Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and Victiv 8/19/15 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, Victiv and Yahoo. Pitchers Early Slate Julio Teheran - FD 8500 DK 10000 Victiv Opponent- SD (Ross) R Park- @SD There’s not a whole lot to love pitching-wise on the early slate of games today, but Julio Teheran is the exception. The Padres strike out a lot against righties (21.6%) and have the 27th lowest OPS as well. Teheran hasn’t exactly been on fire this year, but his numbers have been much stronger against righty hitters, something the Padres have a lot of. Mix in a good pitchers park in Petco, and Teheran appears to be your best bet. Late Slate Jaime Garcia - FD 8500 DK 10300 Victiv Opponent- SF (Cain) R Park- @Stl Because all of the upper tier pitchers on this slate have pretty tough matchups, I’m going to give you some lower priced guys I think will perform well. Normally I wouldn’t suggest many pitchers facing the Giants formidable offense, but Garcia is an interesting matchup. While the Giants crush right-handed pitching, they are actually in the lower half of the league against lefties. Garcia’s strikeout numbers aren’t going to blow anyone away, but he’s been phenomenal everywhere else with a WHIP of 0.90, and ERA of 1.57 and an xFIP of 3.15. Add in the fact that I expect the Cardinals to win at home (because they usually do), and Garcia might end up posting the best score of any pitcher on the slate. Nathan Karns - FD 8000 DK 7700 Victiv Opponent- Hou (Keuchel) L Park- @Hou Doesn’t have quite as good a matchup as Garcia in my opinion, but Nathan Karns is another good mid-tier priced arm you can use in the late slate. His strikeout numbers are better than Garcia’s at almost a K per inning, which is nice since the Astros strikeout the second most in the bigs against righties. The troublesome things are that the Astros are decent hitters against righties (when they make contact), and he’s facing an ace in Dallas Keuchel. On the other hand the Rays are fantastic against southpaws and just recently roughed up Scott Kazmir. I don’t like his upside as much as Garcia’s, but Karns has produced more than 10 FD points in 8 of his last 10 games, so he’s a safe bet for a decent score. By the way - we were reached out to by a new site that deals with all...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and Victiv 8/18/15 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 Victiv. Pitchers Francisco Liriano - FD 9700 DK 10300 Victiv Opponent- Ari (Anderson) R Park- @Pit I think this is the first time all year that Kershaw has pitched where we haven't recommended him as the top play. But man, that price today is just too much. He needs to be about perfect to be safer value and I think you can fade him (though it doesn't feel amazing). The same is somewhat the case for deGrom. So we are left with some mid tier guys who are coming somewhat at discounts. Liriano is one of those guys. He walked a tight rope last game and was shaky the game before, leading to a price drop. The peripherals this season are tight though with a 9.91 K/9 rate and 2.94 xFIP. The ballpark helps him hear with Pittsburgh depressing power. He faces a good D-Backs team who do strike out 21% of the time against lefties. Liriano isn't the safest guy in the world, but this is a price play. Anibal Sanchez - FD 8300 DK 7300 Victiv Opponent- Chc (Hammel) R Park- @ChC Another guy who doesn't strike me as safe, but has some K upside in this matchup. The Cubs go down on strikes more than 24% of the time against righties this season and rank in the bottom half of the league in team wOBA in that platoon. Sanchez has been merely average though his 3:1 K:BB ratio comes out fine enough. He's another arm that stands to well exceed his price point because of the peripherals and matchup. He also helps stack some bats in hitter's parks against weaker arms. Which may be the way to go today. James Shields - FD 8700 DK 8600 Victiv Opponent- Atl (Wisler) R Park- @Sd The home runs have just killed him this season. They're the biggest component in his "struggles" as he's given up a fair amount of power in Petco. Because his other numbers are pretty tight. He's striking out close to ten batters per nine and has an xFIP in the mid 3's. These aren't ace numbers, but he isn't priced like one either. The Braves are a bottom third team against righties and don't have much power at all. Shields fits the bill with the other guys above. The price points allow for offensive flexibility. I like working a variety of lineups with the three...

