Late DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Thursday 4/11/19 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB and NBA optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Late Slate Pitchers Jon Gray FD 8500 DK 9300 Opponent - SF (Jeff Samardzija) Park - SFFD - 35.57 DK - 18.69 There’s no clear way to go at pitcher on this slate. Joe Musgrove is interesting, but he’s facing the team with the number one wOBA vs righties in the entire league (.406). Gausman is another interesting name, but the Mets are strong from the left-handed side and Gausman struggles with lefties. That leads us to Jon Gray, who’s going into one of the friendliest ballparks for pitching and is facing off with a Giants team that ranks in the bottom five against right-handed pitching. Gray hasn’t been excellent to start the season, but his woes should be righted in the spacious Oracle Park. Gray is a strikeout per inning arm that can go 90-100 pitches with ease. He has a legitimate second and third pitch, though they sometimes don’t have much command. There isn’t much pitching on this slate to begin with, so there’s no getting picky. Gray gets one of the best match-ups out there and is fairly priced around the industry. The Giants hold the lowest implied total of the entire day at 3.40, so Vegas agreed with all the above. He’s the top pitcher regardless of price or format. Jeff Samardzija FD 5900 DK 7500 Opponent - COL (Jon Gray) Park - SFFD - 28.41 DK - 14.44 On the surface, Jeff Samardzija is nowhere near the pitcher he once was and there’s no real upside. On the other hand, he’s way too cheap and gets to face off with a bad lineup in a good ballpark. The Rockies are pitiful outside of Coors Field and Samardzija actually isn’t half bad. In 2018, he was hurt most of the season. Prior to that, he pitched 200 innings with 200 strikeouts in 3 of the last 5 seasons. He should be able to go six quality innings here and at his price, that’s more than you need. He’ll allow you to spend up for just about every bat you would like and give you a 10% owned quality pitcher. This slate doesn’t have much pitching to be confident in, but it also doesn’t have any easy and obvious offenses. Playing Samardzija will allow us to cherry pick the top bats in each order without a clear stack on the line. The Rockies are only expected to put up 3.60...

Early DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Thursday 4/11/19 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB and NBA optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Early Pitchers Shane Bieber FD 9700 DK 9900 Opponent - DET (Spencer Turnbull) Park - DET FD - 33.81 DK - 18.07 It’s really just Bieber and Buehler on the high-end at pitcher on this early slate. You can include Wacha and Leake as well, but Wacha is an underdog and Leake is involved in a 10 O/U game. Between Bieber and Buehler, we’re leaning Bieber. Buehler is a probably a better overall pitcher, but he has a tougher match-up and was limited to just 87 pitches in his last outing. We know the Dodgers like to limit their pitchers and you could easily see these two teams battling it out until late, leaving the win for a reliever. Combine that with the Cardinals being the best team Buehler has faced yet and an 8 O/U against a patient lineup. I’ll pass. Shane Bieber draws a Tigers team that’s living on luck so far (2nd in BABIP) and is one of the absolute worst lineups in all of the league. They struck out 23% of the time last season and are projected to finish last in the Central. The bat of Christin Stewart can only lead them so far. Shane Bieber is one of the more hyped up pitchers coming into this season, and he’s delivered this far with an 11:2 K:BB ratio. The hype comes from his disgusting 4.7% walk rate in 2018. He can pinpoint his pitches and will very rarely get himself into trouble. While he has a lot of work to do before getting himself even on the same level as the rest of the Indians staff, he’s good enough to get through the Tigers. The Indians are the biggest favorites on this slate and Bieber is your safest cash game option. Sonny Gray FD 7300 DK 8900 Opponent - MIA (Pablo Lopez) Park - CIN FD - 32.02 DK - 16.66 If you’re looking to pay for some bats and don’t think Bieber is all that, there are two affordable options here that deserve legitimate interest. Let’s start with Sonny Gray, who’s a bit more established. He didn’t have a great 2018, but definitely got a bit unlucky. His BABIP allowed was high (.340) and xFIP (3.98) pretty low, so he didn’t have as bad of a season as we’d like to think. Gray came back out after a miserable opening start and struck out seven Pirates across...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Monday 4/8/19 Monday's MLB action brings us another series starting in Coors, a matchup between the Astros and Yankees, some daytime baseball and much more. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB and NBA optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Pitchers Justin Verlander FD 10700 DK 10400 Opponent - NYY (Masahiro Tanaka) Park - HOUFD - 42.05 DK - 23.69 Pitching isn’t pretty on this slate. We have some names and talent, but every single one of them is uncomfortable to say the least. Out of the top four arms, there isn’t a safe match-up. The Astros are deadly. The Cardinals and Padres are tough against southpaws. Even our top arm in Justin Verlander is in a risky match-up with the Yankees. They’re a lot weaker without Stanton, Hicks, and Andujar in the lineup, but still have some power. Verlander struggled his last time out against the Rangers, but got BABIP’d to death and just didn’t have his K pitch. Going back home, where he pitches a lot better, he should be comfortable and back to his easy seven inning self. Verlander, at 35 years old in 2018, held a .260 wOBA against