MLB Picks and Pivots – FanDuel Picks April 17

MLB Picks and Pivots – FanDuel Picks April 17

Welcome to the Sunday edition of Picks & Pivots, a daily fantasy column focused on providing analysis for the upcoming MLB FanDuel slate. The purpose of this column is to first identify key building blocks that can be used for any roster construction and then identify pivot points to help differentiate your lineup in hopes of a big pay day!n
The Sunday slate kicks off at 1:05PM EST with 14 day games and one additional Sunday Night game featuring the Dodgers and the Giants setting us up for a great all day slate!

I will continue to track winning GPP lineups and compare trends over 5 day periods to help us understand what it takes to remain profitable. I HIGHLY recommend each of you do this each morning to look back on the previous night and understand how the winning lineups are constructed in the games you participate in.

The view below compares the 5 day period April 10-14 and the winning GPP scores from a selection of GPP entries I have entered over the past week with a comparison to how Friday April 15^th slate played out.

• Average Top GPP Finish Points Scored: 224 Points(5 day) – April 15(255)
• Average SP Salary: $7,500 (5 Day) – April 15 ($7,200)
• Hitter/Pitcher Percentage of Salary Spent: 21/79 (5 Day) – April 15: 21/79
• $ Value Per Point: $6.4 (5 Day) – April 15: 7.3

Friday’s slate was incredibly high scoring as there were multiple high offensive outputs across the league. What is interesting about this slate is that although the scores were up the basic roster construction remained consistent with the previous 5 days winner’s in that they continue to target mid-tier starting pitching and utilize roughly a 20/80 split when constructing their roster. With so many aces on the bump Friday night, it was Joe Ross found at the top of the winning entries – who I had featured yesterday in Picks and Pivots April 15  – keeping up with the theme of mid-tier SP being the key building block for winning GPP entries.

Now on to the picks…

Next: Top Starting Pitchers

Starting Pitcher –

• Michael Wacha ($8,500) – The Cardinals are home Sunday for the Reds and put simply, Wacha has owned the Reds in his short career. In 9 career starts against the Reds, Wacha is 5-1 with a 1.87 ERA. Looking at the key Batter Versus Pitcher matchups – there are some eye opening struggles that the Reds hitters have had against Wacha:
  • Jay Bruce – 0-21 (yes you read that right) with 10k’s
  • Billy Hamilton – 1 for 20
  • Brandon Phillips – 3 for 22

Joey Votto is 8 for 19 in his career against Wacha, but if the Cardinals righty can navigate around Votto he would be primed for another solid outing. The fact that this game is in St. Louis as well plays a big role in Wacha’s success as he is 15-4 all time pitching at home with an ERA a full point lower. Also take into account that Wacha is coming off a 6 inning shutout win his last time out where he racked up 7 strikeouts and this is another matchup where Wacha can deliver us a big FanDuel outing.

• Derek Holland ($8,100) – A matchup against the red hot Baltimore offense isn’t one I would initially want to target however looking at Holland’s stats a bit further you will notice he has fantastic career numbers against the current Orioles hitters. The current O’s hitters over 125 at bats have only 28 hits (.224 average) against Holland with 7 home runs but let me give you a sneak peak into one of my top hitter matchups – Mark Trumbo – who is 14 for 45 against Holland with FIVE homeruns.

So take out Trumbo and the rest of the lineup has only managed 2 home runs(both from Matt Wieters) against Holland. The fact he has been able to control the other heavy hitters in this lineup makes Holland a great GPP play on Sunday as most gamers will see the matchup and immediately pass him over put the career stats give us something to examine further here.

• Nick Tropeano ($5,400) – Tropeano was a mid-tier starter who was on many GPP winning rosters during his first outing where he went 5 innings, picked up a win and struck out 6. He may fly under the radar again Sunday, but he gets a very favorable matchup against the Twins who have scored the fewest runs in all of baseball. The Twins are batting just above the Mendoza line at .206 going into Saturday’s action with only 4 total team home runs, so Tropeano makes for a great pivot option to lower priced starter. In his last start Tropeano put up 45 points good for 8x value – at this price point, the Angels starter makes for a great GPP play!

Next: Top Hitters/Stacks

Hitters

• Mark Trumbo ($4,100) – Yeah I know, I already mentioned him but in case you decided to ignore the pitching section, I will reiterate – Trumbo is 14 for 45 with 5 homeruns in his career against Holland. Trumbo was a monster on Friday night and with his multi-homer upside, he was on many GPP winning entries. With his track record against Holland and his scorching hot start, Trumbo makes for a great individual play as the rest of the Orioles lineup has struggled against Holland so building a stack may be a losing proposition here.
• Cubs Stack – Tyler Chatwood in his first two starts of the season has been hit very hard- giving up an average of 9 hits per game. Chatwood does not have the strikeout stuff to get through the Cubs lineup at Wrigley, so a stack of the Cubs top hitters including Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant is my top option utilizing the savings I gained at Starting Pitcher.
• Cardinals Stack – The Cardinals offense is scorching hot and they get to face off against Jon Moscot making his first start off the DL. The top two hitters in the Cardinals lineup – Matt Carpenter and Jeremy Hazelbaker get the Lefty/Right split advantage and with the majority of the heart of this lineup sitting at mid $3k salaries, it makes a stack of the top hitters very affordable with massive upside!

Next: FanDuel Economics For April 17

Make sure to review the lineups as they are announced before locking in your lineups! Have a great day gamers!