FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups: Monday April 9
By Matt Rogers
Welcome to FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups for Monday, April 8th 2018. We’re a fantasy baseball column focused on helping you build a DFS MLB optimal lineup for each slate.
While we touted Jameson Taillon ($8,600) again for yesterday’s FanDuel MLB Main slate, we clearly should’ve moved him to the top of our list. Taillon stayed hot in Pittsburgh, pitching a shutout in all nine innings, with seven strikeouts, and earned the quality start and win. Jameson finished with 58 FanDuel MLB points, and put anyone who played him in immediate winning position with even mild offense.
Corey Dickerson ($3,000) and Gregory Polanco ($3,900) stayed hot for the Pirates offense, and they were two of the better plays of the day, and a great reason to stack the Pirates on Sunday. We need to keep an eye on the Pirates, as their offense has been consistently surging. However, their player salaries are unfortunately getting too expensive.
For Monday, there are two afternoon games in Chicago, and one game starting around 6:40pm ET. All three of those games are not included in the ‘Main’ slate for today, which is the focus of this article. For weather reasons, we’re fading the games in Chicago, and we don’t like the All-Day slate including every team played.
Also, as you read our article and review the example lineup, please remember to never take a DFS MLB optimal lineup as ‘bible’ for your personal lineup each day. Use the suggestions as guidance. And, make sure you follow final lineup thoughts throughout the day on our twitter account @FantasyCPR or follow me @mattymcmatt17 for late breaking lineup news.
Weather Note: There is potential for light snowfall around the Chicago, IL area today. The temperatures will also be in the low to mid 30’s. In addition, there should be a breeze blowing into the stadium, limiting offensive production. For all of those reasons, we unfortunately highly recommend fading the Early Only slate and focus only on the Main slate today.
Within the main slate, it appears the only weather risk is a chance for a rain delay, slowing things down in Baltimore where the Orioles are hosting the Blue Jays. However, that weather system should be on it’s way out of the area by tonight, and it’s most likely the game gets played. That being said, we have to remember it’ll be chilly, windy, and wet in Baltimore tonight.
With those risks aside, let’s get to the top pitching option…
FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Main Slate
This is a tricky slate for pitching on FanDuel MLB. There are a few poor products starting on the mound today, making the offensive stacks relatively easy to identify. However, there are also very good starting pitchers tonight, some of the best in baseball. Additionally, we have some young and older starting pitchers who are off to a fantastic start, and pitching in friendly weather conditions.
So, we’re expecting pitching ownership on FanDuel MLB, for the Main slate, to be spread out relatively evenly. That is a good thing. But, the best advice we can give you tonight is to NOT ‘pay down’ at the pitcher spot.
It’s tempting to reach down for guys like Jon Gray ($7,700) who’s historically pitched better in Denver, or Jakob Junis ($8,000) who’s a hot name in fantasy baseball after his seven inning, six K, low WHIP start in Detroit.
But all four of the most expensive pitchers tonight are must plays. Dylan Bundy ($8,600) clearly has the best value potential, but there’s some rain risk there. Bundy is allowing six to seven base-runners per start this season, but he’s only giving up one run in 13 innings, and already has two straight quality starts.
Dylan is also fanning hitters over seven per game, and should get another seven to eight with the Blue Jays lineup tonight. So we’re getting about 45 FanDuel MLB points for a modest salary. For that reason, while ownership should be spread out today, Bundy is likely your chalky pick of the night.
But, Justin Verlander ($10,300) is also off to a great start and also is pitching in a weather friendly environment tonight. However, if you’re going to spend over $10K for a pitcher tonight, move up to Max Scherzer ($11,100) or Noah Syndergaard ($10,800). Each of these, likely, Cy Young candidates have ceilings of around 60 FanDuel MLB points tonight.
Max is in a very pitcher-friendly weather environment with temps in the 30’s or 40’s tonight, and Syndergaard is averaging almost ten K’s per game and has a great match up in Miami tonight. For our example lineup, we’ll go with Syndergaard’s high K-rate right now, but Thor, Max, or Bundy are all fantastic plays tonight.
FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Main Slate
We actually like several offensive stacks for the Main slate tonight, and we may do a combination of many mini-stacks for our lineup. Derek Holland has been absolutely dreadful since early last season, giving up around two home runs per nine innings, with a low 16.7% K-rate, and high 12.1% walk rate. Holland’s 5.77 xFIP is the worst of any pitcher on the mound today. So the Diamondbacks should be high on your offensive stacking list tonight.
Cody Reed has a career .328 BABIP and .292 hitting against him. Since early 2017, Cody’s 5.57 xFIP is almost as bad as Holland’s and his 1.70 WHIP is the worst on the mound today. Reed is also walking hitters at a 24.1% rate, higher than his 21.5% K-rate.
And when you also consider his 1.53 home runs per nine innings, we realize Reed is an obvious offensive stacking target. Fortunately, the red-hot Phillies offense is facing Cody tonight, so Philly should be a fun stack tonight, even in a colder environment.
They’ll be a little more expensive, but the Nationals are also a decent stack in cold weather tonight. Julio Teheran has a 1.40 WHIP and is giving up more than 1.5 home runs per nine innings since last Spring. Teheran is also off to a terrible start this year.
However, we don’t recommend getting to heavy with the Nats, as the weather may limit their ability to take advantage of Julio. Still, they have some value in that lineup, and if you can afford a heavy hitter, Bryce Harper ($5,300) is on a tear right now, and Adam Eaton ($4,200) is healthy again.
Finally, as we’ve mentioned recently, we’ve noticed an unusual bias against stacking the Angels. Mike Trout ($4,800) is an obvious and consistent great play for DFS MLB optimal lineups, but for some reason we rarely see FanDuel MLB players stack Trout with other lineup mates. We think that’s a mistake.
Tonight, Doug Fister is on the mound, in Texas, for the Rangers facing the Angels. While Doug is giving up a low 0.82 home runs per nine innings since early last season, he has a bad 4.18 xFIP, high 1.42 WHIP, and is struggling with a 9.9% walk rate and low 21% K-rate.
Fister struggles against lefties, and Angels LH like Luis Valbuena ($2,900) and Kole Calhoun ($2,700) are hitting the bard hard lately. So, we recommend at least plugging those two in the lineup, and potentially adding more power like Albert Pujols ($2,700) and Trout.
FanDuel MLB: Summary and Example Lineup
There are probably around three different lineups we like tonight. We’re going to present a lineup we’d consider to be sort of the ‘middle of the road’ view. Paying up for Max Scherzer or Noah Syndergaard is worth it tonight, as they have a very high ceiling and could, alone, set you up to win cash games. But Dylan Bundy is the clear best value at pitcher.
For the offensive stacks, if you’re playing Max or Noah in your pitcher spot, you’ll need to focus on value picks from the Nationals, Angels, Diamondbacks, and Phillies lineups. However, if you’re playing Bundy, then you have more cash to pay up for guys like Mike Trout, Adam Eaton, or Bryce Harper. With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the Main FanDuel MLB slate on Monday, April 9th:
FanDuel MLB MAIN Slate Sample Lineup:
P Noah Syndergaard ($10,800)
C/1B Albert Pujols ($2,700)
2B Cesar Hernandez ($3,300)
3B Maikel Franco ($3,300)
SS Nick Ahmed ($3,200)
OF Michael A. Taylor ($2,900)
OF Kole Calhoun ($2,700)
OF Chris Owings ($3,200)
UTIL Luis Valbuena ($2,900)
Remaining Salary: $0
Note: This is a recommended lineup after discussing our top options for today. You should use this as a guide, and provide your own input when building FanDuel NHL lineups. We are not telling you, or selling you, to use this lineup.
Best of luck in your FanDuel MLB contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all your DFS news and analysis across MLB, NBA, NHL, and EPL this spring!