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Daily Fantasy Baseball News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 4/18/16
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
One weather concern in Minnesota
We are looking at a pretty good night weather-wise, but of course there always has to be 1 trouble spot. Tonight it is in Minnesota in a game between the brewers and the Twins. As I write this, the forecast is showing close to 70% rain coverage for most of the game. Make sure to keep an eye out on Twitter for late breaking news. I will also update here if something comes out.
Tournament Stacks
Cincinnati Reds
The Reds are easily my favorite team on the day as they will be taking on a far below average righty in Jordan Lyles. Great American Ballpark is a tremendous hitters park and will only help the matters. Jordan Lyles exhibited a .380 wOBA against lefties on the road last season. The Reds are a team that can string together a bunch of hits before unleashing the homer. If I were to pick 4, I would go with Votto, Bruce, Suarez and Mesoraco.
Chicago White Sox
This is more of a pure tournament stack as Hector Santiago has the upside to dominate. He also has the downside to get destroyed and blow up. Santiago gave up the most home runs against righties last season and will likely do the same this year if he doesn't up his velocity or add a 3rd pitch. Santiago will likely struggle moving into a tough ballpark in Chicago. U.S. Cellular played as a top 10 hitters ballpark in 2015. My favorite 4 White Sox are Jose Abreu, Todd Frazier, Avisail Garcia and Brett Lawrie. If you want to be contrarian, throw in an Adam Eaton and Melky Cabrera.
Sneaky Pitcher
Tanner Roark
Roark will be taking on the Marlins in a game with a 7 over/under. Roark pitched well last time out and showed his upside. With plenty of good players to pay up for, if you can find a quality performance at a low price, it puts you in a great spot. The Marlins are a very strikeout prone team with guys like Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, Justin Bour and J.T. Realmuto. This give Roark plenty of upside and could end up racking up 6 or 7 strikeouts. Roark exhibited a combined wOBA of .288 in 2014, his last full season.
The "Every Lineup" Guys
Jay Bruce
Joey Votto
Both of these guys are spectacular options for the same reason. Jordan Lyles has been horrible vs lefties and has had trouble keeping the ball in the yard. While you may think this is due to Coors field, he has actually been worse on the road. Both Bruce and Votta have hit righties to a .350+ wOBA over the past few seasons. Both Votto and Bruce are quality options in all formats.
Mike Trout
Trout is in a great spot against the White Sox and Carlos Rodon. Sure, Rodon is a good pitcher. However, his main weakness is keeping the ball in the yard against righties. Trout exhibited an astounding .434 wOBA against southpaws last year. I expect him to only improve on that this year. Rodon gave up a .350 wOBA to righties last year and has shown signs to expect improvement. I am comfortable with Trout in both cash games and 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!
74 Visitor Comments
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Just an FYI, the optimizer is recommending Hundley, who is currently on the DL.
Not that anyone would play him but Swihart has shown up on list and he got a couple of hits yesterday at Pawtucket
Swihart is actually not a horrible hitter.
He’s a very good hitter just hard to get points when you’re in AAA
Thanks for pointing out Hundley and Swihart. It brought to light an issue were having pulling player data from our feed. I’ve corrected for now and moving forward.
Suprised no mention of Eikhoff for tonight, especially for DK. I can see that Mets/Phils game being a 1-0 type of game easily.
I am not a fan of Eikhoff at all tonight. The Mets have been swinging a hot stuck lately. I would rather get some Mets bats than go near Eikhoff
I agree Anthony and was thinking the same thing, which means the game may end 14-12.
Hopefully 14-12 K’s
I’ve had Hector Santiago in my GPP lineups since last night and I was feeling amazing until looking at the optimizer and reading this. Santi has a career .167 against these guys with almost double K’s to Hits. The ballpark is a great hitters park, though and I know some of those Righties can jack a few. What is another option at pitcher?
I’ve only had 2 players in play today: Russel Martin (currently 10 pts) and Rutledge (Currently 7 pts) both were extremely low-owned and they have already paid off.
Also rolling with Syndergod, a mini-Marlins stack and a Cincinatti stack.
Only questions: Is Conforto a good tourny play as my last OF?
Should I ride or die with Santiago, or go with a cheapside pitcher to add trout to my outfield with Stanton and Conforto?
