of .352 vs. left handed pitching in his short career - and you don't have to pay a whole lot for the opportunity to take him against the mediocre Chen.

Buster Posey - FD 3400 DK 4400 DD 9700 SS 7400
While he hasn't put up the Herculean numbers of his earlier seasons, Posey has still been a beast against lefties this year, and his .984 OPS (and .416 wOBA!) against them for his career are the numbers our system is looking at here. Niese is an OK pitcher and all, but Posey is essentially a generational hitter behind the dish when it comes to hitting lefties, and Posey's a great buy on this price.

Miguel Montero - FD 2700 DK 3900 DD 8450 SS 5700
As far as we're concerned, you could make an excuse to play Montero on any given night so long as he's facing a right handed pitcher. When he's up against a pitcher as lousy as Volquez in lovely Bank One? We're in love.

Also considered: Evan Gattis, Wilin Rosario

First Basemen

Miguel Cabrera - FD 5000 DK 5700 DD 12100 SS 9500
Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you one Franklin Morales. With 68 Ks against 45 BBs in 95 innings this year, he may be the very worst starter with that many innings in all of baseball. It starts to get awkward when one of the very best hitters in human history gets to face him. Doesn't matter that it isn't in Coors. This will be a blood bath.

Adam LaRoche - FD 3100 DK 4400 DD 8700 SS 6800
I've had the pleasure of recommending LaRoche with some frequency this season, and he's rarely let me down. The price is creeping up here, but it's tough to account for just how terrible Roberto Hernandez is. I may have jumped the gun on calling out Franklin Morales as the worst - Hernandez's 72 Ks against 52 BBs in 114 IP is awfully horrible as well. Anyway - LaRoche has been better than you think this year (look it up), and this is the match-up you're waiting for.

Mark Teixeira - FD 3300 DK 4500 DD 9300 SS 7600
I'd like to penalize Tex for sucking every time we've recommended him, but that wouldn't be fair to you, dear reader. This is starting to feel like a parole hearing, but here goes: I'm recommending Mark Teixeira. Ranaudo is a promising young arm, but his minor league track record frankly leaves a lot to be desired, and the Yankees could put an old fashioned Bronx bruising on him.

Also considered: Brandon Moss, Chris Davis, Paul Konerko

Second Basemen

Ian Kinsler - FD 3400 DK 4500 DD 8900 SS 4200
Our projection system doesn't think the price could be high enough for Kinsler today. Like Cabrera, Kinsler isn't having a banner year - but even people without banner years have utterly owned Morales this year.

Dustin Pedroia - FD 2900 DK 4600 DD 8300 SS 6800
Capuano was pretty terrible as a reliever this year, so the Yankees decision to move him into the rotation has right handed hitters licking their chops. Pedroia is an underrated platoon guy over the course of his career with an OPS .61 points higher against lefties than righties. And Capuano! Oh, baby.

Jason Kipnis - FD 3700 DK 4600 DD 8300 SS 7200
Kipnis has struggled to some degree, but his homer last night has me feeling confidence that he's feeling like himself. And like basically everybody on the list so far, he has a dream match-up. I mean, Jerome Williams isn't as bad as some of the other guys today, but he's pretty bad. So picture yourself walking into a bar in, say, Cleveland. Jerome Williams would be like the 5th ugliest girl in the bar. This is a long way of saying play Kipnis.

Also considered: Daniel Murphy

Shortstops

Asdrubal Cabrera - FD 2600 DK 4400 DD 7350 SS 5700
Not a wild upside play, but especially on FanDuel, the price has dropped considerably for Cabrera the season, and it's that whole Roberto Hernandez sweepstakes thing again.

Xander Bogaerts - FD 2600 DK 3400 DD 7500 SS 4900
Bogaerts hasn't delivered on the promise he flexed when he was first called up, but he's still a well above hitter against left handed pitching during his short career, and Capuano should be one of the very worst lefties he will have the opportunity to face. Great park, great matchup - worth the risk to me.

The rest:
There are a ton of great plays at shortstop today, to be honest. You could go Starlin Castro against Dan Haren, Jordy Mercer against Vidal Nuno, or even Elvis Andrus against Danny Salazar. If I was scraping for upside I'd go for Mercer, but I think you can justify any of these guys.

Third Basemen

David Wright - FD 3000 DK 4400 DD 8450 SS 6700
It's not an ideal day for third basemen, but Wright tops the class today largely because of match-up and his career history. He's been bad against righties this season for sure, but there's no reason he should be seeing the ball this badly, and our projection system has him slotted to pick up the pace against them.

Nick Castellanos - FD 2800 DK 3500 DD 6750 SS 5400
Castellanos isn't the sexiest pick on the board, but the system don't lie. Morales' terribleness is well documented by this point, and for these low prices, Castellanos' .354 career wOBA and projected opportunities against the awful Morales have this looking like a great play.

Adrian Beltre - FD 3900 DK 4700 DD 9850 SS 8100
Beltre has the worst match-up of the three here, but he's easily the best hitter. While Salazar is a nice strike-out candidate, he's still prone to mistakes, and if he leaves one in the wrong spot, Beltre and his career .372 wOBA against right handers should be right there to take care of it.

Also considered: Todd Frazier

Outfielders

Bryce Harper - FD 3200 DK 4500 DD 8400 SS 6700
The elephant in the room on Harper is the power outage for this year, but he doesn't need to his a home run to have a huge day against the right handed (and horrendous) Roberto Hernandez.

Andrew McCutchen - FD 4300 DK 5100 DD 10750 SS 9500
An awfully reasonable price for a guy with a 1k career OPS and both power and speed upside against an inexperienced (and largely bad) left handed pitcher in Nuno.

Coco Crisp - FD 3400 DK 4700 DD 9000 SS 7500
Here's your safety play of the day. Crisp's ability to do a little bit of everything up against Jeremy Guthrie's inability to do much of anything. Crisp has a terrific eye, solid speed, and adequate power, and hits among arguably the league's best lineup. Not a whole lot to dislike here.

Mike Trout - FD 4600 DK 5800 DD 12750 SS 10200
The peripherals have gone the wrong way for Hellickson since his breakout season in 2010, and there's literally not a single reason he'll be able to handle the world's best player. Trout is reasonably priced, and the across the board upside will be awfully tempting today. And if you can save a little with Minor or Salazar and sneak in Trout and McCutchen? Excuse me a moment.

Justin Upton - FD 3700 DK 4900 DD 11100 SS 8300
Upton is having a funny year in a lot of ways, but you know what is as serious as a heart attack? His violation of all things left handed. He's been destroying them to the tune of a 1.055 OPS. His facing off against Eric Stults gets my award for awkward mismatch of the day.

Shane Victorino - FD 2900 DK 4000 DD 8700 SS 6100
Victorino isn't the fantasy stud he used to be, but he can still wail on a lefty - and like a lot of switch hitters, he has a big time preference for left handed pitching. At the risk of sounding redundant, Capuano's pretty likely to get run here, and if Victorino is out there he should do work.

Also considered: Nelson Cruz, Billy Hamilton, Curtis Granderson, Shin-Soo Choo

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