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FanDuel MLB Daily Picks and Pivots – June 24 Main Slate

By Brian Tulloch

May 9, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb (left) reacts with David Peralta in the dugout prior to the game against the Detroit Tigers at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
May 9, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb (left) reacts with David Peralta in the dugout prior to the game against the Detroit Tigers at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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FanDuel MLB
May 9, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb (left) reacts with David Peralta in the dugout prior to the game against the Detroit Tigers at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports FanDuel MLB /

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 Main slate which kicks off at 7:15PM 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.

We have two slates to play today so if you missed the Early FanDuel Picks and Pivots write-up you can catch it here!

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
Jun 17, 2017; Milwaukee, WI, USA; San Diego Padres pitcher Dinelson Lamet (64) pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers in the first inning at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports /

FanDuel MLB: Top Starting Pitcher Pick (Main):

The Main Slate today is absolutely LOADED with pitching as we can choose from Clayton Kershaw, Jacob deGrom, Robbie Ray, David Price, Lance McCullers or Johnny Cueto and frankly I love slates like this as the ownership gets completely spread out and gives GPP players a legit edge. So which of the these high-end arms are going to anchor the Picks and Pivots staff?

I am going to lock in the arm on this slate that has the highest K rate of any pitcher going today (34.6%) and a 14.2% swinging strike rate which is third highest on the slate. This pitcher has a 42.6% K rate against right-handed batters this season while only giving up a 25% hard contact rate to RHB at home and will face a team with 8 right-handed batters in their line-up.

Kershaw? deGrom? Nope, I am going with Padres right-hander Dinelson Lamet ($7,600). Read those advanced metrics again and tell me that doesn’t sound like the exact same match-up Luis Perdomo dominated last night at 2% ownership.

Lamet does not have the elite ground ball rate that Perdomo has but he has dominant strike out stuff especially against right-handed bats and the Tigers outside of Alex Avila are essentially all right-handers!

With so many aces on the board I would expect the Padres starter to go over looked again tonight and Picks and Pivots is hopping right back on this train as we attack the same match-up that was so good to us Friday night.

FanDuel MLB
Jun 18, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Boston Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts (50) and left fielder Andrew Benintendi (16), and center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. (19) dance in celebration of their win over the Houston Astros during the ninth inning at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports /

FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks:

Arizona in Chase Field and Boston in Fenway Park: One of the reasons I love dropping down in price at starting pitcher tonight is that it allows me to load up on the two most elite hitting environments on the board which is something that high-priced pitcher line-ups will not have the same ability to do!

Arizona and Boston both have projected run totals of 5.3 runs or more and no other team on the Main Slate is projected for more than 4.7 runs so loading up on the high-end bats here will give us an edge over the rest of the field.

The Diamondbacks are in Chase Field and are coming off a Friday Night where they only managed one run against a complete unknown pitcher so all of those DFS players who got burned will look elsewhere and we can simply jump back on!

Phillies pitcher Ben Lively has some astonishingly bad peripheral stats with a 5.9% K rate and an 8.2% walk rate which if he is putting the ball in play against this team in Chase Field could mean a quick crooked number! With the salary we save at pitcher we do not need to mess around and can go for the heart of the Arizona order with Paul Goldschmidt ($4,800), Jake Lamb ($3,800) and David Peralta ($3,500).

In Fenway Park the Red Sox will take on J.C. Ramirez who has given up 4 or more runs in three of his last four starts with a 47% hard contact rate over those four outings! The left-handed bats are the best way to attack Ramirez as he has given up 44% hard contact and 2.5 HR/9 this season so players like Andrew Benintendi ($3,500) and Sandy Leon ($2,300) are two great value options to lock in and you can stack them with the Red Sox top play each and every day in Mookie Betts ($3,800).

FanDUel MLB
May 5, 2017; Denver, CO, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (44) and third baseman Jake Lamb (22) and shortstop Chris Owings (16) after the game against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports /

FanDuel MLB – Sample GPP Line-up and Slate Overview

P: Danielson Lamet ($7,600)

More from FanSided

C: Sandy Leon ($2,300)

1B: Paul Goldschmidt ($4,800)

2B: Joe Panik ($2,500)

3B: Jake Lamb ($3,800)

SS: Chris Owings ($3,200)

OF: David Peralta ($3,500)

OF: Mookie Betts ($3,800)

OF: Andrew Benintendi ($3,500)

Slate Overview: The Main Slate is simply awesome for GPP’s as we have so many great arms to choose from that we will have so many different paths to DFS success on this slate. Hitting however seems highly concentrated to two teams so if we want to stack those we will need to drop down in price and by rostering Lamet in an incredibly good match-up we can stack the Red Sox and Arizona bats tonight and look to separate ourselves from the field!

Next: FanDuel Pitching Breakdown June 24

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!