FanDuel MLB Daily Picks and Pivots – Wednesday July 26
Welcome to the Wednesday 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 DFS action!
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!
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Tuesday’s Main Slate winning GPP scores were below our season average as it took 258.8 FanDuel points to take down a tournament! Over the first 115 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 261.4 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 115 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 261.4 points.
Tuesday’s Main Slate was dominated by Charlie Morton who dropped 58 FanDuel points against the Phillies with 7 innings and 9 K’s at just over 10% ownership in GPP’s. Offensively the winning rosters were dominated by the Brewers who beat up Edwin Jackson and the Indians offense who exploded for 11 runs against the Angels with Edwin Encarnacion leading the way with 44 FD points!
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:
Yu Darvish ($10,000): Initially looking over this slate I balked at the price tag for Darvish as his recent performances, only one 50+ FD point outing in his last five, makes him seem incredibly over priced for this spot against the Marlins. The reality is that there is no more talented pitcher on this slate than Darvish and the more I dig into this slate the more I think he gets completely overlooked.
The first name that jumped off the page to me today was Mike Fiers ($8,600) who has back to back 50+ FanDuel point outings and will take on a Phillies team that Charlie Morton just dropped 52 FD points with 7 innings of 9 K baseball!
This is the price point I expect people to gravitate towards on this slate which makes me even more interested in Darvish at potentially reduced ownership.
With Justin Bour on the DL, the Marlins lineup becomes much easier to navigate through and Darvish is coming off his best outing off the year where he struck out 12 Rays with an absurd 29% swinging strike rate in that game!
I truly believe that the price point on Darvish will lead to incredibly low ownership on this slate and the reality is, you can fit a high-octane offense along side him without any real sacrifice. If at any point I felt like i had to compromise on my bats to fit him in I would pivot to an arm like Fiers but the reality is that I can get the best pure talent on the board and the hitter pricing is soft enough where I can get the bats I want as well!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks
Chicago Cubs versus James Shields: Remember when I said you can fit the top offenses on the board and still get Darvish? Well let me introduce you to the Cubs bats against Mr. James Shields.
On the season, Shields is giving up FOUR HR/9 to left-handed batters with a massive .442 wOBA and has given up 3 HR’s in a game twice in his last five outings. This is a dream spot for the Cubs and I will have heavy exposure to Anthony Rizzo ($4,100), Kris Bryant ($3,700), Kyle Schwarber ($2,700) and Ian Happ ($2,800).
Shields has not had a single game this summer with a hard contact rate under 30% so this is a prime spot for the Cubs to rack up runs in bunches and outside of Bryant/Rizzo, the price points are affordable enough that we can easily stack them with a high-priced pitcher.
Texas Rangers versus Jose Urena: Urena is an equal opportunity punching bag giving up 1.3 HR/9 and 31%+ hard contact to hitters from both sides of the plate and the Rangers continue to be one of the most affordable stacks in DFS each day!
Rougned Odor ($2,700), Elvis Andrus ($3,000), and Shin-Soo Choo ($3,500) are my top targets here when filling out my roster around the Cubs as they allow you to fill out the 2B/SS positions which you can skip over when rostering the Cubs.
FanDuel MLB – Sample GPP Line-Up and Slate Overview:
Please Note: This is NOT an optimized line-up, it is simply illustrative to show the type of roster build we can have using the logic previously laid out in Picks and Pivots. My actual line-up may differ from the line-up shown here.
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P: Yu Darvish ($10,000)
C: Yan Gomes ($2,400)
1B: Anthony Rizzo ($4,100)
2B: Rougned Odor ($2,800)
3B: Kris Bryant ($3,700)
SS: Elvis Andrus ($3,000)
OF: Kyle Schwarber ($2,700)
OF: Ian Happ ($2,800)
OF: Shin-Soo Choo ($3,500)
Slate Overview: Without any starting pitcher I feel is a “must play” on this slate I am going to look to build my lineups around the Cubs stack and utilize the Rangers bats to fill in 2B/SS and the remaining OF spot. Even with this approach I have more than enough salary to lock in Darvish who is a significant favorite (-180) with elite K upside which gives me a well-rounded line-up without any clear holes!
Best of luck in your FanDuel MLB contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all the late breaking lineup news and roster updates!