Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/3/15
Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/3/15 Hey all! TGIM! It's a short slate on Monday, but even on a short slate, we'll never be able to detail every single good pick for you. What follows is a few players from each position that make a solid play for various contest types. 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 Francisco Liriano - FD 10500 DK 10800 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- CHC (Lester) L Park- @Pit Jon Lester - FD 10000 DK 10400 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Pit (Liriano) L Park- @Pit Feels like a cop out writing up 2 pitchers who are facing one another, but here's the thing - they both have fantastic match-ups. Both the Cubs and the Bucs are in the top 7 in terms of K% against left handed pitching, so the upside for either is undeniable. If I had to choose one, though, I'd go with Lester. In spite of the big name bats on the Pirates being right handed (McCutchen and Marte), they have a few guys who just can't hit left handed pitching at all (Walker and Alvarez), and they're in the bottom half of the league when it comes to wOBA against lefties. As for the pitchers themselves - they actually cut a much more similar profile that you may realize. Both are sub-3 xFIP guys (excellent) with K rates better than a guy per inning. Only one of them can win this match-up, of course, but I think you could make a case for just splitting your lineups between the two and filling your lineups around what would be a sturdy and well-hedged foundation. Tyson Ross - FD 8600 DK 9300 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Mil (Peralta) R Park- @Mil Ross is one of the more unusual great pitchers in the league. At first blush, his 4.30 BB/9 walk rate is the highest in the majors by .75 among qualified pitchers. It seems like I should be making acerbic barbs about him instead of including him on top of the pitcher rankings. So what gives? Well, Ross has a K/9 approach 10, which is excellent, but perhaps more importantly, the man is a literal ground ball machine. Well not literally - he's a human being - but he generates grounders at the third highest rate in the majors, and is 6% ahead of the guy in 4th place. His K/9 is almost 2 per 9 higher than the either of the guys ahead of...
Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Yahoo and Victiv 8/2/15
Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Yahoo and Victiv 8/2/15 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 and Draftster. Pitchers There are a lot of good pitchers going on this summer Sunday. Jose Fernandez - FD 10700 DK 12300 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- SD (Shields) R Park- @Mia Though he's a little expensive, with some of the hitter values on the docket to day, I think you are fitting him into lineups without too much of an issue. Fernandez has put up ridiculous peripherals since coming back from the DL with a 10.41 K/9 coupled with a walk rate well under two per nine. That's along with a 2.49 xFIP and all of a sudden you see he's just a legit ace. Not that we didn't know it, but worth mentioning. The Padres are a bottom-feeding team against righties with a 21% K rate against righties and this game going down in Miami only helps Jose's case. He could be in a for a monster line against a lineup that's very righty heavy. Jordan Zimmermann - FD 8300 DK 7700 Victiv Yahoo 44 Opponent- NYM (Syndergaard) r Park- @NYM He makes for an interesting stand along play on a site like FanDuel or a great a pairing on DK where he's coming very cheap. Zimmermann isn't a strikeout stud though he makes up for some (not all) of it by limiting the walks. This is simply a price play for me because the Mets aren't a great hitting squad and Citi Field depresses power to lefty hitters. The Mets do strike out around 20% of the time so there's a slight boost in K expectation for Zimm. Don't love him facing Thor but do like the salaries and the matchup. James Shields - FD 8900 DK 8200 Victiv Yahoo 49 Opponent- Mia (Fernandez) R Park- @Mia His price has dropped some over the short terms thanks to some less-than-stellar outings. I don't have a great way to explain those away so I won't bother. What I do know is he's facing the very worst team in the league against right-handed pitching this season. The Marlins are garbage in this split and the ballpark helps Shields (much in the same way it helps his opponent Fernandez). Sure the win expectation again is down because of the opposing pitching matchup. But Shields could stand to see nice value today because of the price drop and the opponent. Consider Jaime Garcia on FanDuel and Hisashi Iwakuma on DraftKings By the...
Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/1/15
Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/1/15 Happy Saturday! Welcome to the DFSR. Today's article will feature late slate picks, since that's where the vast majority of you will be playing. We do offer daily projections for every single player every single 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 The Elephant in the Room Clayton Kershaw. What do we do with a guy who's priced higher than any pitcher in the brief history of daily fantasy sports? I know I said I'd focus on the late slate, but I wanted to get this out there. On one hand, he's earned it. He's averaged almost 26 FanDuel fantasy points in his last 3 games, which is just ridiculous. Just. Ridiculous. Blessedly he's only available in the early slate (which you'll probably skip since most people do), and you probably just need to grab him early in double-ups. But man, it's going to be tough to build a lineup around him, and I'd be a little bit gun shy. On to the picks So, I'm going to give you my favorite guy across three distinct tiers of pitcher tonight. Expensive Jacob deGrom - FD 11300 DK 11800 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Was (Ross) R Park- @Nym With a lot of great pitching going today, it might strike you as odd to grab a guy who'll face the greatest hitter of right handed pitching on the planet. And that's true. But after Bryce Harper, the Nats have been a downright sorry lot against right handed pitching this season. Even including his efforts, the Nats are in the middle of the league when it comes to wOBA and have struck out at the 7th highest rate against northpaws this season, making them a good (if not great) daily fantasy baseball match-up. And hey, I'll tip my cap to Joe Ross based on his first 30 innings in the majors, but his good but not great minor league track record looms a little bit larger for me. Give me DeGrom among the big money guys for my double-ups and 50/50s today. Mid-range Lance Lynn - FD 9600 DK 10200 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Col (de la Rosa) L Park- @Stl Picking against the Rockies, baby! Feels like living dangerously, until you take a peak behind the curtain. The Rockies have struck out with the greatest frequency of any team on the road (24.1%!), and are in the bottom third of the league in wOBA as...
