MLB Picks: FanDuel MLB Picks and Pivots for May 26 (Main)

MLB Picks: FanDuel MLB Picks and Pivots for May 26 (Main Slate)

Welcome to the Thursday edition of Picks & Pivots, a daily fantasy column focused on providing analysis and insights into the top FanDuel Baseball Picks. 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 payday!

FanSided and Fantasy CPR 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.

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Thursday’s MLB action gives us a rather unique slate on FanDuel with an “Early Only” slate of 3 games which kicks off at 12:35PM EST and another 5 game “Main” slate that starts 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:

Now on to the picks…For more DFS Strategy insights, check out my latest article to help take your game to the next level! 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.

Next: Main Slate Pitching Choices - Is there a top choice?

The Thursday slate is an absolute mirror image of Wednesday as the early slate had all the top arms and the main slate was full of mid-priced arms with a plethora of question marks which makes finding a clear cut top choice a difficult task.

Matt Wisler ($6,500) home versus Milwaukee – As you will quickly see, the pitching options for Thursday’s main slate are more suited for tournament plays as there is no clear cut cash game play. Wisler however checks off many of the boxes we look for when selecting our pitcher on FanDuel as he gets a favorable match-up at home against the Brewers.

Wisler over the last 30 days has been very effective, averaging 33 points per start which is 4th among all starters on Thursday, ahead of Tampa Bay’s Drew Smyly. Wisler has been able to achieve 5.1x value at his reduced price point which would actually exceed the point per dollar value of Jose Fernandez in the same time frame which makes Wisler the ideal tournament play.

Wisler also gets to face a Brewers team that has the highest strikeout rate of any team on Thursday at 27.1% and is a slight favorite (-130) to win the game.

Danny Duffy ($6,900) at home versus White Sox – Duffy makes for the most interesting tournament play in my mind Thursday as he has yet to go 5 innings in a start as the Royals look to stretch him out.

Duffy is the largest favorite on the evening slate at -170, making him an interesting pivot off Wisler. Duffy has a tremendous amount of risk as he only threw 63 pitches last outing before getting pulled after 4 1/3, so even with him being favored to win, he will have to make it through the 5th inning in order to be eligible.

Main Slate Pitching Summary: Wisler seems like the best choice from a point per dollar perspective and allows you the ability to spend up on the top hitters, but Duffy makes for an interesting pivot in large field tournaments or if you are playing multiple entries.

Next: Looking for Bats? Let's head to Fenway

With all the savings we get from our starting pitchers, we will have significant flexibility to target a variety of high end bats and we have a few key spots to target on Thursday evening.

Red Sox at home versus Jon Gray – The Red Sox are the highest projected scoring team on Thursday evening at over 5 runs and have been on absolute fire as I outlined in my article yesterday.

All the top bats including David Ortiz ($4,600), Mookie Betts ($4,600) and Jackie Bradley Jr. ($4,300) are in play and easily affordable with the savings at pitcher. Both Ortiz and Betts are averaging over 20 points per game over the last week and make for an absolute must mini-stack while they are this hot.

Travis Shaw ($3,500) may be my favorite play of the day as being out a few days actually brought his price down but he returned to the lineup on Wednesday and makes for a great building block in all formats.

Kansas City versus Miguel Gonzalez – The other top scoring team on the slate, the Royals, get a great match-up with Miguel Gonzalez who has given up 11 runs this year in only 21 IP.

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One of the best value plays on the board, Paulo Orlando ($3,000) has been averaging 15 points per game over the last week, which is good for 5x value. Orlando has been a regular in Matt Rogers FanDuel Economics column and makes for one of the best value plays when trying to fit in the high priced Boston Bats.

Main Slate Hitting Summary – With the savings we get at Pitcher, lock in a full slate of Red Sox bats, especially Ortiz and Betts, and then look to utilize Royals hitters to fill out the remainder of your lineup.

Next: DraftKings Main Slate MLB picks

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