Daily Fantasy Baseball News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 4/14/16

Welcome to the daily MLB updates and news article. We'll try and update it right up to line-up locks with as much information as comes across our desks. Let's get to it!

Last night's picks can be found here, so you can wrap your mind around what you need to be looking at before lineups lock today.

By the way - we keep our projection system updated with all of the batting lineup changes as they occur throughout the day right up until lineup lock. Every day. If you want access to that system so you can cut out a lot of the research element, click the button below!

What We Know

The weather is clear all around, and with a day-heavy split slate ahead, the a.m. forecasts are that much more reliable, so go ahead and feel free to choose from any game on the slate. There are some wind patterns that could suppress power in some venues, but notably, not at Coors Field where a nice breeze is expected to be drifting out to right-center.

Personnel:

• Stephen Strasburg could be a risky play if we don't hear something soon. He missed Wednesdsay's start due to a lingering illness, and though the Nats were hopeful he'd be able to take the hill Thursday, there's been no further update. The Braves and Nats are the last game on the early slate with a 4:05 p.m. first pitch, so stay tuned for updates.
• Buster Posey remained out of the lineup Wednesday night due to a foot injury and there's no word on his status as of this morning. It could be cutting it close, but we should have San Fran's lineup before lock today, so keep an eye out for that. In his absence, Trevor Brown has been crushing. Brown was never much of an offensive factor in the minors, but if he's playing in Coors, he's in play for DFS. He's been added to the player base at FanDuel ($2,800).
• Lineups are starting to trickle in, but there's been no major news so far; mostly just bottom-of-the-order guys getting the day off. Keep an eye on the catchers, though. We could see a few get a break today with so many day games following night games. We already Pittsburgh's Francisco Cervelli will be getting the day off.

Tournament Stacks

Colorado Rockies
Over the last two days we've hedged our bets and given both sides of this matchup. That remains the safe way to play it today, but we're stepping out and giving the Rockies preference today, because we're pretty enthusiastic about the matchup with Matt Cain. As we wrote last night, Cain doesn't strike guys out and gives up a lot of fly balls, which is a dangerous combo in Colorado. He also mixes in a curve ball as his third pitch, and Coors Field is where curve balls go to catch the Darryl Kile Express to the outfield bleachers. You'll have to have somebody smarter than me explain the physics of that to you.

St. Louis Cardinals
This one's all about poor Wily Peralta. Picking on him has produced nice profits over the last year or so, and we're going back to the well again today with as many left-handed bats as we can get. The Cardinals have the scattered all over the lineup, and some really affordable options, to boot, which could make them a popular choice for mixing and matching with your Coors Field guys, who will come a cost.

Sneaky Pitcher

Jaime Garcia

Philadelphia's Vincent Velasquez will probably be the choice among most DFSers looking to pivot away from the top-tier arms today, and we like him, too, especially as a tournament play. We like Garcia a hair more on a raw points basis and as a cash gamer based on his win probability and safety. The Cardinals opened as a -200 favorite, and Garcia is a good bet to go six-plus innings, which should give him a good chance to snag the W and the points that come with it. He doesn't strike out a ton, so his ceiling is somewhat limited, but Milwaukee has plenty of guys with ugly K rates, so Garcia should post respectable numbers there, as well.

The "Every Lineup" Guys

Carlos Gonzalez

Hitting in the heart of the order in what should be the highest-scoring game of the day, CarGo is an optimal mix of upside and safety. He's not cheap, but if you're saving on pitching you should be able to fit him given some of the other discout bats on the slate.

Brandon Moss

He's coming cheap and batting cleanup against Wily Peralta, which on its own makes him an excellent value. Toss in Moss' .222 career ISO against lefties and you've got yourself a very tantalizing play, especially in tournaments.

One other note: There are big differences between DraftKings and FanDuel pricing so the optimal lineups are looking quite different.

These are players that show up in each of the top 10 lineups as produced by our lineup optimizer. This doesn't necessarily mean that they're "safe," it just means that their projected weighted-mean point total is a solid building block for a great lineup foundation today.

Good luck out there today! If you want access to all of our numbers, get started with a free trial below of our lineup optimizer, on us!