Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and Starsdraft 10/13/15 Another super-duper-short slate, but I know you all are like me - just trying to wring out the last little bits of the daily fantasy baseball season. Picture me giving you the look a bartender gives an alcoholic who has just come in out of a hurricane at 11pm, looking for his usual seat at the bar. I'm sighing, waving you over to your stool, and pouring your usual without you asking for it. If you're new to the playoff picks, I'll be giving you one play per position to whet your appetite. You can also grab a free trial of the projection system that makes these picks possible. Your free trial also includes access to our NFL and NHL tools - so get started today! Click here for a free 3 Day Free Trial Pitchers Clayton Kershaw - FD 12700 DK 14400 Matz L Park- @Lad I imagine you might have seen this coming. Even at these ungodly salaries, our projection system likes Kershaw as the best bang for your buck in 50/50s and double-ups tomorrow. Is it any surprise? The guy's putting up vintage Bob Gibson numbers, and the Mets have a decent handful of guys who are seriously terrible against left handed pitching. The Metropolitans got to him in game 1, and this is short rest and all, but if you want safety on the shortest of slates, you really ought not to look elsewhere. Edited to add: I just talked to Doug, who says the "not clutch" narrative is going to reduce Kershaw's ownership percentage tonight. If that's miraculously the case, then he'll probably just be a great play regardless. If you buy in to 5 game sample sizes or whatever, this daily fantasy sports thing isn't going to go well for you. Lance Lynn - FD 8400 DK 7500 Opponent- Chc (Hammel) R Park- @Stl We've gotten eaten for lunch recommending Cards pitchers against the Cubs so far, but by golly, it's an awful short sample size. Lynn's a strike-out pitcher (8.71 career K/9) with control issues, which makes him the perfect feast or famine start for big tourneys today. When he's good, he can put up gaudy numbers. When he's less than great, he can get absolutely wrecked. The Cubs have been playing the role of the wrecking ball in this short series so far, but let's not forget that this is the same team that put up an historic 24% k rate against right handed pitching in 2015. You can't call it a sure thing, but with the world honing in on Kershaw today, it certainly makes for an interesting gamble....

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and Starsdraft 10/12/15 Well, this is going to be interesting! I'm writing this before FD and DK have released any games, so I don't have total clarity as far as pricing is concerned, nor do I have the benefit of our system (which will automate when those games go live). Thankfully, I'm coming off of 200 straight days or whatever of doing this, so hopefully I'll be able to get close! By the time you're likely reading this, our system will be live. Go ahead and get access to the exclusive projection system that produces these picks - it also covers the NFL, and we even have a beta version of Hockey live now as well! Sign up now and get a free 3 day trial to our lineup construction tool for FanDuel, DraftKings and Starsdraft. Click here for a free 3 Day Free Trial Pitchers So, the clear safe play on the board today is Arrieta. He's been a man among boys really for the last two seasons, and shone a particularly bright light on that recently, mowing down literally every team in his path. But he's really expensive, and on such a small slate you might find yourself slotting in some pretty bad hitters if you play him. If you go to make your 50/50 lineup today and it's just not clicking, there are some other dudes you can consider. Matt Harvey - FD 10100 DK 11900 Opponent- LAD (Anderson) L Park- @Lad A step down from Arrieta price wise, and our system thinks he could put up a similar point total against the Dodgers. We've seen DeGrom and Syndergaard go off for gaudy strike-out totals, and Harvey's got arguably the best stuff out of all of them. After a slow start to the season while returning from Tommy John surgery, Harvey put up a 10+ K/9 and a sub 1 BB/9 in August and September, cementing him as the ace's ace type that he flashed pre-injury. The Dodgers are no easy pickings - they've got the 8th highest wOBA in the majors against right handers this season - but they are prone to strike-out, and Harvey will be going in the pitcher-friendly Citi Field. Michael Wacha - FD 8500 DK 8300 Opponent- CHC (Arrieta) R Park- @Stl If you're trying to go for straight points per dollar upside today, Wacha has to be the guy. The Cubs struck out at an historic 24% clip against right handed pitching this season, and are playing basically the same lineup that netted them that incredible rate. Now, they can also really hit. And Arrieta is awesome, making getting a win pretty...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and Starsdraft 10/11/15 Happy Sunday! It's a crazy time of year for Daily Fantasy Baseball. Tons of great pitchers, very short slates, and generally speaking, the lowest scores of the year. Thankfully - today's a little bit of a different story. With 3 pitchers ranging from somewhere between average to below average, there are actually some interesting plays to be made. Want to see our numbers for yourself? 