FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups: Tuesday April 10
By Matt Rogers
Welcome back to FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups. This is the Tuesday, April 9th 2018 edition. We’re a fantasy baseball column focused on helping you build a DFS MLB optimal lineup for each slate.
Yesterday’s DFS MLB optimal lineup ideas worked out nicely for FanDuel MLB cash games, but unless you picked all of the ideal people from the offensive stacking focused team’s, you probably just missed GPP winnings.
Max Scherzer ($11,100) landed over 60 FanDuel MLB points, as we anticipated, but was very expensive. Still with ten K’s in nine innings, Scherzer threw a gem of a game against a Braves team who just beat him during his last start. The cold weather helped, though.
Our favorite value play was Dylan Bundy ($8,600) at pitcher, and he didn’t disappoint. Bundy did as expected. Dylan gave up some hits and walks, ultimately two runs, but also pitched seven innings, go the quality start, and exceeded strikeout expectations with ten. Along with the quality start, Bundy had 49 FanDuel MLB points. He would’ve exceeded 50 with some help from the O’s offense.
The Angels stack worked out nicely with eight total runs, and several of our Phillies hitters scored runs and knocked some batters in with six total runs. Unfortunately, the Diamondbacks only had two runs, in a low scoring win. That hurt us a bit. Our one big regret is not reading into the Royals offensive potential last night, but I didn’t find many who saw that coming.
With all of those thoughts in mind, we’re going to identify similar offensive stacking focus area’s for Tuesday. And while there is a Main FanDuel MLB slate full of stud pitchers, we think there’s another sneaky value play at the position tonight.
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: For the most part, weather improves across the country today. However, it’s still cold in Chicago and Cleveland, game time temps expected in the high 30’s and low 40’s this afternoon and evening. So we’re avoiding the Early only FanDuel MLB slate again, and focusing on the Main slate for Tuesday night.
With those risks aside, let’s get to the top pitching option…
FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Main Slate
Today’s list of pitchers reads like yesterday’s, only bigger. Chris Sale ($11,000), arguably the most talented pitcher on the mound today, faces Luis Severino ($10,500) and the Yankees in Boston. While Sale is always a great play, and Severino is off to a fantastic start, we hate the idea of playing either pitcher against the other, so we’re fading both. We’ll let the Red Sox and Yankees fans inflate their ownership and move on.
The Nationals and Mets each have an ideal pitching match up today. Stephen Strasburg ($9,800) has slightly improved but still chilly weather to contend with today. That sets Stras up to pitch in similar settings as Max, and against the same Braves lineup.
Like Bundy, Strasburg is letting hitters on the base-path, but has a high LOB%, not letting them score at a high rate. Stephen also is averaging around seven strikeouts per game. Tonight, he could get six to ten K’s with around 50 FanDuel MLB Points. Stephen is one of our top plays of the day, but you have to pay up compared to our favorite value play.
Jacob deGrom ($9,600) isn’t fanning hitters as high a rate, but gets the struggling Marlins offense tonight, against Caleb Smith ($5,700) who has looked terrible so far this season. Even with a modest five to six strikeouts, although he’ll likely have closer to seven or eight, deGrom also could reach around 40-50 FanDuel MLB points tonight. We view deGrom as a similar play to Strasburg, even in better weather conditions.
Finally, even with so many stud arms we’ve mentioned, and some we haven’t like Aaron Nola ($8,500), Patrick Corbin ($9,000), or Carlos Martinez ($8,700), we prefer to go low-ownership and high value at pitcher tonight. We’re also targeting an early season team-hitting stack we feel is getting overlooked right now.
Sean Manaea ($8,200) had a fantastic spring training, and is off to a great start to this season. He’s pitched nearly eight innings in each of his first two starts, only given up a total of seven hits in those 15.2 innings, one walk, and two earned runs. Sean is averaging almost six K’s per game and has a quality start in each of his first two games, against the Rangers and Angels.
Here’s the risky part, Manaea is facing the Dodgers in L.A. tonight. However, what we think many FanDuel MLB players may miss, is the Dodgers bats are performing horribly against lefties this season. With a 25.5% K-rate, .188 batting average, and 59 wRC+, the Dodgers offensive production against southpaws in 2018, so far, is the worst in baseball.
With that in mind, and Manaea pitching well to start this season, we believe Sean is a low-owned, value stud at the pitching spot.
FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Main Slate
There are three pitchers who’s stats jumped out at us when looking for offensive stacks on Tuesday night. Caleb Smith, whom we’ve already mentioned, is off to a terrible start for the Marlins. With a 15.1% walk rate, his decent 23.8% K-rate is muted. Also, Smith is giving up an astounding 1.67 home runs per nine innings, along with a terrible 1.70 WHIP. With that in mind, in great hitting weather, we love the Mets offense tonight.
Mets plays like Jay Bruce ($3,400) and Michael Conforto ($3,900) should work nicely today. But don’t forget about some value plays like red-hot Asdrubal Cabrera ($3,300) at second base. Also, while Travis d’Arnaud ($2,500) has modest results this season, he’s set up well against a lefty today, batting right, and should be in the lineup.
With the Phillies playing the Reds again in Philadelphia, and Homer Bailey on the mound for Cincinnati again, we have to consider the Phillies hot offense to stack once again today. After a slow start to the season, Odubel Herrera ($2,900) is heating up, Maikel Franco ($3,300) appears to be getting his power, and consistency, back again, and Rhys Hoskins ($5,000) is expensive but absolutely smashing the ball, averaging around 18 FanDuel MLB points-per-game this year. Also, don’t forget about rookie Scott Kingery ($2,900) at shortstop.
Finally, a potential under-the-radar stack for today is the Mariners. We’ve been on the M’s often this season as many of their hot bats continue to be overlooked. The Royals have Eric Skoglund on the mound tonight, and he’s already struggling significantly, with the highest xFIP (6.17) of any pitcher on the mound today.
Our favorite Mariners plays are Dee Gordon ($3,400) leading off and in the OF spot, Kyle Seager ($2,800) is off to a slow start but has had some pop lately. We think Seager is set up well this game, even against a lefty. Also, Jean Segura ($3,500) is worth the salary at shortstop, and Mitch Haniger ($3,300) has been a productive fourth hitter for the Mariners so far this season.
FanDuel MLB: Summary and Example Lineup
For the pitcher spots, we’re avoiding many of the top studs today, but still like Stephen Strasburg and Jacob deGrom as top plays today. Still, we favor Sean Manaea as the best pitching option, given his value while still creating 40 to 50 FanDuel MLB points. We’re also expecting low ownership for Manaea, as he’s going to get overlooked.
For offensive stacks, we love the Phillies again today, but also think the Mets and Mariners have some of the best pitching match ups for any offense in the Main slate. And one more additional thought, while we didn’t cover them, we continue to think the Angels are a low-owned, and high value, stacking opportunity today.
With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the Main FanDuel MLB slate on Tuesday, April 8th:
FanDuel MLB MAIN Slate Sample Lineup:
P Sean Manaea ($8,200)
C/1B Travis d’Arnaud ($2,500)
2B Asdrubal Cabrera ($3,300)
3B Maikel Franco ($3,300)
SS Jean Segura ($3,500)
OF Odubel Herrera ($2,900)
OF Rhys Hoskins ($5,000)
OF Dee Gordon ($3,400)
UTIL Kyle Seager ($2,800)
Remaining Salary: $100
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!