Daily Fantasy MLB Baseball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, Victiv, and Yahoo 8/17/15 Happy Monday, y'all! If you're new to this column, I'm going to give you a few plays at each position that you can consider in your daily fantasy baseball contests. Even though it's a short slate, I still won't be able to hit every acceptable play for the 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 Gerrit Cole - FD 10200 DK 11200 Victiv Opponent- Ari (Hellickson) R Park- @Pit Alright, on a short slate, you're going to need to try and find some safety at the pitcher position in your double-ups and 50/50s. On Monday, that's going to mean grabbing the Pirates' ace at home against the Diamondbacks. Cole's a strike-out per inning guy with the 13th best xFIP in the major leagues, and he should have a good match-up with the perennially below league average Jeremy Hellickson. Today he'll be facing the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are one of those blessing/curse teams. The D-Backs have struck out at the 9th highest rate against opposing righties this season, but they've also put together the 10th highest wOBA. Worth noting, however, is that they'll be away from their friendly home hitter's environment and in the less friendly PNC Park. I'll take my chances with Cole on a day really lacking a pristine ace match-up. Andrew Heaney - FD 7100 DK 8600 Victiv Opponent- CWS (Rodon) L Park- @ana Alright, this one clearly lands strictly in big tournament punt territory, but if you want a cheap guy who could flash some upside, I'd take a look at Heaney. Heaney himself isn't a whole lot to look at. His sub 7 K/9 doesn't scream "high upside" or anything, so I'll need to explain a bit. When we're thinking about upside at the pitcher spot in daily fantasy baseball, we're thinking strictly in terms of points per dollar. If Heaney were to go 7 innings of shut out ball with 4 Ks and get a W, he'd score 15 points. This would be a great result on a $7,100 FanDuel salary. Not only is he cheap, he's also facing a team that really can't hit. The White Sox are dead last in the majors in wOBA against left handed pitching (an awful .276), and have struck out at the 11th highest rate. Like I said, a guy who gives up this much contact can't be said to be safe, but for big tourneys? Worth a shot....

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 and Victiv 8/15/15 There are two early games on the schedule for Saturday. These picks are going to focus on the evening 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 Patrick Corbin - FD 6700 DK 7300 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- Atl (Foltynewicz) r Park- @Atl Didn't think you'd see his name up this high did you? I know there are some major arms going on this evening slate, but consider, for a moment, the savings and upside you might get from a guy like Corbin. He's priced in the basement of pitchers which allows for massive flexibility. I'm not usually inclined to recommend these pitcher punts for cash games because paying up for arms almost always makes sense. There's an exception for Corbin though. His peripherals have been outstanding this season, striking out a batter an inning and walking about two per nine. He has a 3.26 xFIP and faces a Braves team ranked near the basement against lefty arms. They strike out 21% of the time and have a .281 team wOBA. They stink. Corbin is priced like a punt, but has mid to upper tier value going. He also opens the door to stacking some of the bigger offenses. And even considering the price, I don't see him as that risky. The upper tier of pitching looks very dice roll-ish for me today. There are quality arms going for sure, but their prospects aren't striking me as super safe. If I was to choose any of the upper tier guys it would probably be: Jake Arrieta - FD 10500 DK 11600 Victiv Yahoo Opponent- CWS (Quintana) L Park- @cws And even he doesn't strike me as any kind of lock. Dude's put up solid numbers for sure, with a 9.15 K/9 rate and lower BB/9 helping him to a sub 3 xFIP. The White Sox are a middling team against righties and strike out about 21% of the time. The ballpark here does Arrieta no favors as U.S. Cellular is one of the best hitter's parks in all of baseball. I just think he's a little pricey for his ultimate upside, though I do think that paying for pitching is almost always the way to go. That's why this slate feels so weird going in. Consider Johnny Cueto because the Angels seem like an offensive dumpster fire of late, though his tag is through the roof too. I would also strongly consider Justin Verlander in...