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 7:05 PM 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!
Monday’s winning GPP score of 245.8 was driven by a 10 strikeout outing from Robbie Ray and massive offensive days from the New York Yankees lineup with Freddie Freeman adding a 50 burger on the back of 2 home runs! Over the first 19 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 241.9 points. 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.
Over the first 19 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 241.9 points.
Monday’s Picks and Pivots lineup fell short of the cash line as the Astros and Indians bats were no-shows as the core of our lineup. Jordan Montgomery was a solid value SP going 6 innings with 4 strikeouts for the Win/QS and our late pivot to Eric Thames at 5% ownership was helpful but not enough to get us over the cash line!
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 Pitching Picks
The Main Slate today has two high-priced arms in Max Scherzer and Yu Darvish that are both elite plays any time they take the mound due to their elite strikeout ability. The question with these kinds of pitchers is not “should we play them” – the answer is always yes – but rather “do we NEED to play them today?”
Both Scherzer and Darvish have 30%+ strikeout rates and no other pitcher on this slate has a metric over 24% so the upside is clearly there. The only downside here is the match-up as they face off against Atlanta and Oakland, two of the hardest teams in baseball to strike out against as they whiff less than 20% of the time.
Of the two, I would prefer Darvish as he is priced $700 cheaper and gets a favorable ball park shift going to spacious Oakland but I am not yet convinced I need to be all in on the high-priced starters tonight.
Luis Severino ($7,700) If you are not paying up at SP tonight, Severino is the perfect GPP pivot as he has the strikeout upside we look for in tournaments and comes into the game as the largest favorite on the board with a home match-up against the White Sox.
We picked on the White Sox yesterday with Jordan Montgomery after seeing Ervin Santana and Hector Santiago put up 50 FD points on average between them against a depleted White Sox lineup and I think we can go back to the well today.
Severino is coming off a dominant 11 strikeout performance against the Rays and has an incredible 17:2 K:BB ratio in the early season. Against left-handers this year he is limiting hitters to an insane 15% hard hit rate and inducing 54% ground balls with a 37% K rate.
With his ability to rack up punch outs, limit walks and hard contact I love Severino as a low owned GPP pivot as I expect the majority of ownership to go towards Scherzer/Darvish tonight.
If you are looking for a pivot, Michael Fulmer ($9,100) gets an elite match-up with the Rays who lead the league with 10.7 K’s per game this season! Fulmer has dominated these Rays hitters in his brief career as they have gone only 4 for 28 against him and he has struck out a whopping 38% of those batters!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks
Baltimore Orioles versus RHP Bronson Arroyo: The Orioles bats have the highest team total on the board and with a match-up in Great American Ballpark with Bronson Arroyo, it is not hard to understand why!
Arroyo has been predictably dreadful this year giving up 11 ER in 10 innings of work with a 10% K rate and 7% walk rate. This is a spot against a pitcher giving up 55% fly balls so far this season where we could see home runs pile up in bunches and by paying down at SP with Severino we can easily afford a full on stack of the top O’s bats in Manny Machado ($3,900), Adam Jones ($3,600) and Chris Davis ($3,300).
Washington Nationals LHB against Mike Foltynewicz: The Nationals left-handed bats are in a great spot today against the Braves right-hander who surrendered 1.4 HR/9 and a 33% hard contact rate to LHB last season.
One of the benefits of paying down at SP with Severino is you will have a completely different roster build than the teams who opt to pay up for Scherzer/Darvish. The Orioles stack is easy to fit in with those guys but adding a high-priced mini-stack of Bryce Harper ($4,700) and Daniel Murphy ($3,600) is a great way to add a high-upside differentiation combination to your GPP rosters! Adam Eaton ($3,700) is a great addition to a stack of the Nationals as he is always over-looked and is in an equally great match-up!
FanDuel MLB – Top GPP lineup and Slate Overview
P: Luis Severino ($7,700)
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: Jett Bandy ($2,200)
1B: Chris Davis ($3,300)
2B: Daniel Murphy ($3,600)
3B: Manny Machado ($3,900)
SS: Dansby Swanson ($2,300)
OF: Adam Jones ($3,600)
OF: Bryce Harper ($4,700)
OF: Nelson Cruz ($3,700) Cruz gets to take on Wei-Yin Chen at home today and any time he faces a lefty he makes for a great one-off play. Chen has given up 2 HR’s to RHB already this season and we can easily pair him with Mitch Haniger ($2,800) for a nice mini-stack if you need some OF savings.
Slate Overview: Today is a day in Picks and Pivots where I will pivot off the top arms on the slate, build around high K SP’s like Severino and Fulmer and stack as many Orioles as I can possibly get!
Best of luck today in your FanDuel MLB contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter for all the late breaking lineup news and roster updates.