Daily Fantasy Baseball News & Updates for FanDuel & DraftKings - 8/30/16

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

After a day dominated by unexpected pitcher's duels, we're back to a full slate with plenty of offenses in good spots again tonight. Let's get to it.

Personnel

• Cameron Maybin left last night's game with a thumb issue. He's expected to get an MRI today and should be considered day-to-day until further notice.
• Dustin Pedroia missed a second straight game Monday to deal with a personal matter. There's been no word yet on when he's expected to return.
• Nelson Cruz's status is unclear for tonight, according to Seattle manager Scott Servais. The Mariners slugger appeared to be dealing with some discomfort during his at bats on Monday.
• Asdrubal Cabrera was held out of Monday's lineup due to a knee issue, but made an appearance as a pinch hitter. He's considered day-to-day.
• Corey Seager appears to have avoided serious injury after getting hit by a pitch on the wrist last night. X-rays were negative, but he could take tonight off with a lefty on the mound.
• Colby Rasmus could be activated from the DL today. He's been out since Aug. 4 after having a cyst removed from his ear.
• Neil Walker sat for the second straight game on Monday due to a back issue. Consider him day-to-day for now.

Tournament Stacks

 

Detroit Tigers

We're queuing them up again, despite the recent disappointments in good spots. While we had hoped for better results against James Shields, et. al., there's just no way we can ignore tonight's matchup with Anthony Ranaudo. Because he's awful. Over the course of 74 big-league innings, the 26-year-old righty has walked more guys than he's whiffed and is giving up more than two homers per nine. It's like the projection system created this guy in a lab for the express purpose of stacking against him. Meanwhile, the Tigers remain a potent lineup. Despite an abundance of righties, they rank sixth in MLB in wRC+ in the split, so we're happy to roll out nearly every guy who draws a start today. Keep an eye on the batting order, because it's looking like Cameron Maybin could miss some time, and there's a good chance whoever fills is regular spot near the top of the order will be coming at a nice discount.

Colorado Rockies

We're going slightly against Vegas on this one, with the caveat that the typical Coors Field rules apply (i.e. both sides are firmly in play). The Dodgers are actually a slight favorite here, so they're probably the safer of the two choices, but we're willing to gamble on the home team and the fact that Rich Hill's curveball won't be moving the way it usually does.  Coors is notorious for flattening the effects of curves, and nobody uses the curve as much as Hill. Of course, it's also one of the most effective curveballs in baseball, so maybe it'll prove immune to the thin Denver atmosphere, but we're willing to bet a couple of GPP lineups that it won't. The prospect of stacking Rockies is dampened by the fact that so many of the guys we usually like are lefties, but we're willing to plug them in judiciously, and bank on some bullpen innings to help us hit value.

Sneaky Pitcher

Collin McHugh 

With Coors Field and a handful of other high-priced offensive options demanding salary tonight, we think lots of tournament players will be digging through the bargain bin for pitching. It's always a mixed bag down there, but among the heap, McHugh has the projection system's top blend of upside and value. He's been a tough guy to pin down this season, striking a batter per inning, but getting burned by homers. The good news is he's due for some regression in the latter category, which is why his xFIP (3.94) is more than a full run lower than his ERA (5.01). The bad news is that while they're not an especially fearsome lineup, the A's don't strikeout much against RHP, so the upside is perhaps muted. But even if they keep McHugh a shade off his regular K numbers, we should be fine. Oakland ranks 22nd in wRC+ and 23rd in ISO against RHP, and the Astros are a healthy -169 favorite, and the increased probability that McHugh takes the W is a big factor on FanDuel.

The "Every Lineup" Guys

Miguel Cabrera

As mentioned above, the projection system is missing no opportunities to pick on Anthony Ranaudo today, so playing Cabrera is nearly automatic (especially on FanDuel, where he's moderately priced). You'll have to pay up on DraftKings, but that's because the DK algorithm is pricing ninja hell-bent on eliminating obvious value from the DFS landscape. Seriously, it's pretty sharp and we totally agree that Cabrera should be one of the highest-priced hitters on the board because we've got him as one of the top producers for raw points, and well worth his cost on both sites. So, everybody knows Miggy is great. He hasn't hit below .300 since 2008 and hasn't had a wOBA below .375 since 2004. He's headed for Cooperstown. He's also equally awesome with or without the platoon-split advantage, so feel free to play him at will tonight.

Bryce Harper

Miggy is literally the only guy showing up in the top 10 optimal lineups on both FanDuel and DraftKings this morning, but no one who reads this site often will be surprised to learn that Harper is next-closest thing to a consensus pick. Even with 23 bombs and 18 steals on the season, he's a little harder to endorse as a tournament play solely because the volume of walks he draws cuts his upside. But it also raises his floor. For anecdotal evidence, consider the fact that he hasn't put up a fantasy goose egg since taking a week off to rest an ailing neck, a span of 16 straight games. And even though the prices are up, we like him against Jerad Eickhoff, owner of a career 4.75 xFIP against lefties.

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!