Daily Fantasy Baseball: DraftKings Lineups for Thursday, April 10th
By Nir Elitzur
Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Greetings Fantasy CPR readers, I am the new kid on the block — not to be mistaken with Donnie Wahlberg. I’d like to think of myself more of Mark, someone who will actually succeed and help you succeed — like his entourage (the TV show “Entourage” was loosely based on Mark Wahlberg, in case you didn’t get the punch line).
My goal here will be to help you with Thursday’s daily fantasy baseball lineups. Since the NBA season is winding down, I will focus mainly on MLB, trying to expose the biggest mismatches of the day, and in turn, find us the best value on any given day.
All prices are based on DraftKings pricing.
SP – Jenrry Mejia, New York Mets, $7400 – Before there was Matt Harvey, there was Jenrry Mejia. Mejia was once the Mets’ top pitching prospects, but has gotten lost in the shuffle due to injuries. He finally made the Mets rotation this spring, beating out Daisuke Matsuzaka for the fifth starter role. There is a lot of value here since Mejia is a strikeout pitcher, and he is facing the Atlanta Braves, who love to swing at the ball. Mejia is my value pitcher of the day.
SP – Danny Salazar, Cleveland Indians, $9000 – The second pitcher was a little tougher to choose. It was between the two Dan’s — Straily or Salazar. I chose Salazar due to his history against the White Sox (two games started, 9 IP, 17 K, 2 BB and 2.00 ERA). I expect a sluggish performance from the White Sox, who are traveling all the way from Colorado back home to Chicago.
C – Miguel Montero, Arizona Diamondbacks, $3400 – I hate paying for catchers, so I always look for one that is cheap and has a good history against the pitcher he’s up against. Montero has six hits in 19 at bats against Ryan Vogelsong, and hopefully we will be singing straight to the bank with this play.
1B – Edwin Encarnacion, Toronto Blue Jays, $4800 – Houston is throwing a lefty and pitching against one of the games best right handed hitters…in a hitters ball park. Not really a hard sell here.
2B – Aaron Hill, Arizona Diamondbacks, $4700 – Another Diamondbacks player who historically feasts off Vogelsong. Hill is batting .563 with three homers in 16 at bats against the Giants’ starter, and with 2B being so deep today, no matchups look more lopsided than this one.
3B – Anthony Rendon, Washington Nationals, $3900 – This kid is slowly becoming one of my favorite players to watch. Rendon is batting second in a stacked lineup and is taking advantage of his position every chance he gets. Although I think he might bat lower in the lineup tonight due to the righty/righty matchup, he is still worth a play.
SS – Jonathan Villar, Houston Astros, $3700 – To be honest, I am not a fan of any of the shortstop options today, so I decided to take a flyer on Villar and his speed potential. Let’s just hope he can get on base.
OF 1 – Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers, $5500 – Braun is matching up against Cliff Lee in Philly, a pitcher who he has enjoyed a lot of success against. This isn’t the cheapest play, but it might be one of the smarter ones. Don’t be too frugal with your money, you can’t keep any for tomorrow.
OF 2 – Carlos Gomez, Milwaukee Brewers, $4200 – Another Brewer in the outfield. What can I say, their right-handed hitters love facing Cliff Lee. I’m not too sure how Lee feels about this, though.
OF 3 – Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins, $4800 – Is it Giancarlo or Mike? What difference does it make? This man is on a mission to shut critics up after a subpar 2013 season. I’ll keep rolling him out as long as he keeps making us money.
There you have it folks, my first entry. I supplied you with my favorite plays, which will hopefully help you when constructing your rosters (and win you some money!).
Don’t forget to check the weather in the cities the games are being played and make sure to keep tabs on the daily rosters to see if your players are actually playing. There’s nothing worse than having an inactive player on your roster. Good luck!