FanDuel MLB Daily Picks and Pivots – Wednesday August 2 Main Slate
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!
PLAY FANDUEL: New users win first contest or get credited up to $120!
The winning GPP line-up on Tuesday put up scores just below our season average with 248.7 FanDuel points. Over the first 118 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 260.9 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 118 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 260.9 points.
Wow what a night in DFS – literally not sure I have seen a night play out like that as we saw Chris Sale get rocked and Max Scherzer leave with an injury in the first inning which essentially made the night wide open for half the field and we saw teams with Jimmy Nelson (43 FD points) take down GPP’s! Today we get an early three game slate and a 12 game main slate to breakdown which should give us all a chance to rebound if we got Scherzered or a chance to roll the dice again with our profits from last night (thank you Joey Gallo).
If you missed the Early Slate breakdown for Picks and Pivots, check it out here.
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:
Luke Weaver ($5,800): The Main Slate pitching is frankly underwhelming and I expect to see the masses flock to Dallas Keuchel ($9,600) at home versus the Tampa Bay Rays but my inclination after looking over this slate is we can pay down, way down, and build a totally different roster while leaning on our bats to carry us home!
Weaver is the arm I am finding myself most intrigued by as he has the ability, strikeout upside and a plus match-up against the Brewers that could crush value at a price point under $6k.
In 44 Major League innings, Weaver has posted a 26% K rate which aligns with the 27.3% K rate he has at AAA this season which would be the highest such metric of any pitcher going on today’s slate so there is sneaky K upside here!
In his only other start this season against Arizona, Weaver was able to strike out five batters over five innings (24% K rate) with a solid 11% swinging strike rate so the ability is clear with Weaver and the Brewers are a team with a 25.3% K rate which is the fourth highest mark on this slate.
Although the line-up is slightly different, Weaver did face this Brewers team last year in a September start and was able to dominate with 8 K’s over 6 innings (only 1 ER allowed). In fact, of the current Brewers batters, they have faced Weaver 23 times with only 3 hits and have struck out 11 times (48% K rate) so there is some added PvB love here.
The reality is, pitching is ugly on this slate so I expect there to be massive ownership on a “safe” guy like Keuchel so pivoting down to a cheap option with K upside like Weaver gives you the ability to build a totally different roster loaded with high upside bats!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks:
Los Angeles Dodgers versus Julio Teheran in Atlanta: Even with a game in Coors Field it is tough for me to find a spot I love more than the Dodgers lefties versus Teheran in Atlanta tonight. Let me highlight some key stats:
- At home versus lefties Teheran is giving up:
- 2.96 HR/9
- Walk rate of 14.5% versus a K rate of 11.5%
- Hard contact of 40%
So to recap – Teheran at home walks a lot of batters, strikes out few batters, gives up lots of hard contact and home runs in bunches. Well good news folks – that’s only against lefties and tonight he gets to take on the Dodgers who are not at all loaded with left-handed power (false: they actually are).
Cody Bellinger ($3,800), Corey Seager ($3,600), Joc Pederson ($3,000) and Yasmani Grandal ($2,900) are all in play here is a lefty stack and the prices are reasonable enough that you can mix and match them with essentially any pitcher you choose!
Rockies and other high-priced studs: I do not expect the Dodgers to be sneaky tonight so if you are playing tournaments you are going to need to find some ways to be different and by using Weaver as your starting pitcher you can lock in the stack above and still have $3,975 per player remaining – meaning you can load up on the stud hitters that others who pay up for pitching cannot!
The Rockies have a 6.3 implied team total, the highest on the slate and will face off with Chris Flexen, a recent call up from AA who gave up 3 ER’s and walked 4 batters in only 3 innings of work in his first start so it’s safe to say we can confidently target the Rockies bats here and with all the salary we have remaining I will go right to the marquee bats in Nolan Arenado ($4,700) and Charlie Blackmon ($4,700).
Not done spending? Well head on over to second base where Jose Altuve ($4,400) sits atop the price pool and with everyone focused on the Dodgers/Coors Field it is possible that the Astros go over-looked tonight even though they face Austin Pruitt at home. What I love about the Altuve play is that his upside is so sky high at a weak position that you can build a massive advantage over the field who plays lesser talent!
Ok now we may need some salary savers and with Scott Schebler headed to the D.L. we saw the Reds slot Jesse Winker ($2,000) in RF and batted him second against a RH last night and with another RHP, Trevor Williams, on the hill tonight I see no reason the Reds will go a different route especially after Winker homered last night!
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.
More from FanSided
- USMNT news: Turner to Forest, Trusty to Sheffield, Reynolds to Westerlo
- Inside the Clubhouse: What I’m hearing as the MLB Trade Deadline nears
- Yankees: Luis Severino has blunt assessment of another miserable outing
- Bills: 3 2023 roster holes that could cost Josh Allen a Super Bowl and why
- Colts RB Jonathan Taylor shoots down rumors of troubling injury
P: Luke Weaver ($5,800)
C: Yasmani Grandal ($2,900)
1B: Cody Bellinger ($3,800)
2B: Jose Altuve ($4,400)
3B: Nolan Arenado ($4,700)
SS: Corey Seager ($3,600)
OF: Charlie Blackmon ($4,700)
OF: Joc Pederson ($3,000)
OF: Jesse Winker ($2,000)
Slate Overview: After a Main Slate that was focused on pitching (and fell flat) we have a slate with no real enticing high-end options so I love the idea of playing the bargain game tonight and loading up the elite bats we have in some big time spots. The Dodgers will be at the core of every build I make and by using Weaver at SP I have ample salary to pick and choose 2-3 additional studs to fill out my line-up!
Best of luck in your FanDuel MLB contests – stay tuned to Fantasy CPR and @2lockSports on Twitter for all the late breaking line-up news and roster updates!