Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer throws in the first inning of their baseball game against the San Francisco Giants Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Welcome to Monday baseball! We have a very interesting 10 game slate on our hands with some interesting options at every position. Make sure to check out our other articles as well as they will touch on some tournament pitching options, offensive stacks and any weather concerns. As well as the articles, we have also added a podcast which you should check out as well!
Now’s your chance to get DFSR Pro with MLB Optimal Lineups, Projections and Player Cards. Or try a free trial of our base package with projections for every player. While the seasons overlap, you'll get access to our tools for the NBA and NHL as well! Get started for free by clicking the button below.
First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB Ebook on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered.
A quick heads up - we post an updates article every day in the early afternoon, EST, to catch everyone up on how things are changing as a result of whatever news has come through. We also have great talks in the comments of that article. Hope to see you there!
Opponent - CHC (Hendricks) Park - @WSH
FD - 39.17 DK - 21.84
Coming off of a day where pitcher was a pretty tough spot to fill, we run into another slate with more of the same. That being said, we at least had 1 surefire option yesterday in Jon Lester. Today on the other hand, every single guy has huge risk. At the top of both the salary board and projected points, we have Max Scherzer. Scherzer takes on the Cubs, a team that has struck out at a 21.9% clip, however, they also have hit 73 home runs on they year, which is Scherzer's biggest struggle. However, he has plenty of statistics that are sure to impress. With a 24.2% hard contact rate, 3.20 xFIP and 19.1% LD rate, you can expect Scherzer to be even better moving into the All-Star break. While this would be a tournament only play on a normal day, the lack of pitching options with upside are pushing me onto Scherzer in cash. While strikeouts are usually looked at as upside, they also bring a certain level of safety and Scherzer will certainly rack up quite a few tonight against the Cubbies.
Opponent - PHI (Eickhoff) Park - @TOR
FD - 31.44 DK - 16.2
I honestly never thought I would recommend R.A Dickey (unless time machines were invented). He is someone who I expect to go downhill from here and this will likely be the only spot I target him for the rest of the season. That being said, this selection speaks more to the positional scarcity at pitcher tonight than it does the confidence I have Dickey. Dickey faces off with the Phillies, a team that has struck out at an alarming 24.7% over the last 30 days against righties. Dickey has been pretty good this season with a .318 wOBA and a 27.6% hard contact rate allowed. As I said, I do not have a ton of confidence in Dickey, but it is the lesser of all evils at the pitcher position tonight.
Opponent - CHW (Shields) Park - @CHW
FD - 10.34 DK - 7.97
Opponent - CHW (Shields) Park - @CHW
FD - 7.12 DK - 5.43
It is very rare to recommend 2 catchers from the same team but that is what can happen when James Shields takes the mound. As you will see very soon, the Detroit Tigers offense is one of our favorites tonight. Both Victor Martinez and Jarrod Saltalamacchia have hit righties well this seasons with wOBA's sitting at +.345 respectively. James Shields on the other hand, has given up 5 home runs and 17 earned runs over his LAST 2 STARTS. No, you did not read that wrong. 17 EARNED RUNS. He has also given up a combines .344 wOBA and his peripherals suggest no reason to expect improvement. While we surely can't count on the Tigers scoring 10 runs, we can count on a solid performance.
Opponent - CHW (Shields) Park - @CHW
FD - 13.01 DK - 9.88
As I mentioned with Martinez and Salty, these Tigers bats are going to be spectacular options at nearly every position. While I really already really touched on how bad James Shields' is, let's take a look at just how good Miggy Cabrera is. Dating back to 2010, Cabrera has exhibited a rediculous .412 wOBA against right handers and an even more absurd 42.1% hard contact rate. With the game being played in U.S. Cellular Field, do not bet the under on the Tigers run total.
