Welcome to the Monday 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!
Sunday’s winning GPP scores continued above our season average as it took 280.2 FanDuel points to take down a tournament! Over the first 40 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 258.3 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 40 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 258.3 points.
Sunday’s Picks and Pivots line was built around Chris Sale (42 FD points) and the Mets red-hot bats. Well the Mets hot-streak came to a screeching halt on Sunday as they were nearly no-hit and the overall dud from a full on team stack proved to be the death kneel to our line-ups on this slate!
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
Jacob deGrom ($10,700): As the lone $10k arm on this slate and with a game in Coors Field between the high-powered Cubs offense and Rockies, it will be interesting to see how highly owned Jacob deGrom truly is.
Game log watchers may look at his last start in Atlanta where he gave up 5 runs and balk at the price tag but remember this is a guy who had double-digit strikeout games in his three previous starts.
deGrom comes into this game with a 31.6% K rate which is the 5th highest mark in baseball, a career best rate and 8% higher than his injury plagued season a year ago. Tonight the Mets right-hander will take on a Giants team in Citi Field that just yesterday saw Scott Feldman pitch a complete game shut-out (52 FD points) against them!
Anytime deGrom takes the mound at home he becomes almost a must play for me as he has a 1.97 career ERA in Citi Field, sees his K rate spike 5% at home and surrenders only .46 HR/9 and a 28% hard contact rate.
The Giants have the lowest team total on the board tonight and deGrom is the second largest favored SP on the slate which gives him the safety we want in cash games. For GPP’s it is the elite strikeout upside that intrigues me most against a weak Giants line-up and with many rosters looking to jam in Coors bats (as usual) we could see the ownership on deGegrom at significant discount!
If you are looking for pitching pivots off deGrom today than take a look at Matt Rogers Daily Fantasy Starting Pitcher Breakdown for more options today!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks
NY Yankees versus Rookie Davis (in Cin): Looking outside of Coors Field tonight, the Yankees head to Great American Ballpark and have the largest team total outside of Colorado on this slate as they face off against Rookie Davis and the Reds bullpen.
Realistically when we look to build stacks we are targeting an opposing SP but the reality is, Davis has not pitched more than 5 innings in any start this year so we are really looking at a mediocre SP for a few innings and then a bullpen game!
The Yankees come into tonight’s game as the second highest scoring team (runs per game) in all of baseball and in case you were not paying attention this weekend, they only got better.
Gary Sanchez ($3,200) is back in the heart of the Yankee line-up and the price is simply too cheap for a hitter of this caliber and although we typically look to punt catcher, I am going to pay up for Gary the Goat tonight!
Aaron Hicks ($3,200) is absolutely red-hot batting in the #2 hole for the Yankees (and we will need to confirm that is the case again tonight) as he is averaging over 26 FD points per game over his last 5 contests with 2 home runs an 3 steals! If you can get confirmation that Hicks is once again in the #2 spot, you can build a 2-3-4 stack with Hicks, Sanchez and Aaron Judge ($4,500) who has gone three days since his last home run(so clearly he is due).
Oakland Athletics versus Ricky Nolasco: The A’s continue to be one of my favorite stacks as they are not only cheap, but they are loaded with power and go ignored almost every single night. Tonight they face off with Ricky Nolasco, a fly ball pitcher with a low K rate that is giving up 35% hard contact this season.
Khris Davis ($3,400) is maybe my favorite play on this slate as the price tag is just way too cheap and the righty-righty match-up will likely keep the ownership down even though he has hit 9 of his 10 home runs against RHP and Nolasco is a reverse-splits pitcher!
Yonder Alonso ($3,300) is red-hot as well coming into this game with 4 home runs in his last five contests and can be paired with Davis and Jed Lowrie ($2,300) as part of a top of the order Oakland stack that will likely go completely over-looked.
FanDuel MLB – Top GPP Line-up and Slate Overview:
P: Jacob deGrom ($10,700)
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C: Gary Sanchez ($3,200)
1B: Yonder Alonso ($3,300)
2B: Jed Lowrie ($2,300)
3B: Wilmer Flores ($2,300) Flores versus a lefty – just lock it in. Flores will be batting cleanup tonight against Matt Moore who has always struggled on the road. This is a free square for me tonight as you rarely get a hitter this cheap who has multi-home run upside.
SS: Daniel Robertson ($2,100) or punt equivalent
OF: Aaron Judge ($4,500)
OF: Aaron Hicks ($3,200)
OF: Khris Davis ($3,400)
Slate Overview: My initial take when looking over this slate is that we have a variety of viable pivots off Coors Field so as usual I am not going to force that game into my line-up. The pitching is relatively weak and I think deGrom is so head and shoulders above the rest of the options that is becomes a lock for my rosters in all formats. I expect the Yankee bats to be popular (for good reason) so pairing them with a Oakland stack is a nice way to differentiate yourself from the field.
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!