Welcome to the Opening Day (Part 2) FanDuel MLB edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy baseball column focused on helping you find the best core lineup for today’s Main slate which kicks off at 1:05PM EST!
For those of you finding us for the first time, the concept behind FanDuel MLB Picks and Pivots 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!
Over the course of the season, we will track winning Tournament lineup scores and roster construction trends to help you build your winning lineups! Looking back at last season, the winning GPP lineup on average scored 255 FanDuel points with a typical roster build that allocated 25% of your salary cap to your SP and the remaining 75% to your hitters.
Looking back at last season, the winning GPP lineup on average scored 255 FanDuel points with a typical roster build that allocated 25% of your salary cap to your SP and the remaining 75% to your hitters.
What this meant from a daily roster build perspective is that the winning SP salary would sit in the $8,700 range which meant you needed to spend roughly $3,300 for each of the eight hitters in your lineup. Thinking about it from a multiple perspective, that meant you needed to 7.3x value in order to take down a big GPP.
Each day we will break down our top Starting Pitcher and our top hitting stacks of the day while giving you our thoughts on roster build and lineup construction.
As always, we will look to update our picks and final lineup thought prior to lock on our twitter account @FantasyCPR so make sure to give us a follow for all the late breaking lineup news.
Without further ado, let’s get into today’s slate!
FanDuel MLB – Top Starting Pitcher
Clayton Kershaw ($12,600) Looking over this slate, we have Clayton Kershaw and Noah Syndergaard sitting at the top of the pricing list and frankly I think your decision needs to start and end here as you are talking about two of the most dominant starting pitchers in baseball with elite strikeout ability which is DFS gold!
With only a $1,500 price difference between the two, I am finding a way to pay up to Kershaw on this slate as frankly the match-up could not get any better for him on Opening Day. Kershaw gets a home start against the San Diego Padres, one of the worst offenses in baseball and a team he as dominated in recent history.
Last season, Kershaw was 2-0 with 23 strikeouts over 16 IP, giving up 0 ER and only 4 hits against this same San Diego team! Kershaw was essentially unhittable last season against at home as well as he went 8-1 with a 1.08 ERA, giving up only 9 ER and 1 HR in 10 starts on his home turf!
As Matt Rogers pointed out in his FanDuel MLB Pitching Primer, Kershaw had a quality start in 81% of his starts last year which is simply incredible as his consistency and elite upside makes him nearly a must play each time he takes the mound. The Padres struck out the second most of any team last season and this year are sporting a roster of young players that will likely have some Opening Day jitters which sets up perfectly for a massive Kershaw outing. Fade at your own risk!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks
New York Mets – Let’s get this out-of-the-way. I am a gigantic Mets fan, a huge homer, I bleed Blue and Orange and I will be sitting in Center Field on Opening Day at Citi Field cheering like a crazy person so my recommendation, while it comes with analytics behind it, may also be viewed as simply another unreasonable Mets fan who would stack the entire lineup if FanDuel would let me.
Now that we have gotten that out-of-the-way – if we are locking in Kershaw at SP then that is going to leave us with $2,800 per hitter to build our lineup and while it is certainly not impossible, it does put some of the high-priced bats out of play. Initially I was looking to Cincinnati-Philadelphia for offense but there is a 50% plus chance of rain throughout the game and the likelihood of rain only looks like it will increase which makes this game too risky to count on.
The Mets offense however is one that may go over-looked but is in a sneaky good spot against Julio Teheran. Teheran is exceptionally tough against RHB as he gives up only 0.77 HR/9 and had an elite 28% strikeout rate against righties last season. Against lefties however, his strikeout rate dropped to 15% and his HR/9 skyrockets to 1.42 HR/9.
The Mets are going to stack their Opening Day line-up with lefties and no single Mets hitter other than Yoenis Cespedes is priced over $3k so the stack works perfectly within a Kershaw roster build. Jose Reyes ($2,700) will bat lead-off for the Mets and will be followed by Asdrubal Cabrera ($2,800) in the line-up and we can stack them easily with the 4-5 hitters, Curtis Granderson ($2,800) and Neil Walker ($2,600).
Los Angeles Dodgers – Not only am I going to look to build my teams around Clayton Kershaw but let’s not overlook the Dodgers hitters who get to face arguably the worst Opening Day starter – Jhoulys Chacin of the San Diego Padres.
Chacin has quite the trifecta going against LHB as he sees his K rate drop to 14%, his walk rate increase to nearly 11% and his HR/9 rate increase to 1.00. So to summarize, he strikes out fewer people, walks more and gives up more home runs – seems like the perfect recipe for a stack!
Similar to the Mets stack, the majority of these plays fit within the budget around Kershaw as we can lock in Yasmani Grandal ($2,800), Adrian Gonzalez ($2,800) and Joc Pederson ($2,800) as a high upside LHB stack for the Dodgers that will likely go overlooked due to the low game total (thanks to Clayton).
FanDuel MLB – Lineup and Slate Overview
SP: Clayton Kershaw ($12,600)
More from FanSided
- Yankees: Luis Severino has blunt assessment of another miserable outing
- Bills: 3 2023 roster holes that could cost Josh Allen a Super Bowl
- Colts RB Jonathan Taylor shoots down rumors of troubling injury
- MLB Rumors: Favorite to trade for Justin Verlander emerges and it’s not the Astros
- NY Mets should disband franchise if nightmare Justin Verlander report becomes reality
C: Yasmani Grandal ($2,800)
1B: Adrian Gonzalez ($2,800)
2B: Neil Walker ($2,500)
3B: Jose Reyes ($2,700)
SS: Asdrubal Cabrera ($2,800)
OF: Curtis Granderson ($2,800)
OF: Joc Pederson ($2,800)
OF: Andrew Benintendi ($2,900) With the last spot for your OF you have $3,100 to utilize and although there are many intriguing options it is hard to pass up Benintendi batting second in a loaded Red Sox lineup and has the ability to contribute across multiple categories.
Slate Overview: On this slate you almost have to pay up for Kershaw or Syndergaard as the upside is simply too high and I cannot see a scenario where at least one of these guys doesn’t put up a monster outing. In large field GPP’s, I do think a strategic fade to Jon Gray will not only allow you to chase high-end upside but it gives you salary relief that allows you the ability to build an offense that Kershaw/Thor owners will not be able to!
Next: FanDuel Starting Pitcher Breakdown - April 3
Best of luck in your FanDuel MLB contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter for all the late breaking lineup news and roster updates!