FanDuel MLB Daily Picks and Pivots – June 4
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 1:07 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 Main winning GPP scores were below our season average as it took 245.1 FanDuel points to take down a tournament! Over the first 67 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 259.7 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 67 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 259.7 points.
Saturday’s winning GPP line-up on the Main Slate was anchored by David Price who was under 10% owned and dropped a 7 inning, 7 strike out, 49 FanDuel point win over the Orioles. The home runs were flying out of ballparks last night especially in Seattle as Nelson Cruz and Mike Zunino both went yard for nearly 80 FanDuel points between them!
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 Pick:
Trevor Bauer ($8,500): The Main Slate pitching on this Sunday is loaded at the top with studs like Chris Sale and Justin Verlander but the more I dig through the slate, the more I keep coming back to Trevor Bauer against the Royals.
Bauer caught my eye (and many others) in his last start where he struck out 14 batters at home against the Oakland Athletics however this is not a simple one game outlier and rather a season long trend we should focus on.
Bauer has a 29.9% K rate this season, the 6th highest mark in all of baseball ahead of names like Clayton Kershaw, Chris Archer, Lance McCullers and Zack Greinke. Today he will face off with a Royals team in Kansas City that has one of the lowest wOBA’s and team ISO’s against right-handed pitching in all of baseball and Bauer comes into today as a solid -140 road favorite.
From a roster build perspective, with arms like Chris Sale, Justin Verlander and Luis Severino available, we will need to target high strikeout pitchers in GPP play. Bauer is priced at a 25% discount over a pitcher like Sale which allows significant roster flexibility when targeting hitters.
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks:
Dodgers in Milwaukee versus Zach Davies: Davies is one of my favorite pitchers to stack against as he gives up a ton of hard contact and has a high home run rate against hitters from both sides of the plate.
So far this season, Davies has given up a 32% hard contact rate and 1.6 HR/9 and those numbers actually increase when pitching in Miller Park as he is today. The Dodgers line-up is priced fairly across FanDuel and with a near 5 projected run total, Vegas agrees this is a spot to target offense.
Cody Bellinger ($3,900) and Corey Seager ($3,200) are my top two targets to build around but we can look to some key bargain plays like Chase Utley ($2,600) who is hitting at the top of the Dodgers line-up.
Detroit Tigers versus LHP David Holmberg: The Tigers have the highest projected run total on the board and with a lefty on the mound for the White Sox, we can feel confident with a full on stack of the Tigers right-handed bats.
Holmberg in his career, has given up a 35.4% hard contact rate, 46% fly ball rate and 2.38 HR/9 to right-handed batters in 56 innings of work.
By dropping down to Bauer at starting pitcher we should have no problem building a stack around the top Tigers bats including Miguel Cabrera ($4,200), J.D. Martinez ($4,100) and Justin Upton ($3,400). Do not overlook Nick Castellanos ($2,800) who was featured in yesterday’s Picks and Pivots and came through with a home run and now has back to back 24.9 FanDuel point outings!
FanDuel MLB – Sample GPP Line-up and Slate Overview:
P: Trevor Bauer ($8,500)
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C: Chris Herrmann ($2,200)
1B: Miguel Cabrera ($4,200)
2B: Chase Utley ($2,600)
3B: Nick Castellanos ($2,800)
SS: Corey Seager ($3,200)
OF: Justin Upton ($3,400)
OF: J.D. Martinez ($4,100)
OF: Cody Bellinger ($3,900)
Slate Overview: There is no doubt that Chris Sale is the top arm on this slate and will likely be the highest owned pitcher but you can see by dropping down to the next tier at SP, you have the ability to stack across the board with high upside bats. Enjoy your Sunday and best of luck in all your contests!
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.