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 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!
Friday’s winning GPP scores were well below our season average as it took 238.6 FanDuel points to take down a tournament! Over the first 153 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 260.6 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 153 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 260.6 points.
Friday’s Main Slate for the most part seemed pretty straight forward to break down as we had the clear “Ace” at the top with Max Scherzer and a select few offenses to target. When the slate locked it didn’t surprise me to see Mad Max over 30% owned in GPP’s but the fact that the Nationals-Phillies game turned into an 11-10 slugfest was certainly not the outcome most expected! Rhys Hoskins at less than 1% ownership dropped 38 FanDuel points and teammate Nick Williams at the same ownership put up 37.9 FanDuel points for a winning Phillies stack!
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:
Chris Sale ($11,300): Much like yesterday’s slate we have a clear top arm to choose from with a solid second tier of arms and you will be left with a decision – do you pay up and eat the chalk or try to find a GPP pivot?
My hope is that those who were burned by Mad Max on Friday keep the Chris Sale ownership down but that could just be a pipe dream as this spot is set up perfectly for a monster outing. Let’s just step back and look at the numbers for a second:
- Chris Sale has a slate leading 36.1% K rate – the next closest is Andrew Heaney at 27.3%
- Chris Sale has a slate leading 15% swinging strike rate – the next closest is Andrew Heaney at 13.8%
- Sale will take on a Rays team with a slate leading 25.8% K rate
- Over the last 30 days, the projected Rays team has a K rate of 26.4%
Sale has faced the Tampa Bay Rays three times already this season and racked up the following stat lines:
- 8 IP, 13 K’s and 73 FanDuel Points – August 8
- 7 IP, 12 K’s and 45 FanDuel Points – July 6
- 7 IP, 12 K’s and 58 FanDuel Points – May 13
I don’t need to provide you with some well thought out soliloquy on why Chris Sale is a great DFS play – at this point in the season you already know that. The simple truth is that on THIS SLATE, you have a pitcher that is so far and above everyone else in terms of strikeout ability and gets the perfect match-up that he is almost unfade-able.
Now this is DFS baseball and anything can happen (stack up the Rays if you want to be crazy) but considering that Sale has struck out 12 or more batters each time he has faced this team, the upside is simply too high for a pitcher with this much built-in strikeout upside. Find other ways to be different and simply plug Sale in today!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Spots:
Lamb, Seager, Rinse and Repeat: This slate is simply breaking down to be a carbon copy of Friday night’s (with hopefully better results) but it bears repeating – there are elite bats that are simply priced too cheap and make it almost too easy to fit in Chris Sale.
Let me put it this way – if I click on Chris Sale, a punt catcher, Jake Lamb ($3,000) and Corey Seager ($2,800) as the base of my roster – I still have $3.2K per player to build the rest of my roster around!
Can we go back to Arizona? Another night where the Diamondbacks have the highest implied team total on the board at 5.3 and after largely burning people on Friday night I truly wonder if people will be hesitant to go back to well?
The opposing pitcher tonight is Jhoulys Chacin who on the season has some drastic splits outside of San Diego giving up 2.37 HR/9 to lefties (versus .79 to RHB) and is surrendering nearly 40% hard contact! With Jake Lamb already locked in at 3B, I see no reason not to lock in as many left-handed batters as I can starting with David Peralta ($3,400) and Daniel Descalso ($3,000) who could see another start in place of a banged up Paul Goldschmidt. It is worth noting that although guys like Lamb, Peralta and J.D. Martinez were popular, Descalso was only 6% owned in GPP’s so if you want to get some exposure to Arizona tonight at lower ownership, pivoting away from the “big names” may be the way to go!
Giancarlo Stanton is Playing and facing a Lefty: Is that enough analysis? Stanton ($4,500) gets to take on LHP Max Fried, a pitcher with the highest SIERA on the slate who has given up a .241 ISO and .418 wOBA to right-handed pitchers this season.
Stanton’s numbers against LHP are just off the charts with a .440 ISO and .471 wOBA and what is even crazier is they have gotten better over the last month with a massive .654 ISO and .653 wOBA. There is enough value on this slate to pair Stanton with Lamb/Seager/Sale and still feel good about your roster and boy is that a nice core to build around!
Staying in the same game, Atlanta will face LHP Adam Conley which immediately puts Matt Kemp ($3,000) in play and if Tyler Moore ($2,000) gets the start for the Marlins at 1B he makes for another value bat on the right side of the platoon split in Atlanta.
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
- MLB Rumors: Justin Verlander has a clear suitor, but it comes with a catch
- MLB Rumors: Braves trade grade, Cardinals trade bait, Red Sox selling
- 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
P: Chris Sale ($11,300)
C: $2K Punt Option
1B: Tyler Moore ($2,000)
2B: Daniel Descalso ($3,000)
3B: Jake Lamb ($3,000)
SS: Corey Seager ($2,800)
OF: Giancarlo Stanton ($4,500)
OF: Matt Kemp ($3,000)
OF: David Peralta ($3,400)
Slate Overview: So from a pure roster build perspective, I have the ability today to lock in Chris Sale in the best possible match-up on the slate and surround him with Giancarlo Stanton, Jake Lamb AND Corey Seager while legit only having to find one value bat (Tyler Moore at 1B). This feels like lock city for me as a core roster build and I can pivot/adjust as line-ups get released later in the day.
Next: FanDuel NFL Picks and Pivots for Week 1
Best of luck in your FanDuel MLB contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR as we break down our EPL DFS picks and get you set for ALL the Week 1 Fantasy Football and DFS NFL action!
Add us as a preferred source on Google