Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/17/15 Happy Monday, y'all! If you're new to this column, I'm going to give you a few plays at each position that you can consider in your daily fantasy baseball contests. Even though it's a short slate, I still won't be able to hit every acceptable play for the day. If you want the rest? Go ahead and get access to the exclusive projection system that produces these picks. Sign up now and get a free 3 day trial to our lineup construction tool for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo.   Pitchers Gerrit Cole - FD 10200 DK 11200 Victiv Opponent- Ari (Hellickson) R Park- @Pit Alright, on a short slate, you're going to need to try and find some safety at the pitcher position in your double-ups and 50/50s. On Monday, that's going to mean grabbing the Pirates' ace at home against the Diamondbacks. Cole's a strike-out per inning guy with the 13th best xFIP in the major leagues, and he should have a good match-up with the perennially below league average Jeremy Hellickson. Today he'll be facing the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are one of those blessing/curse teams. The D-Backs have struck out at the 9th highest rate against opposing righties this season, but they've also put together the 10th highest wOBA. Worth noting, however, is that they'll be away from their friendly home hitter's environment and in the less friendly PNC Park. I'll take my chances with Cole on a day really lacking a pristine ace match-up. Andrew Heaney - FD 7100 DK 8600 Victiv Opponent- CWS (Rodon) L Park- @ana Alright, this one clearly lands strictly in big tournament punt territory, but if you want a cheap guy who could flash some upside, I'd take a look at Heaney. Heaney himself isn't a whole lot to look at. His sub 7 K/9 doesn't scream "high upside" or anything, so I'll need to explain a bit. When we're thinking about upside at the pitcher spot in daily fantasy baseball, we're thinking strictly in terms of points per dollar. If Heaney were to go 7 innings of shut out ball with 4 Ks and get a W, he'd score 15 points. This would be a great result on a $7,100 FanDuel salary. Not only is he cheap, he's also facing a team that really can't hit. The White Sox are dead last in the majors in wOBA against left handed pitching (an awful .276), and have struck out at the 11th highest rate. Like I said, a guy who gives up this much contact can't be said to be safe, but for big tourneys? Worth a shot....

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/16/15 Full disclaimer - this is a massive slate, and there's no way I could ever possibly list every decent play today. So, I'll do my best in highlighting whom I believe to be the elite plays. If you want the rest? Go ahead and get access to the exclusive projection system that produces these picks. Sign up now and get a free 3 day trial to our lineup construction tool for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo.   Pitchers A quick note before we begin: I'm just going to give you one guy in a few different price tiers. So while I like guys like Matt Harvey against Pittsburgh, I like the listed guy (Sale) a bit more. Cool? Let's do this. Chris Sale - FD 11200 DK 11600 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Chc (Haren) R Park- @Cws Well, my friends, it honestly doesn't get any safer when it comes to a 50/50 or double-up play. Famous last words, obviously, but there really isn't much not to like here. Chris Sale is the owner of the majors' second highest xFIP, Dan Haren is the owner of the majors' 7th worst. The Cubs have struck out a remarkable 23.3% of the time against left handed pitching this season, which is just 1% below the league leading Padres. The fly in the ointment, if you want to call it that, is that the Cubs have been about league average against left handed pitching in terms of wOBA. But let's not be overly picky here. I won't consider playing anyone else in formats where I need to finish in the top half to score, and you can make an argument for playing him in big tournaments too honestly. Carlos Martinez - FD 9900 DK 9100 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Mia (Phelps) R Park- @Stl Looking down the ladder a bit price-wise, my eyes come to a rest on young Carlos Martinez. While he's not a pitcher of the same caliber of the elite arms going today, the price savings are actually pretty significant, and he has arguably as much upside. His 3.33 xFIP is still a top 20 number in the majors, and he's been a strike-out per inning guy with 20 FanDuel points upside. He's also got some stinkers on his resume as well. Still, if you're looking for a high upside play that many will ignore, he's worth a look. The Marlins are dead last in the league in wOBA against right handed pitching this season, and David Phelps and his 4.34 xFIP have been a fair mess this season. Yup, I'm pretty into this one. Shelby Miller - FD 8100...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/11/15 Full disclaimer - this is a massive slate, and there's no way I could ever possibly list every decent play today. So, I'll do my best in highlighting whom I believe to be the elite plays. If you want the rest? Go ahead and get access to the exclusive projection system that produces these picks. Sign up now and get a free 3 day trial to our lineup construction tool for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo.   