FanDuel MLB Daily Picks and Pivots – Wednesday September 13
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 Early AND 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 winning GPP scores were above our season average as it took 281.9 FanDuel points to take down a tournament! Over the first 157 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 260.3 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 157 slates of the FanDuel MLB season, the average winning score to take down a GPP has been 260.3 points.
Tuesday’s winning GPP line-ups were dominated by Corey Kluber who continues to put the finishing touches on a Cy Young season with a complete game 8 strike-out 61 FanDuel performance for the record setting Cleveland Indians offense. Offensively there were two spots that went off for GPP owners as the Red Sox dropped 11 runs behind Mookie Betts 60.4 FanDuel points and the Twins who scored 16 runs against the Padres with homeruns from multiple contributors including catcher Jason Castro who hit two and racked up 50.6 FanDuel 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 – Early Slate Breakdown:
For short slates like we have today I normally look over it to see how many different roster paths I feel comfortable with as if there seems to be one obvious route then I usually avoid the slate entirely! On this slate however I actually think you have multiple paths to explore which makes this an intriguing three game slate to get some day time DFS action!
It All Starts with the Indians: It is truly incredible to watch this run the Indians are on and I hope that baseball fans really can take a step back and enjoy watching this! The early slate is really all about how you plan on attacking the Indians as they have the highest team total (5.9) and their starting pitcher is a massive -300 favorite. The question becomes do you load up on four Indians bats are take only three and lock in Mike Clevinger ($9,200)?
The reason I think you can pass on Clevinger is that you have Chris Archer ($9,800) on the same slate pitching in Citi Field against the Yankees so you have a legit high strike-out pivot if you want to concentrate on the bats.
If you look from a pure metrics perspective, Archer has a K rate 2% higher than Clevinger and a higher swinging strike rate but Clevinger is the massive home favorite with the hottest team in baseball taking the field behind him – so what do you do?
I think in this spot the game log watchers will see the recent poor outings from Archer, see the big time favorite for the Indians and simply opt to save the $600 with Clevinger so I actually like Archer as the GPP pivot here!
Archer has faced the Yankees three times already this season and struck out 10,12 and 5 batters in those outings as he racked up 43 and 50 FanDuel points in his last two outings against them so the upside is obvious in this spot but the opposing line-up I believe will give people pause when Clevinger seems like the much safer bet.
The one big red flag with Clevinger is that he rarely goes deep into games, pitching 7 innings only TWICE this entire season as he tends to see his pitch count rise quickly as he works towards punch-outs which if the Tigers can make him work here today could put him in jeopardy of lasting long enough to pay off this salary and qualify for the win/QS which you are counting on as a -300 favorite!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Spots:
Indians Bats – All of ‘Em: If you are opting to pay for Archer over Clevinger then the next spot on your roster build is to get four Indians bats into your line-up – you simply have no reason not to maximize your exposure to this spot on a short slate.
The Indians have a projected run total approaching 6 runs and will take on Buck Farmer who is a fly ball pitcher that has struggled in his career with hitters from both sides of the from a hard contact perspective so loading up on the Indians bats is priority #1 for me. Francisco Lindor ($4,800) and Jose Ramirez ($4,000) are the top plays at their respective positions and can be stacked with more cost-effective OF options like Jay Bruce ($3,100) and Lonnie Chisenhall ($2,700) to get a full on Indians stack!
This Slate Has Other Teams You Know: OK, enough about the Indians – we cannot simply roster all their hitters and their starting pitcher so where else do we want to go! The Kansas City Royals have the second highest run projection on the slate with a 5.3 projected totals against Lucas Giolito and the White Sox and although I do not want to fill on stack against the talent of Giolito, I do think we can target some of the Royals left-handed batters in this spot. Giolito on the season has given up 3.5 HR/9 to left-handed batters (5 HR in 12 IP) with a 41% FB rate and 34% hard contact rate so playing the platoon splits here seems like the prudent move.
The two bats that stand out to me are Mike Moustakas ($2,900) and Brandon Moss ($2,500) who not only are cost-effective hitting options to build around an Indians core but they also have the highest ISO’s of any Royals hitters against right-handed pitching this season with a .281 and .240 mark respectively. Moss in particular is on fire right now with a home run in three straight games as he has gone 6 for 9 with 3 HR’s and 9 RBI’s in his last three contests – for only $2.5K he is a lock and load in all formats!
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.
P: Chris Archer ($9,800)
C: Wilson Ramos ($2,300)
1B: Miguel Cabrera ($2,900)
2B: Jose Ramirez ($4,000)
3B: Mike Moustakas ($2,900)
SS: Francisco Lindor ($4,800)
OF: Jay Bruce ($3,100)
OF: Lonnie Chisenhall ($2,700)
OF: Brandon Moss ($2,500)
Slate Overview: Basically this slate boils down to which four Indians players are you getting into your line-up? Are you going to load up on four bats and lock in Chris Archer as your SP or will you look to roster only three bats and take the massive home favorite Mike Clevinger as your lone pitcher? My initial reaction is that Clevinger will be the more popular choice and with his propensity to rack up pitch counts and not make it deep into games I will pivot to the top strike-out arm on the slate in Chris Archer which gives me the added advantage of getting a fourth Indians bat into my stack! Enjoy this early slate, it is actually pretty entertaining and hopefully will get you some added bankroll for the Main Slate!
