Daily Fantasy MLB Pitchers and Stacks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/29/18 Opening Day We already highlighted Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw in our Opening Day picks article. We also highlighted the Astros and Royals as popular game stacks at their respective team price points. Here we will look at some other (possible GPP) considerations. 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. Pitchers Aaron Nola FD 8800 DK 9400 Opponent - ATL (Julio Teheran) Park - ATLFD - 34.82 DK - 18.48 Nola has, somewhat quietly, put together three solid seasons with his 2017 campaign nearly mirroring the 2016 numbers. He struck out close to 10 batters per nine (9.86) and finished with a 3.38 xFIP. Even the wins ticked up some as the Phillies youth movement was able to put together runs near the end of the season. He’ll open the season against the Braves who’s own youth “movement” is underway with the only real credible lineup threat of Freddie Freeman in the middle of the order. The bottom of the lineup has no real power to speak of. The Braves have an implied expected run line of 3.8 (one of the lower of the middle tier pitching options) and Nola is a slight -120 favorite. Atlanta, for all their lack of pop, don’t strike out that much (6% less than league average in this split - assuming all of our lineup assumptions are correct). In this tier of pricing Nola has as much strikeout upside as anyone in this tier. Danny Duffy FD 7700 DK 7700 Opponent - KC (James Shields) Park - CHWFD - 32.94 DK - 17.01 Duffy’s 2017 season fell short of the strides he’d made in 2016 and it’s a little tough to figure where he lands going forward. He saw a marked increase in K/9 from 2015 to 2016 (6.72/9 up to 9.42/9) but then dropped to 8 K’s per last season. That’s all over the map and has me leaning towards 2017 being something like the projectable performance moving forward. He’s a slight -135 favorite against a young White Sox squad that could have a lot of swings and misses this season. We have their current lineup striking out 10% more than league average against lefties. And while there is some power in the middle guys like Avisail Garcia and Jose Abreu have a 20% K rate against left-handed...

Daily Fantasy MLB Basketball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/29/18 Opening Day Ah, Opening Day. When hope springs eternal for every team in baseball and we revel in the glory of the entire season expanding out in front of us. It’s a great time of year and the baseball season offers just another way to expand our DFS horizons. Opening Day is a little different this season with every team playing on the first day and Thursday offers a full day of games. Let's take a look at some value plays for the first day. 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 Chris Sale FD 11200 DK 12200 Opponent - TB (Chris Archer) Park - TB FD - 43.34 DK - 24.44 My dad called me in a mild panic on Saturday to tell me Sale had taken a liner off his hip during his final Spring Training start and it looked bad. Such is the way of a Red Sox lifer who still lives and dies with this kind of impending injury news. But Sale is fine and will make the Opening Day start against the Rays. He’s coming off a career season (even for his lofty standards) that included a totally nuts 12.93 K/9 rate and 2.65 xFIP which ranked only behind Corey Kluber for best in the league. Sale will get a Rays’ offense that jettisoned most of its *talent* in the offseason and now has mid-level MLB talent like Carlos Gomez and CJ Cron hitting in the middle of the lineup. He gets the benefit of one of the best pitcher’s parks in Tampa Bay and the implied runline (7, BOS -161) works well in his favor. There are a lot of aces taking the mound on Thursday, but Sale sits right at the top of the group. Clayton Kershaw FD 11700 DK 11500 Opponent - SF (Ty Blach) Park - LAD FD - 43.27 DK - 24.43 Kershaw spent another year being Kershaw in 2017, finishing with a 2.84 xFIP (actually kind of disappointing for him) and 10.4 strikeouts per nine in 27 starts. He was once again dominant and starts this season as, by far, the highest opening money line on the day. The Dodgers are a whopping -285 favorite over the Giants thanks the latter putting Ty Blach on the mound (and basically calling it a season). The...