both sides of the plate while striking out 12 batters per nine. He’s still one of the best pitchers in baseball and it’d because he has the most efficient fastball in baseball. The Yankees are obviously dangerous, but they do strikeout 23.3% of the time against righties and are missing some of their most important bats. Verlander is the safest pitcher on a slate full of uncertainties at the position. Madison Bumgarner FD 9200 DK 9300 Opponent - SD (Eric Lauer) Park - SFFD - 37.6 DK - 19.75 Madison Bumgarner has been very solid to start the season and the Padres have one of the lowest implied run totals on the slate. Yes, they’re a lot better against righties and made a lot of improvements, but they’ll strikeout a ton (24%) and this ballpark really depresses power. Bumgarner is fairly priced and always has upside as one of the guys that can get stretched to 100 pitches early in the season. He isn’t the pitcher he once was, but a .290 combined wOBA with a 8 K/9 is nothing to whiff at. He is only 29 years old, so you never know when he could return to his superstar self. He’s still an elite arm and the Giants have to lean on him. He’s a cash game play on this slate, but is still a clear step...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Sunday 4/7/19 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB and NBA optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Pitchers Mike Clevinger FD 10800 DK 9900 Opponent - TOR (Marcus Stroman) Park - CLE FD - 39.97 DK - 21.51 We’re just focusing on the main slate, so keep that in mind here at pitcher. On the all day slate, you add options like Blake Snell and Chris Sale to the mix. On the main slate, it’s between Max Scherzer and Mike Clevinger at the top. Clevinger is not as good of a pitcher as Scherzer, but he’s going 100+ pitches and sees a phenomenal match-up with the Blue Jays. Clevinger is still one of the best pitchers in baseball, though, sporting a . 286 combined wOBA allowed with a near 10 K/9. He faces off with an offense that has already proven how ugly it is and that’s not going to change all season. Justin Smoak and Grichuk are going to have some big games, but it’s a lineup that will maintain the 23% K rate and bottom five team wOBA. Clevinger is as safe as it gets and you can play him for cheaper than Scherzer. Max Scherzer FD 11900 DK 11900 Opponent - NYM (Zack Wheeler) Park - NYM FD - 47.71 DK - 27.26 The leader in terms of raw points, Max Scherzer is facing off with the New York Mets. He dominated them in his first start of the season, going 7.2 innings and striking out 12, allowing just 2 runs. The Mets have been playing well, but they held a 23% strikeout rate in '18 and we know Scherzer can K as many as anyone. The Mets will split righties and lefties, and only a couple of lefties are any good. They still K and I think the 12 strikeouts on opening day is repeatable. Clevinger is a bit cheaper and has similar upside, but Scherzer has guaranteed strikeout upside and could be lesser owned. Brad Keller FD 7600 DK 7200 Opponent - DET (Tyson Ross) Park - DET FD - 26.19 DK - 12.6 If you’re looking to save some salary at pitcher, I love Brad Keller. In the same price range, I think most will prefer German and Newcomb. Newcomb is having trouble throwing strikes right now and German is a pure GPP play. Brad Keller was a 2017 rule 5 draft player and has impressed ever since joining the club. He’s a true sinker ball pitcher, which we don’t see much of anymore. Think...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Thursday 4/4/19 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB and NBA optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Early Pitchers Stephen Strasburg FD 9900 DK 10300 Opponent - NYM (Noah Syndergaard) Park - NYM FD - 39.1 DK - 21.39 These two pitchers faced off just a few nights ago, so this encore will be a very interesting one to watch. Strasburg muffled his way through the first two innings, but was great after that. While the damage was done, he at least showed the ability to navigate his way through this Mets lineup. Strasburg has revolutionized himself as a pitcher and is now a lot more consistent than ever. He held both righties and lefties under a .311 wOBA and struck out 10.80 batters per nine innings. The match-up with the Mets was a great one last year, but they may be a lot better this year. They will still strikeout 23% of the time and the bottom of the order is still lifeless. He's the cheapest of the three expensive pitching options and the difference between the three isn't huge. Paxton is the raw favorite, but he's expensive and by no means safe. I'll stick with Strasburg 100% on such a small slate. Team Cash Stacks     New York Yankees Park - BAL Opposing Pitcher - BAL (Alex Cobb) Vegas Implied Run Total - 4.72 The Orioles are giving Alex Cobb the start after lasting through five innings of extended spring training minor league ball without injury. He’ll now face the best lineup in all of baseball. The Yankees haven’t hit their stride just yet, but will go crazy when they do. Even after seeing a line of below average pitchers, this may be the absolute worst one yet. In ‘18, Cobb allowed a .360 wOBA to righties, a .330 wOBA to lefties, and only struck out six batters per nine innings. He gave up a monstrous 1.5 HR/9 and backed it all up with an even worse 4.60 xFIP. Unless he starts throwing his splitter a ton and it’s effective, Cobb isn’t going to last this entire year. If the Yankees are at their norm, they’ll make quick work of him and move on to an Orioles bullpen that’s as weak as it gets. They’re also in Camden Yards, which is one of the absolute best hitter ballparks in the entire league. The Yankees are the chalk stack of the early slate and you’re going to be looking at 30-50% ownership for some of these guys.   Potential...