Opponent - CIN (Simon) Park - @ATL
FD - 11.48 DK - 8.77
As always, the first base position is absolutely stacked. Coming in at second in our projections, we have Freddie Freeman taking on our favorite gas can in Alfredo Simon. Simon has been putrid against left handers this season as evident by his .455 wOBA and 22.4% LD rate allowed. Freddie Freeman on the other hand, has dominated right handers over the last few seasons with a .363 wOBA that is backed up by very nice batted ball peripherals. While it is tough to get exposure to the Braves tonight, Freeman is a safe way to do just that.
Opponent - SF (Cain) Park - @SF
FD - 8.64 DK - 7.02
While Ian Kinsler is a spectacular option here at second, I didn't want to just keep naming off the entire Tigers lineup. Therefore, we are going to take a look at Scooter Gennett and Brett Lawrie. First off, we have Scooter Gennett taking on Matt Cain and the Giants. Scooter, a lefty, has hit righties extremely well since entering the majors with a .338 wOBA, .301 batting average and a very impressive 24.2% line drive (LD) rate. While Matt Cain has had a few decent starts, he is on the downside of his career as shown by his .378 wOBA to lefties so far in 2016. While I would much prefer for this game to be played in Miller Park, Gennett does not rely on home runs to produce.
Opponent - DET (Boyd) Park - @CHW
FD - 9.19 DK - 7.24
As previously mentioned, Lawrie is going to be the second guy we take a look at here. Lawrie and the Sox are taking on Matt Boyd and the Tigers. While the Tigers are likely our favorite offense on the night, the White Sox are not far behind, if at all. Matt Boyd is a very non-intimidating left handed pitcher that has struggled against both lefties and righties throughout his young MLB career. With a combined .382 wOBA dating back to his debut, Boyd can be safely targeted. While Brett Lawrie is no stud hitter, he has has been decent this season with 7 longballs and a .322 combined wOBA.
Opponent - LAA (Weaver) Park - @LAA
FD - 8.97 DK - 7.71
The only reason we haven't targeted Jered Weaver this far is due to the existence of James Shields and Matt Boyd. Aside from those 2 and maybe Alfredo Simon, Weaver is my favorite guy to target. Weaver, the soft tossing, washed up right hander has struggled against both lefties and righties over the last 2 seasons as he has exhibited a .346 wOBA and a 34.4% hard contact rate, which is absurd for a soft tosser. Nunez on the other hand, has been on absolute FIRE this season with 9 home runs and a .370 combined wOBA. Nunez gives you a ton of upside at a position that lacks just that.
Opponent - DET (Boyd) Park - @CHW
FD - 6.27 DK - 5.35
Here we have our 2nd of 3 White Sox bats in Tyler Saladino. While it is not necessarily exciting to roster Saladino, it is very safe. He very rarely puts up a dud and at such a low price, that is perfectly fine. I have already mentioned how bad Boyd is and with this game sitting at a nice over/under of 9.5, you should certainly look to get some exposure. Make sure he is in the lineup.
Opponent - LAD (Bolsinger) Park - @ARI
FD - 10.59 DK - 8.34
Once again, we could of definitely put Nick Castellanos here, however as I mentioned, I did not want to just keep writing up the same team over and over and over. Looking at Jacob lamb, he will be taking on the Dodgers and Mike Bolsinger in hitter friendly Chase Field. While Bolsinger ins't a guy I typically look to target, he has had his fair share of struggled against left handers. Dating back to his debut in 2014, Bolsinger has given up a .357 wOBA to left handed hitters. With this game being played in Chase Field, Lamb has a great shot of producing tonight.
Opponent - LAD (Bolsinger) Park - @ARI
FD - 9.41 DK - 7.47
As I just mentioned, Bolsinger has struggled against left handers throughout his entire career. David Peralta on the other hand, has been absolutely dominant against righties over the last 2 seasons. Dating back to 2015, Peralta has obliterated right handers with a .401 wOBA and a 36.9% hard contact rate. With his peripherals, you can expect him to dominate righties throughout the rest of this season. Chase Field is the 2nd best ballpark for home runs and Peralta could surely take advantage of that.