FanDuel MLB – Top Starting Pitcher Pick (Main Slate):
Tyler Glasnow ($7,200): There was a time where Glasnow was the next big pitching prospect for the Pittsburgh Pirates who was expected to come up and simply mow down big league hitters but Glasnow was roughed up to the tune of a 7.45 ERA over his first 12 starts at the major league level this year and was sent back down to AAA to re-establish himself.
Glasnow was torching the minor leagues prior to this year with a 40% K rate in AA in 2016, followed by a 30% K rate in AAA the rest of that season and he looked poised to make the jump to the majors. Since his demotion he worked to make adjustments to his mechanics, including speeding up his delivery, and the numbers have been staggering – 140 K’s in only 93 innings of work and a 38.5% K rate!
If you want a fantastic breakdown of Glasnow and his improved delivery – check out this great piece from Fangraphs that breaks down what we can expect from Glasnow this time around!
Today, Glasnow will take on a Brewers projected line-up with a season long K rate of 24.5% that has spiked to 27.5% over the last month giving us the kind of GPP strike-out upside we want to target with our starting pitcher selection!
With big time names like Max Scherzer and Yu Darvish on the hill and the fact that Glasnow has ugly season long numbers should keep the casual fan who has turned their attention to NFL off of the Pirates tall right-hander giving us the ability to roster a high strike-out arm in an elite match-up at low ownership!
FanDuel MLB – Top Hitting Stacks:
Mariners and Rangers Game Stack: With the highest game total (11) and Mike Leake opposing Martin Perez, this should be a game chock full of runs that we can target on the Main Slate!
Leake on the season has given up a .255 ISO to left-handed batters and will face a Rangers squad loaded with powerful southpaws. Joey Gallo ($3,800) has a season long .352 ISO and .364 wOBA versus RHP and is the premier power GPP bat to target from the Rangers but we can build a full on stack with Rougned Odor ($2,900) or Shin-Soo Choo ($3,600) who both have ISO’s over .215 over the last month!
On the Mariners side against Martin Perez, the obvious top play is Nelson Cruz ($3,900) who is 7 for 17 with 3 HR’s in his career against Perez and makes for an elite one-off play. The issue with Perez for me is that he rarely gets blown up and with this being such a high game total we could see the ownership flock here which makes me want to find a legit pivot.
Cubs versus Matt Harvey: Take the name “value” away from Harvey and you have a pitcher who has given up a .276 ISO to left-handed hitters this season and .374 wOBA which makes him an ideal target to stack against. The Cubs may get over-looked in this spot with all eyes on the game in Arlington and any time I can get this team at reduced ownership, I simply want in!
The Cubs have four batters with an ISO of .236 or more against RHP this season – Anthony Rizzo ($3,900), Kyle Schwarber ($3,600), Kris Bryant ($3,800) and Willson Contreras ($2,900) who returned from the D.L. and was slotted right back into the heart of the Cubs order on Tuesday! A full on Cubs stack is in play here as a great pivot away from the bats in Arlington!
Astros RHB versus LHP Tyler Skaggs: The other stack on this slate that stands out to me as a great pivot off Seattle/Texas is the Houston Astros who get the late night hammer game against the Angels and Tyler Skaggs. Skaggs on the season is giving up 1.5 HR/9 and a 33% hard contact rate to RHB and will have to take on a potent Astros line-up that against may be over-looked on this slate. Carlos Correa ($3,400) is at a price point that is impossible to ignore and we can easily stack him with Jose Altuve ($4,300), George Springer ($3,700) and Evan Gattis ($2,300) for a full on Astros right-handed stack in the late night game!
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.
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P: Tyler Glasnow ($7,200)
C: Willson Contreras ($2,900)
1B: Anthony Rizzo ($3,900)
2B: Jose Altuve ($4,300)
3B: Kris Bryant ($3,800)
SS: Carlos Correa ($3,400)
OF: Nelson Cruz ($3,900)
OF: Kyle Schwarber ($3,600)
OF: 2K Punt Option
Slate Overview: The Main Slate screams more of a GPP slate to me as I love the roster build I can get by dropping down to an arm like Tyler Glasnow in a sneaky good strike-out spot for an elite prospect. You can easily pick and choose between the more popular Seattle/Texas game stack or pivot away and stack up the Cubs and Astros in two games that may be over-looked on this slate!
Best if luck in your FanDuel MLB contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all your MLB DFS news and analysis and don’t miss our Week 2 NFL coverage!