Daily Fantasy MLB Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 6/26/18 Tuesday baseball gives us a lot to think about. We have expensive arms taking the mound with a ton of strikeout upside. But there are also some bottom-feeding pitchers getting the nod against prolific offenses. It could cause quite the lineup pickle. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB 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 Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Pitcher Ross Stripling FD 9300 DK 10500 Opponent - CHC (Jon Lester) Park - LAD FD - 41.71 DK - 22.39 It’s somewhat out of nowhere considering he started the season in the bullpen and really hadn’t completely overwhelming last season in the majors, but man Stripling just keeps putting up numbers. In his last nine starts (since permanently joining the starting rotation) he’s pitched 53 innings and the peripherals are just total ace-level stuff. He has a comical 16.5:1 K:BB ratio and has a 1.87 ERA. Dude has really been among the very best pitchers in the league in that time frame and it really still feels like he’s flying under the radar. It’s tough rostering a pitcher against the Cubs who have an excellent top of the lineup and among the most patient teams in the league. But Stripling is simply underpriced for the kind of numbers he’s putting up on the mound. Luis Severino FD 10600 DK 13100 Opponent - PHI (Jake Arrieta) Park - PHI FD - 41.59 DK - 22.86 Let me start by saying that I think he’s way too expensive on DraftKings. Even with the move to the National League park and the matchup with the Phillies, this seems like paying a total premium on Severino. But he’s firmly in the mix for cash game considerations on FanDuel where the price is still quite reasonable. He still puts up elite strikeout numbers, fanning more than 10.5 batters per nine innings over his last two seasons while keeping the walks completely in check. He’s one of the better young arms in the game and comes in as a -210 favorite against the Phillies. The projected Philadelphia lineup strikes out about 7% more than league average against righties and again, Severino is greatly aided by getting to face the pitcher’s spot (maybe) twice in the game. Charlie Morton FD 10000 DK 12000 Opponent - TOR (Ryan Borucki) Park - HOU FD - 42.86 DK - 22.99 Morton’s control over the last three games...

Daily Fantasy MLB Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 6/25/18 Monday's baseball slate has a couple of (rare) early affairs and then a bevy of action for the evening with all kinds of ways to take lineups. We'll take a look at some of the main slate pitching options and then look at bats across the whole day of games. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB 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 Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Pitcher Justin Verlander FD 11700 DK 13300 Opponent - TOR (J.A. Happ) Park - HOU FD - 44.89 DK - 24.32 Any relevant projection system is going to have him as the highest raw point starting pitcher on the slate. That isn’t exactly news. What we are wondering here is if he’s the strongest cash game option in the matchup against the Blue Jays. He’s posting the best strikeout numbers of his career at 32% (career 23% K%) which is rather remarkable considering this is his age 35 season. That really doesn’t happen this late in a career for pitchers but he’s doing it on the back of his fastball (61% of the time, highest of his career) and the abandonment of the changeup which used to be one of his most thrown secondary pitches. Earlier in his career, he threw it in the teens and now it’s all but disappeared. He’s now strictly fastball, slider, curveball and the results are the spike in K’s and disappearance of walks. That’s a nice way to trend. He’s not as good as the 1.60 ERA would suggest (3.45 xFIP) but I do think the strikeouts will stick. The Blue Jays are top third in the league in wOBA against righties, but do strike out 24% of the time in the split. Verlander’s -240 home money line helps a lot and considering the rest of the options, I do think we end up overpaying a little here. Jameson Taillon FD 7800 DK 7900 Opponent - NYM (Seth Lugo) Park - NYM FD - 32.29 DK - 16.72 Taillon isn’t an overwhelming favorite in this matchup which, from a projection standpoint, does cut into his expected win points. But everything else seems to line up in his favor on Monday. He gets to face a middling Mets’ squad ranked around average against righty arms this season. They have a few bats at the top of the order worth paying attention to (Nimmo and Conforto...