Daily Fantasy 101 - GPP Strategies for MLB New Users Opening Day for the 2018 MLB season is just around the corner and that means another great year for daily fantasy baseball. In this article, I am going to cover some of the basics but most important strategies when making your lineups for GPP tournaments across the industry. While these are separated into sections, there is a lot of intertwined ideas between it all. 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. Stacking Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way early. Stacking is a vital strategy when it comes to building your tournament teams. What is stacking? This is when you take anywhere from three to five batters that hit in succession and use them all in the same lineup. The reason you do this is that if that team scores a bunch of runs, you are most likely to cash in on that as you’re going to get points for every hit, run (R) and run batted in (RBI) that occurs with your players. For example, if your first player gets a single, your second player gets a single and your third one hits a home run (HR) with your first two on base, you are going to get all of those points and jump up the standings really quick. Of course, there is the downside of stacking as well. If you have four or five batters from the same team and that team only puts up one run, you are not going to cash anything. This is a volatile strategy but it is also the most commonly used in tournaments as it has the highest upside. Take a look at the top of the leaderboard over the first couple weeks of the season and you will notice that almost all of the teams in the top 10 will have utilized this strategy. Take a look at this example of a stack of Phillies players that put up great numbers, but individually they may not have been that valuable because there were no home runs hit. Another aspect I want to bring your attention to is the three runs that the Phillies scored in the ninth inning. If they were the home team, they would not have gotten to bat in the bottom of the ninth so. Using teams that are on the road...

DFSR's Daily Fantasy MLB Podcast for FanDuel & DraftKings Thursday 3/29/17  DFSR's Doug Norrie and James Davis are back on the MLB podcast for the start of the 2018 baseball season on DraftKings and FanDuel. There's plenty to dive into with a new season around the corner and the guys look into some general MLB DFS strategies, ideas, components and considerations when putting together MLB lineups. They discuss the DFSR system of projections and what factors they weigh on a daily basis. They look at Vegas lines, platoon splits, park factors, and other pieces of the puzzle when formulating projections. They also look ahead to opening day and discuss guys like Chris Sale, Clayton Kershaw, Garret Richards and more. Plus they look at some chalkier team stacks and how to evaluate offensive production for DFS. Be sure to subscribe...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings Playoffs - 10/3/17 Well we made through all 162 regular season baseball games. Seems like just yesterday the season started and now we are into October where the games really matter. Just the two wildcard games going down to start this off and it's al short slates from here on out. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer, our NFL Optimizer, and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with NFL or MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB and NFL Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Minnesota Twins @ New York Yankees Pitchers Luis Severino FD 10200 DK 11000 Opponent - MIN (Santana) Park - @NYY FD - 42.91 DK - 23.25 Severino comes in as the best pitcher over the two game-two day slate of play-in games for Tuesday and Wednesday. Severino’s coming off a a fantastic first full season in the majors, sporting a 3.04 xFIP and 10.71 K/9 rate while limiting the walks as compared to last year. It was a big leap forward and he’s one of the more formidable arms in the AL. He’s the biggest favorite (-240) of the two games and the Twins had a 22% K rate against righties this season. The ballpark doesn’t do Sev any real favors, but I suspect he’s the chalk play on this opening playoff slate of games. Ervin Santana FD 8300 DK 7000 Opponent - NYY (Severino) Park - @NYY FD - 25.75 DK - 12.42 Severino is the best pitcher on the slate and Santana is the worst. Don’t be fooled by the 3.28 ERA this season. The xFIP was 4.77 and dude ran 40 points off his career BABIP numbers (.245 compared to .282). He K’s only seven batters per nine and is generally pitching to contact. That could be an issue in Yankee Stadium with the short porch in right and at least two guys in the middle of the lineup who will absolutely crush you if you don’t have better than average K stuff. The Yankees has the second highest implied run total and Santana will likely be the lowest owned arm. Bats Vegas has the Yankees with right around 4.6 runs going into this game with the only real issue in their lineup is the lack of big lefty power to face Santana. But they still have power between Aaron Judge who put up a transcendent 1.049 OPS and 52 HR rookie season and Gary Sanchez who ranks as the...