Pitchers Madison Bumgarner - FD 11900 DK 11100 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Hou (Kazmir) L Park- @SF Matt Harvey - FD 11200 DK 10900 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Col (Rusin) L Park- @Nym It feels a little bit like a cop-out to give you both of these guys at the top of the list, but give me a moment to explain. Our projection system thinks they're basically a coin flip, and I tend to agree. The Rockies can hit right handed pitching, and the Astros can hit left handed pitching. But both of them strike out a phenomenal amount of time (on the road for the Rockies, against lefties for the Astros). Both of these games are in good pitcher's parks, though San Francisco is a significantly better pitching environment even than Citi Field. On the other hand, Harvey seems much more likely to get a win against Rusin than Bumgarner is against Kazmir. What tips the scales toward Bumgarner, for me, is simply that he's a better pitcher. He strikes out more guys, and his xFIP is .30 runs better than Harvey's. Still, though, I can picture playing either here, and didn't want to overstate the case in either direction. A reasonably 50/50 strategy would be to play basically the same lineups and go half and half. Taylor Jungmann - FD 8400 DK 8700 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Chc (Haren) R Park- @ChC If you're looking to cut in a different direction in a big tournament, consider Taylor Jungmann. He's significantly less off the radar than he was before his last start, but our projection system has been something of a believer (at least on these prices) for a while. He's a strong ground-ball pitcher who's managed the wildness he showed in the minors significantly, and has put together a few very high end starts in the last month or so. And really, there's no higher upside match-up than taking a righty against the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs have struck out in an unreal 24.3% of their plate appearances against right handed pitching this season, the very highest number in the league, and the Dan Haren bubble has been in the process...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/10/15 It's a nice small Monday slate after a huge weekend. A good time to catch your breath, and cash in on great values where the mistakes your opponents make will be larger. That said, it's still going to be impossible to give you every single play that our projection system likes. If you want the rest? Go ahead and get access to the exclusive projection system that produces these picks. Sign up now and get a free 3 day trial to our lineup construction tool for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo.   Pitchers Chris Sale - FD 11100 DK 12000 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- LAA (Shoemaker) R Park- @Cws Tonight's slate is a very interesting one for pitchers. I'll start by saying that on a points per dollar basis, Sale's projection is about as low as I like to see when targeting a big money pitcher on a given slate. The question is - if you don't take Sale, who are you going with in your double-ups? I think there are a few interesting cheaper options, but it might be hard to get the rest of your money in in a safe way. And this is after two pretty disastrous starts for the White Sox ace. So what gives? Well, in spite of the Angels possessing a few huge right handed bats, they've actually been pretty crappy against left handed pitching this season. Their .299 wOBA against lefties ranks 22nd in the majors, and outside of Mike Trout, they really don't have another hitter that's been better than league average for their position against lefties. This ought to make it a pretty high floor match-up for Sale, even if his upside is limited by the Angels' resistance to striking out. Rubby De La Rosa - FD 7100 DK 7500 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Phi (Harang) R Park- @Ari If you're interested in an off-beat punt for your tournaments, consider Rubby. Sure, he's got a bizarre first name, but I'll ask you to look past that for a moment. The 26 year old righty has upped his K% while decreasing his BB%, and if it weren't for a random doubling of his home run to fly ball rate, he'd probably be closer to the mid-threes in ERA, as opposed to the mid 4s where he sits now. Is he an ace? Oh, no. He ain't. But in three of his last 10 starts, he's put up 16 or more fantasy points on FanDuel, which is upside you'll take from a guy at his salary. As for the match-up, you can certainly call it favorable. The Phils have the 2nd lowest...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/9/15 Full disclaimer - this is a massive slate, and there's no way I could ever possibly list every decent play today. So, I'll do my best in highlighting whom I believe to be the elite plays. If you want the rest? Go ahead and get access to the exclusive projection system that produces these picks. Sign up now and get a free 3 day trial to our lineup construction tool for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo.   Pitchers Corey Kluber - FD 11000 DK 10600 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Min (Hughes) R Park- @Cle Some will give you Scherzer against the road-hapless Rockies, some will give you Archer against the Mets in a nice pitcher's park. I don't blame them. But I'm here to give you Cleveland's ace. While his ERA might not scream ace - his 2.89 xFIP is tied with Scherzer for 9th best in the majors, and his match-up today gives him the best upside of any of the aces going, from where I'm sitting. The Twins have the 7th worst wOBA in the league against right handed pitching, and the 9th highest strike-out percentage. Kluber will also be facing Phil Hughes, who hasn't struck out more than 5 batters in a game since April 24th. Oof. I like Kluber specifically for 50/50s and double-ups, but don't mind him in big tourneys if you can find good value in the cheaper position players today. Shelby Miller - FD 8300 DK 8800 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Mia (Hand) L Park- @Atl You say slump, I say buying opportunity. As always, this is baseball. We can't go crazy over a few tough games while ignoring the greater track record. While Miller is running hot when it comes to ERA as compared to xFIP, he has flashed strike-out-per-inning stuff in the right match-ups this season. The Miami Marlins are one such match-up. They are dead last in the majors when it comes to wOBA against right handed pitching, giving Miller one of the highest floors on a points per dollar basis today. And then there's Brad Hand. His 4.58 career xFIP is downright awful, and while some of that is because the Fish called him up way too early, he's still a sub 6 K/9 guy who has also struggled with control at times. I don't mind this play at all if you have a bunch of big dollar hitters you like today. Max Scherzer - FD 12300 DK 13200 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Col (Flande) L Park- @Was So, this is a really weird spot in some ways. On one hand, Scherzer is obviously an ace's ace, especially for...