Daily Fantasy MLB Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 6/24/18 Sunday baseball always provides us with nearly a full day of action and plenty of ways to take lineups. Today we get two ace-level arms taking the mound along with a game in Coors and some offenses looking to tee off against below-average pitchers. It has all the makings for a Sunday Funday of MLB action. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB 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 Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Pitcher Gerrit Cole FD 11400 DK 14300 Opponent - KC (Jason Hammel) Park - HOU FD - 50.34 DK - 27.1 Cole has struggled in his last two starts, allowing eight earned runs over 13 innings thanks to three home runs and seven walks. The walks were the biggest factor in his last outing being a disaster, something he’d had totally under control up to that point in the season. The good news is he still struck out 14 over those 13 innings and should be able to maintain something close to the elite level K’s he’s produced so far this season. He’s a monster -340 favorite over the Royals on Sunday, by far the best win expectation of any pitcher on the slate and it isn’t particularly close. The Royals’ projected lineup for Sunday strikes out about league average against righties and are, in general, a weak-hitting bunch. They rank 27th in the league in wOBA against righties this season with a paltry .668 OPS. Cole is very expensive but I do see a bounce-back opportunity in this matchup and the money line greatly helps the projection. Chris Sale FD 11300 DK 13400 Opponent - SEA (Marco Gonzales) Park - BOS FD - 45.02 DK - 25.39 In terms of the money line and projected win expectation, Sale isn’t too far behind Cole with the Red Sox opening at -250 home favorites against the Mariners. But that does mean about a half a run more coming in for the Mariners than the Royals. We are speculating on the margins between these two aces, but Cole’s situation is just slightly better than Sale’s. That being said, the Red Sox lefty is still an elite option here, putting together another Cy Young-level season. He’s striking out batters at a 35% clip with a 5:1 K:BB ratio. The Mariners do have some stingy righty bats around the top of the order and rank in the top...

Three Pitcher Prop Bets for Friday, June 22 It’s time to take a look at three possible pitcher strikeout props for the day and how to take advantage of some in-season biases around pitcher performance. Here we get a chance to look at three pitchers not typically on the DFS radar, but who are coming in with advantageous odds. All props are courtesy of Bodog. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB 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 Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Pitcher Patrick Corbin Opponent - PIT (Ivan Nova) Park - PIT Over 6 K's -115  Projected: 6.98 K's I wrote about Corbin in our daily MLB picks article but it's time to double-down on the case for Corbin here. He's spiked his K% this season, going from 22% career number to 31% this season. It's quite the jump and I'm always a little wary of these kinds of gains this far into a career. But as I outlined in that article, there's some explanation when you consider he's now throwing curveball 11% of the time, while really reducing the use of his fastball (down to 19%). It makes sense consider (per Fangraphs), the fastball has been a negative pitch for his career. His career Pitch Value on the FB is -31 while the slider, sinker and now curveball have all been average or much better. Leaving your worst pitch off the repertoire and moving to s@#$ that actually works has meant the K's followed suit. The Pirates aren't a swing-happy bunch with their projected lineup striking out about 4% less than league average against lefties. And yet I still don't think Vegas has fully caught up to Corbin's new strikeout stuff. Sean Newcomb Opponent - BAL (Alex Cobb) Park - BAL Over 6 K's -120 Projected 7.17 K's Newcomb was another guy I wrote about in the main article and it's somewhat rare for the same value guys on FanDuel and DraftKings to ring in as strikeout prop guys as well, but there's value on his K stuff in this matchup. There's a lot working in his favor. The Orioles already strikeout around 22% of the time against lefties this season and their current lineup (released this afternoon) strikes out about 5% more than league average against lefties. It helps they are moving to a National League park and Newcomb gets the pitcher's spot at least once, maybe twice. Plus Chris Davis is almost good for...

Daily Fantasy MLB Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 6/22/18 We've got a jam-packed Friday in baseball with some high upside arms, so bottom-feeding gas cans and a game in Coors with a ton of implied runs on the Rockies' side. Let's take a look at what Friday has to offer for FanDuel and DraftKings. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB 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 Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Pitcher Sean Newcomb FD 8900 DK 10500 Opponent - BAL (Alex Cobb) Park - BAL FD - 37.55 DK - 19.4 Pitching is coming very much on the cheaper side of things for Friday, which is great news considering we’ll likely want to pay up for premium bats (I’m looking at you Rockies). While not as good as his 2.70 ERA would suggest, Newcomb is putting together a solid season on the mound for the Braves. He strikes out batters at a 25% clip and is able to keep the ball on the ground with a 50% ground ball rate. His biggest issue (by far) comes with the walks, allowing more than four free passes per nine innings. It’s why his 3.84 xFIP comes in more than a run higher than the ERA. It’s also what’s keeping him from averaging less than six innings per start. Now, that might not be as big an issue against the Orioles who walk the 8th-least in the league against lefties and are a bottom third offense in that platoon. I like the -185 moneyline on Newcomb though am willing to recognize that he’s not the complete cash game package because of the control issues. Patrick Corbin FD 9200 DK 11600 Opponent - PIT (Ivan Nova) Park - PIT FD - 37.47 DK - 19.72 I keep waiting for the strikeouts to regress back to something like his career averages, but it hasn’t happened yet. After more than 700 innings of a 21% K rate, Corbin has dialed that up to 31% this season thanks in part to adding a curveball to his repertoire (11% this season after never throwing it before in his career) and significantly reducing his reliance on the fastball (20%, down from 30% over his career). It’s helped him reduce opponents contact percentage both in and out of the zone while also getting batters to swing and miss a lot more. It’s rare, though not impossible, to see this kind of increase in strikeout stuff...