Daily Fantasy MLB Pitchers for FanDuel and DraftKings - 5/2/17 Here's where you can find some recommendations for tournament pitchers target for FanDuel and DraftKings. Find our main set of cash game picks here. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer, our NBA Optimizer, and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB and NBA Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered.   Pitchers James Paxton FD 9300 DK 9200 Opponent - LAA (Shoemaker) Park - @SEA FD - 35.05 DK - 22.99 We've got an awful lot of upper-tier arms going tonight, but none of them -- Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander, et. al -- have a better xFIP since the start of 2016 than Paxton (or, if you prefer SIERA, he's second only to Sale). Any way you want to slice up the data, it tells us one thing: Paxton is pitching like a late-blooming stud in the making. He was considered a pretty decent prospect when he made his first MLB appearance back in 2013, but he's taken it to another level lately. And if you'll allow some mild narrative flourish, there's one here to believe in. He started tinkering with a lower arm slot after finding himself back in Triple-A last year, and since then, he's been nails. The control issues that plagued him are gone (1.76 BB/9 since then), and perhaps even more importantly, he found a couple of extra ticks on his fastball, which averaged nearly 97 mph last season and is sitting just below 96 in 2017. The only reservation we have about him tonight is the fact that the Angels don't strike out much (at all). Their 16.7% K-rate vs. LHP is the third-best in baseball, so Paxton's probably a long shot to hit double-digit Ks. Still, he's had at least seven in 7 of his last 8 starts, so something approaching a K per inning is still a distinct possibility, and the Angels have one of the lowest implied run totals on the board, so we're expecting him to be in the hunt for a quality start and a win. Tyler Chatwood FD 7600 DK 6900 Opponent - SD (Cahill) Park - @SD FD - 30.73 DK - 20.19 This one's more of an SP2 pick for DK, because even though the price is right on FanDuel, too, if you go with Chatwood there, you're probably going to have to crush it with all your bats to keep pace on a slate loaded...

Daily Fantasy MLB Hitter Stacks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 5/2/17 Here's where you can find some recommendations for GPP stacks to target for FanDuel and DraftKings. Find our main set of cash game picks here. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer, our NBA Optimizer, and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB and NBA Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered.   NEW YORK YANKEES I'd expect this one to be the chalk, so if you want to fade it, there's your justification. But on a slate that's pretty stacked with formidable pitching, we're gonna pick on the Matt Latos types any time we get the chance. About Latos: though he's just 29 years old, he appears long past his peak, the potential he flashed as recently 2013 long since gone. He's the worst pitcher on the slate in terms of xFIP (5.53) since the beginning of last season. His 5.22 Ks/9 in that span put him in the Mike Pelfrey-Jered Weaver category, but he walks way more than either of those guys (4.09 BBs/9). As for the Yankees, I think we're all pretty aware of what's going on in the Bronx, even if we can't fully explain it. They've been among the best offenses in baseball through the first month of the season, ranking fourth in wRC+ vs. RHP, sixth in wOBA and sixth in OPS. Including part-timer Aaron Hicks, they've got five guys with wOBAs over .375 in the split, and they're spread throughout the order (Chase Headley, Starlin Castro, Aaron Judge and Austin Romine). And the lefties are always in play at Yankee Stadium, so you've got plenty of options with this lineup tonight. MIAMI MARLINS And here's your non-chalk play, because the Marlins are almost always going to be low-owned in their spacious home park. But what Marlins Park takes away, we're hoping Alex Cobb can give back, because he's gotten hammered in his 10 starts since returning from Tommy John surgery last year. He's giving up more HRs/9 than anybody on the slate during that span (1.79) and while his HR:FB% (19.6) is ridiculously high, it's probably not going to come down while he's giving up a whopping 38% hard contact compared to just 12% soft -- those numbers are also the worst on the slate, by the way. Of course, the Marlins have been pretty bad on offense this year, ranking 22nd in wRC+ vs. RHP, so maybe they don't have what it takes to...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 5/2/17 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer, our NBA Optimizer, and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB and NBA Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Pitcher Chris Sale FD 11700 DK 12500 Opponent - BAL (Asher) Park - @BOS FD - 39.92 DK - 26.29 If Clayton Kershaw is in a tier unto himself, Chris Sale just might be leading the pack among the 1-A guys. Early in 2017, he's third among qualifying pitchers in Ks/9, second in ERA, second in FIP and first in xFIP. And if you broaden the sample to include the last two-plus seasons, the story's pretty similar -- sixth in FIP, sixth in xFIP. None of this is breaking news, of course. Sale's a well-established stud. Sometimes it's just good to put it into context. Picking on Baltimore isn't fun, because even when they're scuffling -- as they did at times during April -- there's still enough latent power in this lineup to make them dangerous. Taking that into consideration, we're still good with Sale as our top pitcher, as long as you can find the value bats to go with him. The Ks he's running up this season raise the floor and the ceiling, and there are plenty of Ks to be had in the Baltimore lineup. They rank second in 2017 in Ks/9 vs. LHP, so even if they pop one (or two), we think the points will still be there for Sale. Carlos Martinez FD 9100 DK 8900 Opponent - MIL (Peralta) Park - @STL FD - 36.47 DK - 23.97 For a little bit cheaper, you can get a lot of Sale's risk-reward mix in Martinez. Obviously, the safety and upside aren't quite as abundant here, but there's enough of each to make Martinez a viable cash game play when you factor in the discount. Through five starts this season, he's been a strikeout monster, picking up 39 in 28.2 IP. On the downside, his walks and homers allowed are both trending in the wrong direction, which could be problematic against Milwaukee's thumpers, who lead the league in ISO vs. RHP. We think he's due for some positive regression in the HR category -- he's been excellent at limiting homers in the past, and an overblown 17.4% HR:FB ratio is sure to come down. But the command issues are a little more concerning. K:BB stabilizes fairly quickly, so if Martinez...

