MLB Picks and Pivots – FanDuel Baseball Picks May 11 Main

MLB Picks and Pivots – FanDuel Baseball Picks May 11 – Main

Welcome to the Wednesday 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!

FanSided and FantasyCPR have you covered – For additional FanDuel MLB analysis, take a look at Matt Rogers FanDuel Economics column or Mike Marteny who provides Draft Kings MLB Picks analysis giving you the most in depth DFS coverage for tonight’s baseball slate.

Follow us on Twitter @FantasyCPR and on Facebook to get up to the minute updates and analysis.

 Hump Day! We get a nice little dual slate on Wednesday with 8 games kicking off at 1PM EST on the early slate and another 9 games in the main slate at 7:05PM EST.

I will continue to track winning Tournament 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 tracks GPP entries over various time periods, breaking out key metrics to understand the trends and compositions of GPP winning rosters:

Monday’s tournament winner posted a massive score driven by a value starting pitcher in Aaron Sanchez who posted 45 points and put up 6.3x value at only $7,1000. The hitters across baseball are putting up monster games on a nightly basis and with the increased FanDuel points for offense, we are seeing the target points per batter move between 25 and 30 on a daily basis. Monday night with a game in Coors Field we saw Jake Lamb put up a 50 burger while Jackie Bradley Jr. continued his torrid pace with 45 points and Ketel Marte bust out with 47 points.

I highly recommend gamers track their game performance across the various types of games they play – GPP’s, Cash, Multipliers etc – as this simple exercise will help teach you more about profitable roster construction than you can imagine.

Now on to the picks…

Next: Top Starting Pitchers - Main Slate

Starting Pitchers – Main slate

Max Scherzer ($9,100) – Yes, I know Scherzer has been struggling, but any time you can target an ace pitcher at a sub 10k price point, it makes for a great play in all formats. Max is a large home favorite against the Tigers and Detroit has one of the lowest team totals on the board. There is absolutely risk here as Scherzer has two games this season under 20 points but he also has two games over 50 points. Scherzer is still averaging over a strikeout per inning which will allow us to capture some significant strikeout upside and can easily pay off this price point and outperform Syndergaard/Maeda who are essentially in a pick ‘em in LA.

Juan Nicasio ($7,900) – Two starts ago, Nicaso pitched 7 innings of 3 hit ball, walking only one batter while striking out 8 in a 57 point win against the Reds. On Wednesday night, Nicasio gets another crack at the Reds lineup he dominated last time out. Nicasio has been very inconsistent so far this season  so this pick comes with risk, but also has recently demonstrated the upside we look for against the same foe. Wei-Yin Chen ($7,800) makes for an interesting pivot as prior to his last start out in a flop against the Phillies had been the model of consistency putting up between 31-38 in his previous 4 starts. The Marlins are large favorites at home and have one of the highest team totals on the board putting the win squarely in play for Chen in a prime bounce back performance against the Brewers.

Next: Top Hitters/Stacks

Hitters/Top Stacks – Main Slate

Red Sox versus LHP Eric Surkamp – The Red Sox offense is ROLLING right now and Surkamp comes in with a K rate of only 9.2% and a walk rate of 12.2%. So a hot offense, a pitcher who puts guys on base and can’t miss bats…..load up on the SAWX. Surkamp is getting worn out by hitters on both sides of the plate, but the right handed bats have the platoon advantage and if OF – Chris Young ($2,000) is batting 5^th again as he was Tuesday night, he makes for a must play for me. A stack including Hanley Ramirez ($3,700), Xander Bogaerts ($4,100) and Mookie Betts($4,100) can be easily combined with Scherzer at these salaries, especially if you utilize the cost savings of Young.

Marlins against RHP Chase Anderson – The Marlins have one of the highest team totals on the board going up against Anderson and make for a great pivot from the Boston stack or can be combined with Boston as part of a dual stack strategy. Anderson has actually pitched to reverse splits so far this year giving up a whopping .388 average to right handed batters with 6 home runs in only 17 innings. Marcell Ozuna ($3,600) and Giancarlo Stanton ($4,400) make for an interesting pivot as most hitters will target the left handed hitters in this matchup.

Best of luck tonight gamers! Make sure to review the lineups as they are announced before locking in your lineups!