Trade Deadline Moves, and How they Affect Daily Fantasy Baseball
How the moves at the trade deadline will change the value of certain guys on FanDuel, Draftkings, Victiv, and Yahoo The trade deadline has passed, and a few huge names have switched teams. In this article, we'll break down what it means for deploying them on FanDuel, Draftkings, Victiv, and Yahoo going forward for the rest of the season. One quick note - all of this stuff will be incorporated automatically into our projection system. Sign up now and get a free 3 day trial to our lineup construction tool for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo. The Game Changers Troy Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays Critics of Troy Tulowitzki will be quick to point out that his career OPS is nearly .140 points worse on the road, and that his underlying production has taken some notable and troubling dives this season. He's walking less, striking out more, and his isolated power numbers are way down as well. The hypothetical critics I'm referencing here are right. So does moving to Toronto crush Tulo's already declining value? In short, no. Let's break it down. Home Park Moving from Coors to the Rogers Centre is a downgrade, there's no doubt about it. Thankfully, though, the Rogers Centre was tied for the 6th best run scoring environment in baseball in 2014, per FanGraphs. Interestingly, Tulo sees another big upgrade in moving away from Coors - his most frequent away parks. The NL West is littered with 3 awful hitters' destinations (SF, SD, LAD) and one good park (Arizona). The AL East has one terrible park to hit in (TB) and then three great ones. This is still a downgrade, to be sure, but for potential Tulo destinations, it could have been a lot worse. Lineup position Tulo has batted leadoff so far, and while this might hurt his RBI, the guys batting around him are more than capable of driving him in. In addition, the leadoff spot gets about .24 more plate appearances per game over the 3rd spot, and .36 plate appearances over the cleanup spot. All in all, I think this is a win. Teammates The Blue Jays are the only team in the league with a higher wOBA than the Rockies, so this has to be called a win. If you control for home and away games, the difference is dramatic - the Jays are .020 wOBA points better than the Rocks on the road. Price This is really where potential Tulo owners should get excited. At least early on, Tulo's price has dropped from ~$4,600 for home games in Coors to $3,500 for his home games in Toronto. There's no way he has an expectation to drop overall fantasy...
Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Yahoo and Victiv 7/29/15
Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Yahoo and Victiv 7/29/15 It's a huge double slate going today and we're going to get you started with some plays to round out those lineups. Lots of solid pitchers going here so tread carefully, especially on the early 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 and Draftster. Pitchers Early Slate Look, here's the thing: Kluber, Archer, Liriano and King Felix are going on this early slate. One or more of them is going to have a great game because they are, in fact, great. The problem is that their prices are off the map and none of them have particularly good matchups. It's dicey to consider fading all four. But remember they are all facing above average teams in those splits and a lot can go wrong at these prices. The upside on each is limited. This is a long way to say, you should always consider these guys, but I have my reservations. Jon Lester - FD 9500 DK 9100 Victiv Yahoo 54 Opponent- Col (Butler) R Park- @Chc The Rockies no longer have Troy Tulowitzki. From an expert's opinion (some guy I talked to, not me) this makes them worse. Not to say one player is the crux of an entire team, but when one of the best hitters against lefties in all of the majors gets shipped off, you need to downgrade the whole squad. That's what I'm looking at for Lester here. The Rockies were already one of the worst teams in the league this season against lefty pitchers, striking out more than 23% of the time and ranking in the bottom third in terms of team wOBA. Lester, while not an ace, has solid peripherals with a low 3's xFIP. Great price and should be in line for the win. Of all the big money guys, I think you can take a shot on Felix Hernandez because of the park and the D-Backs are the worst among the bunch against righties. Late Slate Tyson Ross - FD 8500 DK 10800 Victiv Yahoo 47 Opponent- NYM (Colon) R Park- @NYM The good news on Ross is the K rate ranks among the best in the league. He's striking out almost ten batters per nine and rocks a 3.05 xFIP. And this is with a walk rate more than 4 per nine. You don't often see numbers like that, meaning when he's not walking batters there's very little opposing batters can do against him. The Mets are...