Daily Fantasy MLB Hitter Stacks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 5/1/17 Here's where you can find some recommendations for GPP stacks to target for FanDuel and DraftKings. Find our main set of cash game picks here. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer, our NBA Optimizer, and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB and NBA Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered.   CHICAGO CUBS Vincent Velasquez has the ability to hit double-digit Ks, and the Cubs struggled some in April against RHP, but other than that, this is about as ideal as it gets. Velasquez hasn't been able to throw strikes consistently so far this year (5+ BB/9), and even when he's on his game, he's an extreme fly ball pitcher. Meanwhile, the Cubs love working the count and have very few true weaknesses in this lineup. Also, the wind's blowing out in Wrigley. Did we mention that? Gusting might be more accurate. It's expected to be over 20 mph toward the bleachers at game time, so there's a very real chance that this one turns into a home run derby, which is why Vegas has it pegged with a 10.5 total. HOUSTON ASTROS Minute Maid Park is a fine place to go homer hunting, too, and the Astros aren't gonna cost you quite as much as the Cubs' big guns. They also get Andrew Cashner tonight, and while he doesn't serve up homers quite as often as we'd like, in every other way, he's exactly the kind of pitcher we like to pick on -- below average Ks, above average walks and more than enough hard contact allowed. Lefties have been especially troublesome for Cashner over the course of his career, but everybody's giving him fits lately. Dating back to last season, he's got a .358 wOBA allowed to righties and .366 to lefties, so virtually every Astros bat deserves some level of consideration. Since the beginning of last season, Jose Altuve, Yuli Gurriel and Carlos Correa all hold wOBAs north of .350 vs. RHP, while Evan Gattis has an ISO of .241 in the split, giving you nice building blocks throughout the batting order. Fire up No Half Time for baseball season, and get a $25 bonus code when you use promo code DFSR25MLB! KANSAS CITY ROYALS Yeah, I know. Quite the drop off in terms of firepower from the previous two, right? I guess we know how the projection system feels about Dylan Covey. Vegas feels the same,...

Daily Fantasy MLB Pitchers for FanDuel and DraftKings - 5/1/17 Here's where you can find some recommendations for tournament pitchers target for FanDuel and DraftKings. Find our main set of cash game picks here. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer, our NBA Optimizer, and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB and NBA Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered.   Pitchers Michael Wacha FD 8000 DK 7200 Opponent - MIL (Davies) Park - @STL FD - 31.98 DK - 21.11 We've got an interesting pitching slate tonight, because the most enticing tournament options (Kershaw, McCullers, Severino) are the same guys we're targeting for cash games. Beyond those, you're taking on a lot of risk in any format, but if you're OK with that, you'll probably want to consider Wacha. We're only a month into the season, but we're already reasonably sure what we're getting out of the Milwaukee lineup -- all or nothing. Against RHP, they lead the league in ISO, but they're also well below average in wRC+ and just 11th in wOBA while posting the second highest K% (26.2) in baseball. Could they rock Wacha? Sure. But it's perhaps equally likely that he keeps them in check and rolls up a few strikeouts en route to a quality start (4/4 in that category on the year) and a win (-147 favorite). Don't get us wrong, Wacha's no ace, but in the early stages of 2017, he looks much more like the guy who went 17-7 with a 3.38 ERA in 2015 than the guy with a 5.09 ERA last year. He's striking out better than 8 per 9, and he's done an excellent job of limiting hard contact. Sure the sample size is small and the Brewers are a dangerous lineup, but we're less afraid of them outside of a hitter-friendly park, and the price is right on Wacha if you're looking for somebody to pair with Kershaw or want to squeeze in some expensive bats. Jason Vargas FD 8700 DK 7400 Opponent - CHW (Covey) Park - @KC FD - 34.32 DK - 22.52 Ugh. Gotta be honest here, I'm not sold on Vargas. But I also can't see paying up for Cueto against a Dodgers lineup that mashes (and doesn't whiff) against righties, and all those Mets lefties make me too nervous to roster Julio Teheran, and I couldn't bring myself to write up a fly-ball guy like Vincent Velasquez with the wind blowing out in...