Daily Fantasy Baseball News & Updates for FanDuel & DraftKings - 9/21/16

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

Personnel

• The Nationals have disputed a report that Bryce Harper is playing through neck and shoulder injuries. Harper took a week off in early August to rest a neck ailment and went on a tear when he returned, but has struggled mightily in September.
• Brandon Crawford left last night's game with a finger injury. X-rays came back negative, and he's considered day-to-day for now.
• Aledmys Diaz missed last night's game, and the word is he's having issues with his arm strength after missing six weeks with a fractured thumb. He's considered day-to-day, but could return to the lineup as early as today.
• Daniel Murphy is expected to return to the Nationals lineup tonight after sitting for three straight games with a leg issue.
• Khris Davis sat last night due to illness. Consider him day-to-day.
• Ryan Braun missed yesterday's game to be with his wife has she gave birth. He could return tonight.
• Ian Kinsler missed last night's game as he continues to deal with the after effects of a concussion. It sounds like he could miss another day or two.
• Victor Martinez was out last night with a knee issue. Consider him day-to-day.
• Dustin Pedroia took last night off to deal with a sore knee, but is expected to return tonight.
• Jacoby Ellsbury is expected to return from a knee injury tonight.
• Ryan Howard sat last night and is expected to be on the bench again tonight with a knee issue.
• Brock Holt is expected to miss the next couple of games due to a death in the family.
• The Twins have announced that Eddie Rosario will miss the remainder of the season with a broken thumb.
• The Padres are calling up highly touted prospects Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot for the stretch run. It'll be worth monitoring the San Diego lineup to see when they make their MLB debuts.

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Tournament Stacks

St. Louis Cardinals

If you're playing a slate that includes the early games, we think fading the Cardinals is going to be a risky proposition. On one hand, it could produce a GPP winner if they put up a dud, because they're likely the be the most-owned stack on the board. On the other, the matchup and park are so favorable, it might be best just hope you pick the right 4-5 bats and look for differentiation elsewhere in your lineup. As for our projection system, it doesn't do contrarianism, so it's got Cardinals galore today. St. Louis has one of the top offenses in baseball this season, ranking fourth in MLB in wRC+ and fifth against RHP. So put that lineup in MLB's top hitting environment, and you've got the chalkiest offense on the board on pretty much any slate. Now mix in a rookie pitcher of modest pedigree, and it's easy to see why Vegas has the Cardinals projected for nearly seven runs. The Rockies will be trotting out 21-year-old German Marquez for his first major league start, and while he's posted decent minor league numbers this season, he's not a highly regarded prospect. Just about anybody in the Cardinals order is in play. We especially like Matt Adams, Matt Carpenter and Stephen Piscotty, but keep an eye on the lineup. Carpenter and Aledmys Diaz were both out last night, and while Carpenter's day off may have just been a routine maintenance day, we could see continued shuffling as Diaz is struggling to work his way back to full health.

Texas Rangers

Yeah, it's the same two teams we recommended in this space yesterday, so feel free to dock us points for creativity, but the matchups and parks are too good to ignore. We love Globe Life Park, and if you're playing the late slate, it's probably the best overall hitting venue available. We also like picking on Jered Weaver. The 33-year-old soft tosser has the worst xFIP of any pitcher going today, and is giving up nearly 2 HRs/9, thanks to a ground ball rate that's now below 30 percent and a hard contact rate that's approaching 35 percent. In other words, he's getting hit hard and guys are elevating it against him, and that's a dangerous combo, especially with the temperatures expected to be in the 90s again tonight. That's good hitting weather, and the Rangers have been taking advantages with the third-ranked wRC+ and fourth-ranked ISO in baseball over the last 30 days. There should be a handful of intriguing ways to approach a Rangers stack, and while we typically lean toward the lefties with a right-handed starter taking the hill, Weaver isn't getting anybody out with regularity, so everybody in the order is in play to some degree.

Sneaky Pitcher

John Lackey

This one kind of feels like cheating, but after we got a little wacky with James Shields yesterday, we're retreating to relative safety. And despite the forecast calling for outbound winds at Wrigley tonight, we think Lackey is a pretty safe bet, thanks largely to the win expectancy he comes with. The Cubs are a -236 favorite as of this morning, and considering Lackey has just one start this season in which he hasn't gone at least five innings, we think he's more likely than anybody else to walk out with those coveted bonus points that come with SP wins. He's the top choice in most of our optimal lineups right now, but with 4-5 guys with better name value also on the menu, we think there's a decent chance he slips through the cracks to some extent. Of course, he doesn't come with the upside of Max Scherzer or Chris Sale, but the Reds lineup is not intimidating (23rd in wRC+ vs. RHP), so we think the points/$ value is as good or better than anybody's tonight.

The "Every Lineup" Guys

Stephen Piscotty

Or, grab a dartboard, assign a different Cardinal to each slot, and start slinging. Just kidding. Kind of. We could easily have gone with Matt Carpenter here, but as of this writing, we're not sure if last night's absence was just a routine day off, or if his back is giving problems again. We also could've gone with Matt Adams, but if you're playing on a site that makes you choose between him and Brandon Moss at 1B, we think it'd be wise to get some exposure to both. So we're going with Piscotty, because other than Carp and Adams, nobody else is projected for more raw production, and for some reason, you're not even required to pay much of a Coors premium. We usually target Piscotty against southpaws, but given the fireworks we're expecting from the St. Louis offense today, he should be in excellent position to boost his numbers via runs and RBIs.

Rougned Odor

We have to turn off the early games to get the projection system to pay much attention to anybody outside of Coors Field, and once we do, pretty much all the Cardinals are replaced by Rangers. It's one of those days. Among Texas hitters, Odor isn't necessarily our favorite, but given the position he plays, he's the one showing up in the most optimal lineups, because 2B is kind of a drag tonight, at least if you're looking for elite upside. And that's one thing Odor can supply in spades; if it weren't for Brian Dozier going bananas down the stretch, the fact that Odor has 31 bombs and 14 steals on the season would probably be getting more attention. He's been especially murderous against RHP, sporting a .249 ISO and a .349 wOBA (despite the fact that he appears allergic to walking), and we like the way he matches up against a low-strikeout guy like Jered Weaver.

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!