Opponent - CHC (Hendricks) Park - @WSH
FD - 12.78 DK - 9.85
This is basically just a price play on FanDuel and a tournament option on DraftKings. At $3900 on FanDuel, there is not a single pitcher in the majors I would not consider him against, let alone Kyle Hendricks who is a slightly above average right hander. Harper has obliterated righties over the course of his career with a .412 wOBA and a 43.1% hard contact rate. Plug him in on FanDuel and feel free to play him in tournaments on DraftKings.
Consider - Matt Kemp, Ben Revere, Tigers and White Sox outfield
So yeah, baseball season! And we've got some goodies you can take with you. At the end of the post, we have our MLB eBook that you really ought to check out before setting even a single daily fantasy MLB lineup. It's free, below.
And Daily Fantasy MLB Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings every day!
image sources
Daily Fantasy DraftKings and FanDuel NBA Picks & Projections Playing NBA DFS Nightly? Join one…
Week 9 NFL DFS plays for DraftKings and FanDuel
Packed slate of NBA action on FanDuel and DraftKings
Thursday night NBA picks for DraftKings and FanDuel
Daily Fantasy NFL Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - Week 8 Sunday 10/27/24 Now’s…
A main slate of NBA DFS action on FanDuel and DraftKings.
View Comments
Alas, our favorite gas can Alfredo Simon has been sent to the bullpen. One can only hope that Daniel Wright will carry the Simon torch and make the lowly Braves a stackable team today. On a side note, the Reds bullpen was already atrocious so throwing Simon in just makes sense. We will see you in the 4th Alfredo.
ummmmm...James Shields is the SP2 in the optimal DKlineup. Can we fix that please? LOL.
I actually think Shields is an option. He will not get 30 points probably, but at his salary 20 would be great. Remember, up until a couple of weeks ago he was very rosterable. On this slate I think he is definitely in the conversation. I will say that those doing a Tigers stack will probably be disappointed tonight.
Are you taking heads up games tonight Anthony O?
James Shield will get absolutely crushed tonight.
U.S. Cellular field ranks #2 in homers to right handed hitters. Shields is giving up a 1.56hr/9, fly ball is 31%, hard contact is 33%. The only disappointment in the Tigers stack is that you cannot probably afford them all. 20 points would be good at his price, but how do you expect him to reach that? He has very average strike out ability and the ks he does get will not offset the runs he will give up. This dude may go negative tonight or mercifully have a short day salvaging single digit scoring.
woohoo, shields is gone!
Just so you know, the 5 sites I checked (ones I pay for) all show Shields as the top value on the day and it isn't even close in some cases. For $4800 on DK, he is projected to have 12 to 19 DK points. I'm not sure why you want him removed. I don't like him as a pitcher anymore than you do, but on this slate we don't have many options. His last two nights pitching were atrocious, but you can't base everything on two nights when he was up against two great offenses and pitched poorly. He's already shown upside with over 30 DK points and I think is exactly what you want in a GPP pitcher on a night with few options.
The Shields thing is a price play plain and simple. He's listed below a bunch of hitters. For like 6K he'd be totally out of the discussion. Even at $4800 he's close
Looking at a Braves reds double stack any recommendations for Braves I see you agree freeman is a must I agree. What do you think about a Dodgers stack I'm thinking will go low owned and greinke is a ball of nervs. Any thoughts on Chen?
These prices for DK are wrong. I wish Freeman was 3100. Today, I think Victor goes deep
Also curious what you think about the Brewers stack thanks
@Eb Working on the hitters stack article right now! give me a few
What about votto and J Bruce tonight?
Love them both
Ha prob the only time I will be rostering my man Dickey but tonight is the night on fan duel for cash games. He's been decent lately. Philly suckes. perfect
Can anyone tell me how to cancel my membership on here. Ive been trying to contact DFSR but no luck. Thanks
Lonnie, go to "welcome" "view profile" "unsubscribe". You have asked that a few times here so I believe you really want out. That should do the trick.