Welcome to the Sunday 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 1:10 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!
Saturday’s winning GPP scores over the two slates were 286.6 and 277.5 as we saw offenses across MLB take off and the big DFS scores followed! Over the first 25 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 245.8 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 25 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 245.8 points.
Saturday’s Picks and Pivots across both slates crushed it as the early slate Cubs stack and the main slate Carrasco/Indians bats build paid off across the board landing us above the cash line in every contest we played – we like days like that!
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
Danny Salazar ($10,100) Welcome all to the Sunday Main Slate Picks and Pivots which is going to feel like the Saturday slate deja vu!
Over the last two days we have recommended picking on the Chicago White Sox with the Indians arms and here is what they have delivered:
- Carlos Carrasco – 58 FanDuel Points: 8 IP, 8 strikeouts, 1 QS, 1 W
- Corey Kluber – 64 FanDuel Points: 9 IP, 9 strikeouts, 1 QA, 1 W
So for those keeping score at home that is 17 IP, 17 K’s and an average FanDuel score over 60 FD points!
Today we get to ride this gravy train one more time with Danny Salazar who walks into this match-up as the biggest favorite on the slate (-165) while having the highest strikeout rate (28.5%) of any pitcher on the Main Slate.
I can hear you saying – but Brian, won’t he be the chalk? Probably – but Carlos Carrasco was the CLEAR top option last night and was only 32% owned in GPP’s so that just means nearly 70% of people are starting their rosters with a SP with significantly less upside!
Not that we needed more ammunition here – but the BvP for Salazar is quite impressive as over 84 at bats the White Sox active roster is hitting a weak .250 against him while striking out in over 42% of their at bats!
Eat the chalk today friends and lock in Danny Boy!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks
Chicago Cubs versus Bronson Arroyo: If this picture looks familiar to you well it is because I used the same one yesterday and the Cubs offense went bonkers so as a superstitious sports fan I say let’s run it back!
Just as Danny Salazar will be the chalk SP on this slate I expect that the Cubs bats will be the chalk stack on this slate but again – I am not going to get cute here!
The Cubs have the highest team total (4.83 runs) on the Main Slate and only trail Coors Field on the All-Day slate and facing off against Arroyo in Great American Ballpark is a spot I want to maximize my exposure to and I plan to have 4 Cubs hitters in every line-up I make today.
Arroyo has given up 5 HR’s in only 15 IP this season while allowing a 32% hard contact rate and a meager 11% K rate. The Cubs bats went off yesterday so I expect they will be popular today but that will not move me off of Anthony Rizzo ($4,200), Kris Bryant ($4,100), Kyle Schwarber ($3,400) and Addison Russell ($2,700) as the 1-4 top stack of the day.
It is interesting to note that Russell was the highest owned Cub player yesterday and I think rather than fading the Cubs, the best way to be contrarian is to mix and match your Cubs exposure across your different entries. If Miguel Montero gets a start at Catcher he would become a great value play or you could roll out Ben Zobrist/Javy Baez as a pivot off Russell in the IF.
As I said – I plan to have 4 Cubs hitters in every line-up I make but will likely mix and match my stacks to try to differentiate my lineups!
Houston Astros versus Matt Andriese: The Astros bats are in a great spot against Matt Andriese today and with some solid price points, they are my favorite secondary mini-stack to build around the high-priced Cubs bats.
Andriese is giving up a massive 45% hard contact rate this season and with a sub 20% K rate the Astros bats are in prime position for a sneaky stack on this slate. Josh Reddick ($2,800) will likely hit in the #2 spot in the lineup here and Brian McCann ($2,800) behind the dish make for a great mini-stack and with George Springer unlikely to play due to injury, keep an eye on the Astros lineup to see if more value opens up that we can use!
FanDuel MLB – Top GPP Lineup and Slate Overview
P: Danny Salazar ($10,100)
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C: Brian McCann ($2,800)
1B: Anthony Rizzo ($4,200)
2B: Scooter Gennett ($2,500) Scooter is a BvP special as he has owned John Lackey in his career going 8 for 21 (.381 avg) with a HR/SB.
3B: Kris Bryant ($4,100)
SS: Addison Russell ($2,700)
OF: Kyle Schwarber ($3,600)
OF: Josh Reddick ($2,800)
OF: Tyler Collins ($2,200) Collins is my favorite one-off value play today as he will likely hit in the #2 spot in the Miguel Cabrera-less Tigers line-up and faces a very hittable opponent in Kyle Gibson.
Slate Overview: Danny Salazar and Cubs hitters. Danny Salazar and Cubs hitters. Just do it. Do not over think the ownership – if they are all 30% owned like they were yesterday than I feel like I have 70% of the field beat! As we get closer to lock we can mix and match lineup’s based off the value that breaks and can move different Cubs bats around if we want to get off the more “chalky” 1-4 stack!
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!