Welcome to the Tuesday 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 7:10PM 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 first two slates of the year, it has taken 213.6 and 246.7 FanDuel points in order to take down a GPP! 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.
Monday’s Picks and Pivots landed at 210.3 FanDuel points putting us well above the cash line in GPP’s on the back of a big day from Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers offense which exploded for 14 runs!
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 Picks
Matt Shoemaker ($8,000) After an Opening Day filled with aces, the Tuesday slate is far less top-heavy which means we will need to dig a bit deeper when selecting our FanDuel MLB Starting Pitcher. Of all the options on the board, I am most intrigued by Matt Shoemaker who gets an ideal match-up against a Oakland squad he has dominated in his recent starts.
Over three starts last season, Shoemaker was 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA, striking out 16 batters over 19 innings pitched. The numbers in Oakland Coliseum are even more impressive as a subset as Shoemaker pitched to a 0.75 ERA and struck out 12 batters over 12 innings of work.
Shoemaker is not a high strikeout arm but we saw in the second half of last season, his ability to limit walks (only 8 in 63 IP) and his ability to limit hard contact allows for him to pitch to a low ERA and in this spacious ballpark, I think that style will suit him well here.
If you are looking for a GPP pivot, Lance McCullers ($8,800) makes for an intriguing albeit risky play due to his high strikeout upside. McCullers has by far the highest strikeout rate of any SP on this slate (30.1%) which is 5% higher than the next closest starters (Kenta Maeda) but McCullers also has the highest walk rate at 12.8% so the risk of a blow up outing is always in play!
McCullers showed his upside last year with three double-digit strikeout games and 50+ FanDuel points in three of his final six outings so if you are looking for a high upside GPP dart, McCullers has the ability to be a DFS difference maker on this slate!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks
LAA Angels @ Oakland (Manaea): One of the first places I am looking for offense correlates perfectly with my SP choice as I expect the right-handed bats of the Angels to put up crooked numbers against LHP Sean Manaea. Manaea struggles to put away RHB as his K rate drops below 20% and he gives up 1.32 HR/9 which sets up perfectly for the Angels big power bats – Mike Trout ($4,900) and Albert Pujols ($3,000).
San Francisco Giants @ Arizona (Corbin) : The Giants offense let us down on Sunday but I am willing to go back to the well here as they have one of the best hitting environments of any team on this slate as they take the field in Arizona. The Giants have the highest team run total on the board so this is a perfect spot to stack and the price points on these hitters does not accurately reflect the ballpark shift in my opinion!
The Giants get to face off against Patrick Corbin who has been absolutely demolished by two Giants hitters in particular – Buster Posey ($3,300) and Hunter Pence ($2,500). In 35 career at bats against Corbin, Posey is 11 for 35 (.314 average) but it is Pence’s numbers who really jump off the page as he is 12 for 25 (.480 average) with 4 home runs and a whopping 1.160 slugging percentage!
Colorado Rockies @ Milwaukee ( Davies): With all the salary savings we get tonight at SP, we can afford to mix across three relatively high-priced stacks and even though we have already paid up for guys like Mike Trout and Buster Posey, we have enough salary savings to load up on the Rockies hitters as well!
The Rockies face off with Zach Davies who gave up 1.25 HR/9 at home last season and struggled with hitters from both sides of the plate as he surrendered a .300 wOBA to both RHB and LHB. Most people will look at stacks and build around the opposing handed hitters and in this instance I certainly want to have exposure to a lefty masher like Carlos Gonzalez ($3,900) but do not overlook the RHB likes Nolan Arenado ($4,000) & DJ LeMahieu ($3,000) who should be lower owned and have massive upside as part of a Rockies stack!
FanDuel MLB – Top GPP lineup and Slate Overview
SP: Matt Shoemaker ($8,000)
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C: Buster Posey ($3,300)
1B: Albert Pujols ($3,000)
2B: DJ LeMahieu ($3,000)
3B: Nolan Arenado ($4,000)
SS: Brandon Crawford ($2,400)
OF: Hunter Pence ($2,500)
OF: Mike Trout ($4,900)
OF: Carlos Gonzalez ($3,800)
Slate Overview: With no dominant starting pitcher on this slate, this is a perfect opportunity to mix and match your entries today using the same core of hitters while swapping in different pitching options. Where yesterday we locked in on Clayton Kershaw across all entries, I will look today to use Matt Shoemaker and Lance McCullers to differentiate my pitching options while building off a high upside hitting core built around the Giants/Rockies and Angles big bats!
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!
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