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 and Starsdraft. Click here for a free 3 Day Free Trial Note: Blue Jays against the left handed Perez are going to be the chalkiest of all chalk line-ups today, and for good reasons. They're going to destroy Perez in all likelihood. Still, though, if you want to win a big tournament, I suggest fading them where possible if you want to take a stab and play against a very small minority of the field. Pitchers Edinson Volquez - FD 8300 DK 8400 Opponent- Hou (Keuchel) L Park- @KC Full disclosure - the pitcher situation is GRIZZLY today. A lot of people will play Keuchel, which makes sense, because he's the best pitcher going by a country mile. The thing is, though, he's REALLY expensive, and the Royals are about as bad a daily fantasy match-up as you can get. They're a hair better than league average in terms of wOBA against left handed pitching, but have struck out at a ridiculously low %15.1 clip against lefties. That's 1.7% better than 2nd place, and more than 11% better than the last place Astros. The Astros! This brings us to Volquez (that's a professional segue, folks). This is far from a "safe" recommendation - the Astros have the 4th best wOBA in the majors against right handed pitching. They also strike out at the 2nd highest rate against righties. Let's be clear - Volquez is really not a phenomenal pitcher. He's years removed from his best season (2008), and all of his skills are headed in the wrong direction. Still, if you're a lightning in a bottle guy - this could absolutely be it. Dallas Keuchel - FD 11000 DK 12300 Opponent- KC (Volquez) R Park- @KC There's some chance that Keuchel is a universal start in 50/50s, so it feels irresponsible to not at least mention him here. As you're well aware, Keuchel is the best pitcher on this slate by a country mile. But he's also nearly 50% more expensive on DraftKings, and about %40 more expensive on FanDuel. On...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and Starsdraft 10/10/15 Playoffs, baby! Lots of short slates to finish out the season, and this is one of the very shortest we'll see. Short slates mean slim pickings, and big mistakes. Don't be left out in the cold - let's get to the guys you want for Saturday's games! 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 and Starsdraft. We've got our projection system for NFL going right now, and a beta version of our hockey system! Enjoy! Click here for a free 3 Day Free Trial Pitchers Picking between the Giants And I don't mean the San Francisco Giants, of course. I mean trying to pick between Noah Syndergaard and Zack Greinke. Greinke is the better pitcher, is projected for a higher raw point total in our system tonight. The Mets were in the bottom third of the league in terms of wOBA against right handed pitching, and the Dodgers have been in the top third of the league. They both strike out at roughly the same rate, with the Dodgers striking out just a little bit more. It all points to Greinke, until you get to the price. On such a short slate, playing Greinke might really limit your options throughout the rest of your lineup. Then again, it will be tough to invest lots of money at a good multiplier across your hitters as well. I guess I'll give the nod to Greinke for cash games, figuring the Syndergaard might have greater upside in a big tournament. And the lesser guys Another close one! Jaime Garcia and Kyle Hendricks get similar results with a different approach. Garcia relies on good control and a positively elite ground-ball rate, and Hendricks trades a few of those ground-balls for strike-outs. They had very similar xFIPs - 3.25 for Hendricks, and 3.36 for Garcia. In a vacuum, this probably would make Hendricks the better play because strike-outs get you some extra points. But this ain't in a vacuum. The Cubs struck out a whopping 26.2% of the time against left handed pitching this season - the very highest number in the majors - and the Cardinals were a tougher than average match-up for right handed pitchers. Uneventfully, this makes both of them very similar in terms of raw points per dollar projections. Still, Hendricks hasn't pitched into the 7th inning since August 1st, leading me to believe that Garcia might wind up being the safer play here.   Catchers Yadier Molina - FD 2200 DK 3000 Opponent-...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and Starsdraft - The Wild Card Round The shortest of short slates, and all great pitchers. Gulp. Here's the thing - on a slate this short, writing any picks at all is basically giving you access to our projection system. That won't be the case for all of the nights of the playoffs, but it's true tonight. We do offer access to our NFL and NBA projection systems as well, though, so you should go get a trial for those as well! Sign up now and get a free 3 day trial to our lineup construction tool for FanDuel, DraftKings and Starsdraft. Click here for a free 3 Day Free Trial Note: You're going to see a lot of hitters who we are recommending against the same pitchers. Obviously, if you're trying to win a big tournament, you probably shouldn't play hitters against the same pitchers. You might need to take less orthodox guys in those cases. Still, though, these are the best value plays that we can come up with for tonight. Pitchers FanDuel Gerrit Cole - FD 10000 DK 10600 StarsDraft Opponent- CHC (Arrieta) R Park- @Pit He's projected for the highest raw total in our system today, and he's the second cheapest guy. Cole struck out 17 batters in 13 innings in his last two starts against the Cubs, and it was no accident - the Cubs struck out at the highest rate in the majors against right handed pitching this season. Their 24% rate is historically bad, and this is a match-up you won't often get come playoff time. The Cubs obviously hvae a ton of upside here as well, but every team has offensive upside in the playoffs. Arrieta is obviously a beast on the mound for the Cubs, but these teams are equal enough that I don't think you can weigh Arrieta against Cole's chances any more than you can any other pitcher going tonight. On a night where financial flexibility will make a huge difference, I love Cole in any format on FanDuel. DraftKings Masahiro Tanaka - FD 9600 DK 9000 StarsDraft Opponent- Hou (Keuchel) L Park- @Hou You could make an argument for Tanaka on FanDuel as well, but I love just hedging him across the two sites. Cole on FD, Tanaka on DK. He hasn't been fantastic in the immediate past, but the guy has a 2.96 xFIP and nearly a 5:1 K:BB in his 290 major league innings. He's a monster. The Astros, for their part, are just behind the Cubs in terms of strike-out percentage against righties. They've whiffed at a 23.6% clip, making Tanaka a play with plenty of...