James, sometimes best to go with gut Santiago always has been a high K upside guy with walks being downfall know it’s been couple years but these guys always like to perform vs former teams. Conforto is a guy I like especially batting 3rd. I don’t put a lot of stock in BvP but he’s 5 for 10 with 3 xbh
I personally don’t like Santiago. His peripherals haven’t been there and he ran incredibly hot with ERA compared to xFIP last season. Bad ballpark as well.
Honestly, I won’t talk you off of Santiago. He is definitely a GPP only option though, as he has a very low floor.
Also, no Giants hitters are showing up on the Optimizer lineups…
Fixed this issue.
Maybe try Roark James is it ok to go with the top 5 reds hitter today in cash games obviously on DK, gpp it should be good but it looks awfully safe for cash or is that too risky ?
How does this DK lineup sound for cash and gpp both.
fernandez peavy Pacheco votto Phillips Escobar cozart
Bruce Carlos Gonzalez and trout ??
Anytime you can get C batting 2nd at 2600 is always a good thing
I like this. Also another pitcher to pair is Straily who’s as cheap as you’ll ever see a pitcher on DK
Playing straily in my GPP lineup like you said never get pitcher at price that has a chance. I know Cincinnati a hitters park but Colorado different team more often than not outside of Coors
Additionally, optimization has Fernandez really everywhere, but tonight is the kind of night that I don’t mind hedging with Noah. The lineups will essentially look the same and I think both are so far and away the better plays. Thor more a ML favorite, Fernandez better park.
Thx guys great advice. I like it all. Hopefully it’s a profitable night. I been struggling so far but haven’t felt this good about a slate all year long. In half my cash lineups I’m gonna use Thor and the lineup I used and other half I’m gonna use Fernandez and swap Phillips for lawrie. I’m liking it
Do u guys like straily over peavy for cash and spend way up for someone at 3B? If so who?
In cash, I find it very difficult to go with anyone besides Fernandez or Thor (Syndergaard)
I think Straily is worth a shot in at least one lineup. I paired him with Thor and still ended up with all top notch hitters. 4000 on DK…wow. He has been a good pitcher in the past. I just hope he is not heavily owned.
Know everyone looking for advice so I’ll give some anyone not from Boston area or has never experienced a patriots day in Boston needs to come here. It’s by far the best day in this city except for one unfortunate year.
Appreciate all the advice everyone! Good luck tonight. I might fade Santiago and roll with Straily, my only hesitation would be that if I did roster Trout (i have more than enough salary) I’d have to lose Jay Bruce, who I love tonight, Giancarlo Stanton (Feel like he’ll be low owned and I personally hate Roark) or Conforto, (who I feel has big upside with his price), but I have the salary to spend. Trout, Stanton, Bruce? (Syndergaard and Straily)
Anderson or peavey or leake pitcher?
So I have Syndergaard and Straily rostered as my pitchers so I have some cash to play with. Any of y’all thinking any Mets bats? I was thinking of rolling with either Granderson or Cespedes.
Shane, I wouldn’t roster any Batters vs eikhoff but if u really have a gut feeling go with the lead off leftie granderson. If u have money to spend though pay a few hundred more for trout or cargo
Ya Anthony that’s crazy low for straily but still can’t see many people rostering him. Great gpp play probably.
Ya it’s sure crazy how much fan duel and DK lineups are so different l. Salary and multiple position eligibility makes a big difference wow.
Current Miami players bat .310 vs Roark thru 142 ABs
Good to know
Just find myself paying for Fernandez and syndeergaard on DK and feeling pretty comfortable with lineup I’m putting in
Yeah I don’t mind this at all. They are very tough fades and plenty of other value out there. I was going to write this as a possible suggestion as well and glad you threw it out there.
Doug, think most are gonna play one or other in cash because they feel the need to get couple hitters in but there’s plenty of value from hitting to play both and not try and guess the value pitcher
Actually, I pushed through a new update based on updated lineups and actually those two guys are now showing together in top lineups which does feel a lot better.
