Welcome to the Friday 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 7:10 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!
Thursday night’s winning GPP lineup dropped only 200 FanDuel points which was well below the season average but what was most interesting was the roster build as this player started with Noah Syndergaard and then stacked bats against the next two most popular SP’s in Carlos Martinez and James Paxton! Over the first 22 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 242.1 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 22 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 242.1 points.
Thursday was a low scoring DFS day across the slate and Picks and Pivots was truthfully…brutal. Our pivots off Noah Syndergaard to Carlos Martinez and James Paxton was a disaster as both pitchers failed to top 22 FD points and outside of Taylor Motter, not a single hitter reached double digits!
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
Justin Verlander ($9,400) and Corey Kluber ($9,900) Wow what a slate we have today. Not only do we have multiple top end arms but we also get a game in Coors Field so this should be an AWESOME DFS GPP day!
There are so many arms on this slate that are worth paying up for but there are two veterans in great spots sitting just below $10k that allow us to pay for upside while not sacrificing with our bats – Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber.
Verlander gets a road start against the Twins, a team he has dominated over his career as the active Twins hitters are hitting only .229 against him while striking out in roughly 30% of the at-bats! Although Verlander has scuffled a bit to start the season, remember this is a guy who finished 4th in all of baseball last year in terms of strike out rate with a 28% K rate!
The Twins are a much better line-up this year than I think most people realize but they are still a team that will strike out in bunches and Verlander was able to dominate them last season as he struck out 30 batters in only 21 IP while allowing a .162 BAA. This is a great spot for Verlander and I expect he may be overlooked as people see his 5.71 ERA so far this year and look to avoid him – but remember that this is a guy who put up 53 FD points in his first start of the year against the Wite Sox while striking out 10!
Speaking of the White Sox – Corey Kluber gets to face off with a Chicago team we have been enjoying picking on lately with SP’s! The Yankees pitcher, Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka just struck out 16 White Sox in their combined two starts and Kluber should be set up for similar success today against a weak White Sox line-up.
Chicago is striking out at the 6th highest clip against RHP (24.7%) this season and Kluber had a 29% K rate last year to right-handed hitters while allowing only 26% hard contact.
These pitchers sit just $500 apart from a salary perspective so we can build around the same core hitting line-up and mix and match these two top end arms across our lineups tonight!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks
Milwaukee Brewers versus RHP Adam Wainwright: With a game in Coors Field we always have to consider building our rosters around the Rockies bats but on today’s slate I think we have viable alternatives with two heavy hitting teams in elite hitting environments.
The Brewers just keep on mashing and the price points on FanDuel are such that you can easily stack the top of this order with a high-end pitcher without much difficulty. Today the Brew Crew takes on Adam Wainwright who so far this season has giving up a 47% hard contact rate and over 2 HR/9 to left-handed hitters.
So we have a pitcher who is giving up hard hit balls and lots of home runs to LHB while striking them out at only a 13% clip and you know what the Brewers have – some of the hottest left-handed sticks in the game.
I am not over thinking this one and with Coors Field in play the ownership will be lower than it likely should as I will lock in Eric Thames ($3,900) and Travis Shaw ($3,400) while including a crazy under-priced Jonathan Villar ($2,900) in a Milwaukee stack!
Arizona Diamondback versus LHP Alex Wood: One of the other reasons I think we can fade Coors on this slate is that we get to take the Arizona bats at home in Chase Field against a left-handed pitcher. The D-Backs bats let us down last night in San Diego but tonight they return home to an elite hitting spot and with a right-handed heavy line-up they should be able to put up a solid night against a lefty who has given up a 36% hard contact rate to RHB this season.
Arizona has one of the top run projections of any team on the slate and I am going to look to stack the top/middle of the order with A.J. Pollock ($3,800), Yasmany Tomas ($3,200) and Chris Owings ($2,800) as they face off with a lefty in Chase Field!
San Diego Padres RHB versus LHP Adam Conley: I actually think Conley may be a bit popular today pitching in San Diego but I love the Padres for one-off power bats and Conley is a guy who last season gave up a 1.2 HR/9 and a 34% hard-contact rate to right-handed bats.
Manuel Margot ($2,700), Hunter Renfroe ($2,800) and Austin Hedges ($2,400) make for a very cost-effective mini-stack that allows you to not only pay up at SP but also stack the top Brewer and Arizona bats!
FanDuel MLB – Top GPP Lineup and Slate Overview:
P:Corey Kluber ($9,900) or Justin Verlander ($9,400)
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C: Austin Hedges ($2,400)
1B: Eric Thames ($3,900)
2B: Jonathan Villar ($2,900)
3B: Travis Shaw ($3,400)
SS: Chris Owings ($2,800)
OF: Yasmany Tomas ($3,200)
OF: A.J. Pollock ($3,800)
OF: Manuel Margot ($2,700) or Hunter Renfroe ($2,800)
Slate Overview: It will be interesting to see how Coors Field ownership drives roster construction today as with a variety of high-priced arms on the slate, will people look to jam in the high-priced Coors bats? I think with Milwaukee at home and Arizona in Chase Field we can build alternative stacks that not only present significant upside but give us the cost savings to pay up for a stud arm on FanDuel!
Best of luck in your FanDuel MLB contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter for all the late breaking line-up news and roster updates!