FanDuel MLB Daily Picks and Pivots – June 24 Early
Welcome to the Saturday FanDuel MLB edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy baseball column focused on helping you find the best core lineup for today’s Early slate which kicks off at 4:05PM 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!
Friday’s Main winning GPP scores were right above our season average as it took 289.5 FanDuel points to take down a tournament! Over the first 87 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 263.47 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 87 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 263.47 points.
Friday’s Picks and Pivots article, like every article, is written early in the morning to help you all get an early start and although I build out a sample line-up to give you context it is rare that line remains untouched by the time lock comes around but on Friday night that is exactly what happened! Our Luis Perdomo pick at 2% ownership delivered in a big time way with 46 FanDuel points and the Nationals/Rays offense when off which meant the core line-up we laid out in yesterday’s article was good for 230 FanDuel points. I saw a lot of those lines across various GPP’s I played in so congrats to you all if you played along and got your weekend off to a great start!
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 (EARLY)
Jacob Faria ($8,500): Looking over the five game early slate there is one thing that immediately jumps out – there is not a ton of pitching and Corey Kluber is the clear-cut top arm. Kluber is the best pitcher on this slate without a doubt and at only $10.8K you still have over $3k per batter to fill out your line-up but like I do every slate, I am going to try to find a reason to avoid the chalk.
At first glance I skipped right over Faria, balking at a price tag this high for a guy with three starts this season and thinking if I am going to spend over $8k just find a little extra to get to Kluber! But if you dig a little deeper into Faria you may realize that $8.5k may actually be far too cheap for a pitcher of his caliber!
Through three starts this season Faria has a 29% K rate which is right in line with Kluber’s 30% mark and not far off from the 34% rate he has in AAA this season! Faria has a 12.7% swinging strikeout rate this season and will take on an Orioles team with a 23% K rate against RHP this season which is 9th highest in all of baseball!
Kluber is going to be insane chalk on a short slate like this and the fact he is averaging 55 FanDuel points per start over his last four outings shows you the kind of upside he has. Faria meanwhile has quietly put up 41, 50 and 55 FD points in his first three starts and at considerably lower ownership has every bit the upside that Kluber has.
If you are playing tournaments, Faria jumps off the page as the clear pivot away from Kluber and you can load up on bats in a way Kluber owners simply cannot afford!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks (EARLY)
Washington Nationals versus Homer Bailey: As a DFS writer I make a point to listen to/read as many other DFS opinions as I can as there are tremendously smart people in this industry and you can learn some valuable information just by paying attention. I listen frequently to the RotoGrinder’s Morning Grind and have heard Steven Young mention multiple times that the Nationals bats seemingly always go off when Joe Ross pitches.
I dug in this morning and my goodness he is right – Ross has made 9 starts this season and in a whopping SIX of those outings the Nationals bats have scored 10 or more runs! Now that stat/nugget alone shouldn’t be enough to let us go all in but when you combine it with the fact that Homer Bailey will be making his first start since coming back from an elbow injury in hot and humid conditions in Nationals Park and this is a great spot to stack.
The Nationals have a 5.07 projected run total which is the second highest on the Early Slate and I will go right back to the top of the order stack here with Trea Turner ($4,200), Brian Goodwin ($2,400), Bryce Harper ($4,800) and Daniel Murphy ($4,100).
Brewers versus R.A. Dickey in Atlanta: The Brewers/Braves game is my favorite spot outside of DC to target as we have one of the best hitter’s park in MLB and Matt Garza and R.A. Dickey on the hill – oh baby!
Truth be told, both of these pitchers are better mini-stack candidates or one-off power plays then full on stacks as they actually have fewer blow up outings than most would think. Dickey for example has only given up 2 or more HR in 4 games this season but the reality is, with a Nationals stack at the core of our line-up we really only need a mini-stack and with 1B/3B open in our roster build it sets up perfectly for Eric Thames ($3,400) and Travis Shaw ($3,600) as a high upside power combination.
FanDuel MLB – Sample GPP Line-Up and Slate Overview:
P: Jacob Faria ($8,500)
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- Yankees: Luis Severino has blunt assessment of another miserable outing
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- Colts RB Jonathan Taylor shoots down rumors of troubling injury
C: 2K Punt of the Day
1B: Eric Thames ($3,400)
2B: Daniel Murphy ($4,100)
3B: Travis Shaw ($3,600)
SS: Trea Turner ($4,200)
OF: Bryce Harper ($4,800)
OF: Brian Goodwin ($2,400)
OF: Lewis Brinson ($2,000)
Slate Overview: The early slate today boils down to Kluber or not to Kluber! If you are paying cash games then I certainly will not talk you out of it but for GPP’s I am going to heavily invest in Jacob Faria’s K upside and take the savings to load up on the power bats from DC and Milwaukee and hope to keep the Picks and Pivots hot streak rolling!
Next: FanDuel Pitching Breakdown June 24
Best of luck in your FanDuel MLB contests today and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter for all the late breaking line-up news and roster updates!