Paying for both pitchers for cash games already stated I’m rolling with straily in GPP
Yes thx John now I recall how well I did last year with that strategy. Especially when there is a ton of value like today. Glad u brought that up again
Ryan, don’t have set strategy but more often than not I’m spending 18k-20k on pitching on DK but the value on pitching or hitting usually dictates where I want to spend and on this particular slate I think it’s wise to spend on top 2 pitchers
Seriously???? Weather issues in Miami now. Damnit
This ain’t good for Fernandez
It’s a dome. We need to correct this in our weather API. It’s confusing and I’ve passed it along to devs. I thought it had been fixed. Apologies.
Doug, It’s not a dome it’s a retractable roof jk
Miami has a roof
What is all this Peavy talk?
And no Diamondback talk?
Lol oh oops thx John the weather thing on here doesn’t say that. Ha ha. I live in Canada I should be aware of things that have a roof.
Right now I have peralta in lineup considering lamb is that enough Dback talk
Worked out well for me! #DBacks #NoPeavy
Lol yes that’s plenty of d back talk in San fran
Wow. All top ten optimals have Fernandez and
Thor in them. Perfect
Ha yeah. I had the exact same reaction. Some of our projection pieces are batting lineup dependent so when certain plays came in on the cheap with higher plate appearance expectations then the system corrected. It for sure feels better.
Yes I managed to come up with this for my cash games. Left trout out but have gentry and pujols because I wanted cargo in it. I’m not fading him tonight. No way. What do u think?
Noah Fernandez. Pacheco pujols Phillips lamb
Cozart gentry Carlos Gonzalez y Thomas
Those d back guys are way to cheap
I do find it very difficult to believe both Gentry and Pujols produce but Trout doesn’t. It could certainly happen, but I think you go up to Trout and off of Cargo.
So hard to fade Trout at these prices.
Ah but I could fade cargo but damn. He could go ape shit crazy vs straily like kick the poor guy out of the mlb
Yes I’m glad u mentioned that. Thx Austyn.
Then I’ll spend up a bit somehqere else.
Personally Rodon not a guy I’m targeting if you’ve seen him pitch guy has potential to be elite. I know he’ll have his ups and downs but has elite stuff
When I say targeting meaning I’ll have no Angel shares tonight
I don’t disagree with this. But he’s a guy who gets by on a thread of control and the walk rate is enticing. This is a tougher slate so I’ll take the ballpark and the idea that he struggles with basically the whole righty lineup
Doug, don’t get me wrong dfs is about opportunity and pricing and trout price is enticing just not feeling it. Been wrong before and will be again just my gut says there’s other opportunities to target that I feel more comfortable with
I’m sure everyone is aware, but just to be sure Socrates Brito was sent down so obviously don’t roster him tonight.
Maybe I’m a little biased because of the value with hitters I decided to roster Rodon over straily in my GPP
As much as I love baseball it’s time to watch some playoff hockey nothing better than playoff hockey in sports
Tanner Roark looks like me pitching. If I was really, really hungover. And had money on the Marlins.
LOL…nice
Looking to win $$ again tonight with no stacks…just putting it out there. Went with Thor/Eikhof and Thor/Straily and best value at each position and looking good so far.
Good luck Anthony went with top 2 pitchers plus value hitters in cash games looking ok right now would like a little more scoring in Cincinnati as that was game I targeted the most with peralta my only late game play
Doug, good call Rodon didn’t make it out of 1st but why I only took a shot on him in GPP surprised he got hit around and wasn’t the walks that was totally killing him
Rodon burnt lots of folks. Me included. Dayum…SMDH! Had him in 2 line-ups. I would like to win something before they shut us down in Texas.
Rodon only a GPP play for me and hope they get that shit straightened out because I live just outside of Boston but travel to upstate New York twice a week for work and sucks because I have to make sure I have someone available to change my lineups at a moments notice when info and lineups become available
That was a big HR by Paulsen for me
Wow. Jacob Lamb just cost me a lot of money.
Damn reds pissed me off . I’m on a horrid losing streak
Stupid decisions mixed with people picking players that they have no business thinking about picking
Unbelievable. Just as I get done crying a river big enough to fish in, Lamb gets an rbi double and puts me just in the money. I forgot I swapped him out for Escobar. Daily fantasy Gods were with me.
I won 3 10$ h2h and am very close to even instead of it being completely disastrous. Unreal