Daily Fantasy Baseball News & Updates for FanDuel & DraftKings - 7/27/16

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

Today's regular Wednesday split slate comes with loads of above-average arms and a decent number of offenses projected for solid showings. But choosing which ones to lean on might prove tricky. Read on for today's news updates, stacking recommendations, and more.

Personnel

• Troy Tulowitzki is out of the lineup today. Darwin Barney is getting the start at SS and hitting eighth.
• Melvin Upton, who the Blue Jays acquired from the Padres prior to last night's game, is hitting clean up against his former team today.
• Hanley Ramirez is sitting today. Travis Shaw moves over the 1B, with Aaron Hill getting the start at third.
• Cameron Maybin is out for the fourth straight game today as he continues to nurse a rib injury.
• Yangervis Solarte has been placed on the family leave list and will be out for the next few days. Alexei Amarista has been recalled in the corresponding move.
• Trea Turner is making his second straight start in CF and hitting leadoff today as the Nats take on Carlos Carrasco in Cleveland.
• After making his MLB debut on Monday, Rockies OF David Dahl is now available on FanDuel, where he's set at $2,700. He's similarly cheap ($2,800) on DraftKings.
• Logan Morrison made an appearance as a pinch hitter last night and could be nearing a return to the lineup after a wrist injury sidelined him for the last week.
• Luis Valbuena left last night's game with a hamstring injury after taking a nasty spill while running to first in the second inning. He's day-to-day for now, but don't be surprised if he misses some time.
• Yasiel Puig was out again last night as he continues to nurse a hamstring injury. He's expected to make a return to the lineup soon, so keep an eye out for the Dodgers lineup, which could be coming out right around the time the early slate gets underway.
• Jake Lamb is expected to sit again tonight with a hand injury.
• Hyun Soo Kim returned from the DL last night and went 1-for-3 with a walk while hitting out of his customary spot in the two-hole.
• Brett Lawrie was out again last night; he hasn't played since leaving last Thursday's game with a hamstring injury.
• Ryan Zimmerman was activated from the DL prior to last night's game. He went 0-for-4 in his return and is slotted seventh in today's lineup.
• Whit Merrifield was sent down prior to last night's game, replaced on the roster by Raul Mondesi Jr.

Tournament Stacks

Toronto Blue Jays
For a day with a fair number of teams projected for nice offensive outings, we've got a pretty tricky pair of slates when it comes to stacking. The early games are especially confounding. You could go with Boston, but Detroit rookie Michael Fulmer has been excellent at limiting damage, surrendering more than two runs just once (in his last start) in the last two months. You could go with the Tigers, but they've been disappointing against lefties this year, ranking 21st in the league in wRC+. With aces squaring off in Cleveland, a pair of mediocre offenses in Miami, and two bad ballparks on the West Coast, what we're left with is Toronto vs. Luis Perdomo. On the surface, it looks like an easy/obvious play—Perdomo holds a 6.93 ERA, the Blue Jays rank sixth in MLB in wRC+ vs. righties, and the ballpark favors offense strongly. And yeah, the latter two of those three are why the Jays have ended up in this spot. But this recommendation is a cautious one, and while I think you're going to want some Toronto bats sprinkled throughout your lineups in all formats today, I'd also warn against overexposure. Here's why: Perdomo may not be that bad, or even if he is, he may not be the greatest guy to stack against. We're still learning about the 23-year-old Rule 5'er, and what we've seen so far is a little puzzling. For example, he's been much better as a starter than he was out of the bullpen this season (3.62 vs. 4.70 xFIP). That disparity may or may not hold over the long term, but it's worth monitoring, at the very least. What gives me greater concern when it comes to loading up against Perdomo, however, is that it's apparently really tough to elevate his stuff. He's giving up just a 13 percent fly-ball rate against righties; mix that in with a ground-ball rate approaching 65 percent and a hard-contact rate at less than 25 percent, and home runs will be tough to come by for right-handed hitters. That said, lefties are getting some good swings (40 percent hard contact), and the guys we typically use in Toronto stacks are well above the league average, so we're still expecting solid output from them. But we'd suggest diversification over an all-in strategy if you're playing multiple lineups today.

Chicago Cubs
The Cubs haven't been at their best lately, but let others be scared off by last night's shutout. This is still a powerful offense in a decent park, and with a green-ish fly-ball guy on the mound, we like their chances to get right tonight. Anthony Ranaudo doesn't have an extensive major league track record, but 58-plus innings is enough to pass some preliminary judgments, and we find him guilty of gopher balls. In limited big-league stints over the last three seasons, he's given up more than 2 HRs/9 while walking more guys than he's whiffed, resulting in a 6.10 xFIP. Digging deeper, we're only finding more evidence in support of a Cubs stack: 32.7% ground ball rate, 50% fly ball rate, and nice hard contact percentages for both lefties and righties. As with the early slate, you'll have options, with four other teams projected to score five runs or more. But unlike today's games, there's no equivocation here. Go get some Cubs tonight.

Sneaky Pitcher

Tyler Duffey

With a handful of aces and loads of upper-middle-class guys taking the hill today you probably won't (and maybe shouldn't) go this far down the ladder to save a few bucks, but from a value perspective, Duffey is the projection system's favorite guy going today. Of course, value isn't everything when it comes to pitching; the points you give up by paying down aren't always easy to make up for with less predictable hitters. But going against Atlanta's better-but-still-inept offense, we like a flyer on Duffey as an SP2 or in tournaments on FanDuel. In 26 starts dating back to his debut last season, Duffey's underlying numbers are mostly respectable (3.82 career xFIP). Where he's been hurt this season is on the long ball, giving up 1.53 HR/9. We see that as less of an issue against Atlanta, which ranks dead last in wRC+, wOBA, ISO and slugging against RHP. The Braves don't strike out a ton, though, so even in the best-case scenario, Duffey doesn't come with the upside somebody else on this slate will probably achieve, so you'll have to be on point elsewhere to take down a GPP. But at these prices, we think he's a good bet to at least return the kind of value that can put you in the money.

The "Every Lineup" Guys

Madison Bumgarner

Even on a nice slate for pitching options, Bumgarner stands pretty clearly above the rest for all the reasons you can probably guess. There are no revelations revealed through research here: Bumgarner is awesome, the park is great for pitchers, and Cincinnati is bad against lefties. The Reds rank 23rd in the league in wRC+ against southpaws, with a 23.3 percent strikeout rate. Meanwhile, slight changes in Bumgarner's profile (more walks, more Ks) haven't changed his effectiveness. He's perhaps benefiting from an unsustainable strand rate, but we're not overly concerned. Play him freely, especially in cash games, and trust in your ability to find value in cheap bats.

Willson Contreras

We think you can get by with spending a little less on pitching tonight, and doing so should allow you to pay up a bit for a catcher. Even aside from Cubs stacks, we really like the spot Contreras is in. First, the obvious: as we've already mentioned, Ranaudo is prone to giving up homers and Contreras is holding down an enviable position in the heart of the Cubs order. And though the sample is small, it's worth noting that the rookie has handled RHP just fine to this point, posting a .367 wOBA and .847 in 94 plate appearances since being called up.

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!