FanDuel MLB Daily Picks and Pivots – Tuesday September 12
Welcome to the Tuesday 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!
Monday’s winning GPP scores were well below our season average as it took 212 FanDuel points to take down a tournament! Over the first 156 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 260.1 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 156 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 260.1 points.
For those of you who have not realized, I am an early riser – I love getting up early, researching my DFS for that night’s slate while the house is quiet and before the day begins. I have never woke up before and had the previous night’s slate still going on however – as I am writing this the Dodgers and Giants are in the final innings of their Monday Night game and its 5 AM EST! Needless to say -the Giants and Dodgers bats will be tired tonight!
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(s):
Corey Kluber ($11,800) and Clayton Kershaw ($11,600): Let’s not bury the lead here – we have two of the best pitchers in all of baseball on the hill tonight and you can make a very strong case that building around pitching is the ideal roster build on this slate!
Kluber gets the start for an Indians team that seemingly cannot lose and tonight walks to the mound as a -500 favorite. Seriously, read that again. Writing this article day after day in the MLB season I simply cannot remember seeing a larger Vegas favorite this season (cue someone calling me out on Twitter with a screenshot from an obscure game in May).
Pick whatever metric you want and Kluber is at the top of the heap as he has a slate leading 35% K rate and 16% swinging strike rate and will take on a depleted Tigers team he just defeated two starts ago with 7 K’s and 52 FanDuel points. Kluber is the top dog and the only reason to pivot off him is due to ownership concerns/game theory.
Clayton Kershaw ($11,600) sits at the same price point and normally a start against the contact inducing Giants would be a spot to stay away from but I can’t help but have interest considering these two teams played until 5AM EST and have to suit back up at 10AM EST tonight! We could see the Giants B league roster rolled out there tonight and with the Dodgers reeling they need their ace to stop the bleeding and put up a dominant performance.
Metrics wise Kershaw sits a shade behind Kluber with a 31.3% K rate and 14.3% swinging strike rate which are the second best marks on this slate so pivoting off Kluber to Kershaw allows you to build the same overall roster with a slight pivot from one ace to the next.
Sonny Gray ($8,800): If you want to get crazy and pivot off the chalk aces then I would look to the Yankees RHP who gets to toe the rubber in Citi Field against a strike-out happy Tampa Bay squad. Gray has put up 9 K’s in two of his last three starts and the last time he faced the Rays was able to strike out 10 batters and put up 46 FanDuel points which makes him a cost-effective GPP pivot of Kluber/Kershaw tonight!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Spots:
Cost Effective Bats Everywhere: If you read Picks and Pivots with any frequency you know that this is not a simply best plays column but rather a slate overview/roster build exercise to help you think through your DFS roster decisions. One of the reasons I chose to feature Kluber/Kershaw on this slate is that I believe we have simply too many value bats to make the “Ace Fade” worth it tonight. If you start your build with either pitcher then you will be living in the $3K or lower price point for bats tonight but it is worth noting we have six teams with run projections over 5 tonight so there is no true “must stack” which allows us to mix and match our bats in good point per dollar match-ups.
If the Dodgers opt to roll their starts back out there, and with the way they are reeling it is certainly not out of the realm of possibility, then I do not know how you can pass over Corey Seager ($2,600) at this price point. Seager racked up 22.2 FanDuel points on Monday Night and he will face off with Johnny Cueto who is 10 for 25 with a home run against in his career!
Andrew McCutchen ($2,900) and Matt Kemp ($2,600) versus left-handed pitching is always a spot to attack the platoon splits and considering their talent level, it feels impossible to pass them up when they are sitting at this price point. On the season, Cutch has an absurd .395 ISO and .468 wOBA versus LHP and will walk into Miller Park where he has a career .300 average and 19 home runs in only 62 games played. Kemp on the other hand will take on LHP Gio Gonalzez, a pitcher whom he is 7 for 21 with two bombs against in his career and although the advanced metrics are down for Kemp this season, his prime spot in the heart of the Atlanta order against a pitcher he has had success against makes this an easy one-off punt play if you want to pay up at SP.
Chase Field Bats: As always I love to target the DBacks when they are home but I would stop short of a full on stack here against Jon Gray and focus on the left-handed bats as LH hitters have a 36% hard contact rate against Gray in his career when facing him on the road. Jake Lamb ($3,100), David Peralta ($3,400) and Chris Herrmann ($2,200) are all priced for value and make for an intriguing mini-stack if you want exposure to one of the best hitting environments on the board.
Mariners LHB versus RHP Miguel Gonzalez: The Mariners will take on Miguel Gonzalez who this season has given up 35% hard contact with a 45% fly ball rate to left-handed hitters and in a game with an 11.5 combined total, I want to ensure I have some exposure to the offenses here! Yonder Alonso ($2,800) on the season has a .232 ISO and .373 wOBA versus RHP and Robinson Cano ($3,500) has a .212 ISO and .370 wOBA making them a cost-effective 1B-2B stack on this slate!
FanDuel MLB – Sample 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: Corey Kluber ($11,800) or Clayton Kershaw ($11,600)
C: Chris Herrmann ($2,200)
1B: Yonder Alonso ($2,800)
2B: Robinson Cano ($3,500)
3B: Jake Lamb ($3,100)
SS Corey Seager ($2,600)
OF: Andrew McCutchen ($2,900)
OF: Matt Kemp ($2,600)
OF: David Peralta ($3,400)
Slate Overview: On this slate I see no reason to get cute at SP with so many value bats on the board it is easy to fit in Kluber or Kershaw. It is worth noting that these two pitchers were on the same slate the last time out and Kluber generated 52% ownership while Kershaw was under 20% so playing Kershaw as a GPP pivot makes a ton of sense within the same roster build! With so many good offensive spots tonight, I think finding the best one-off plays and mini-stacking is the preferred roster build route for targeting your hitters.
Next: Week 1 Fantasy Football Reaction - Seahawks Offensive Woes
Best of luck in your FanDuel MLB contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all your DFS news and analysis for MLB, EPL and Week 2 of the NFL Season!