Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/16/15
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
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
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
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...
Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/8/15
Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/8/15 Happy Saturday, everyone! Two big slates, and many nice edges for your daily fantasy baseball gambling purposes today. As it's a huge slate, I'm going to break this down into two sections - I'll give you 1 guy for each position from the early slate, and 2 guys from the larger later slate. 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 Early Slate Noah Syndergaard - FD 10800 DK 11500 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- TB (Karns) R Park- @TB After a good 2014 AAA campaign, Syndergaard has been electric across AAA and the majors in 2015. His 2.94 xFIP would be good for 12th in the majors if he qualified (he's only a few innings off), and he's been better than the more ballyhooed duo of Harvey and DeGrom. He's also averaged 20 fantasy points in back to back 8 inning starts, and he's truly at the peak of his powers. Today he'll have truly an ideal match-up with the lowly Rays of Tampa Bay (sweet rhyming team name btw - why not the New York Storks, or the Colorado Avocados? I hate expansion teams.). The Rays have the 4th lowest wOBA in the majors against right handed pitching, which they pair with the 3rd highest K rate against right handers. I'm not worried about the surprisingly decent Nathan Karns, here. Syndergaard is an ace, and I like him for the win and a pile of Ks. Jesse Chavez actually makes an interesting punt option against Houston's K happy offense. He's on a reduced price after a few awful starts, but everyone is bad from time to time. Late Slate Tyson Ross - FD 8900 DK 10600 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Phi (Morgan) L Park- @Sd With a million great pitchers going in the last two days, we're left with a day of the dregs. I won't include Ross in that category. While there's something of a perception that Ross is lucky (due to his high BB rate), the fact of the matter is that he actually has a pretty serviceable and unique skill set. His 63% groundball rate is the 3rd highest in the majors, and it's nearly 5% higher than 4th place. He turns a lot of those walks into double plays, and erases others with his elite 9.56 strikeouts per 9 innings. Today he'll face the Phillies - owners of the 2nd worst wOBA in the majors against right handed pitching. The...