FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups: Thursday April 19
By Matt Rogers
Welcome back to the FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups column. This is the Thursday, April 19th 2018 edition. We’re a fantasy baseball column focused on helping you build a DFS MLB optimal lineup for each slate.
Depending on who you used for your offensive stacks, yesterday could have been a great day in both Cash and GPP plays. We ultimately settled on Carlos Carrasco ($9,300), one of our top pitcher recommendations, who lasted seven innings without giving up an earned run, and had seven strikeouts while earning a quality start and 46 FanDuel MLB points.
The big miss of the night was trying to stack the Angels, but the Nationals and Braves worked out nicely. By far, the best play of the night was Ryan Zimmerman ($2,500) who has been mashing the baseball lately but consistently right to a defender, so far this season. Last night, things changed for Zimmerman.
With a dirt-cheap salary, you earned 56.6 FanDuel MLB points by playing Ryan, who had two home runs, four RBI’s, three runs, and a triple. In fact, just Zimmerman and Carrasco lone gave you 112 FanDuel MLB points. So those plays with a Ryan Flaherty and some other decent value picks for the night lead to cash earnings on Wednesday.
For FanDuel MLB on Thursday, we’re looking at a skinny nine game slate today. Four games start between 1pm and 6:30pm ET, which the remaining games beginning after 7pm ET. FanDuel MLB has an All-Day slate covering every game. However, it’s Main slate only covers the five evening games. For this article, we cover the Main slate only.
Before we get there, a reminder to never take a DFS MLB optimal lineup as ‘bible’ for your personal lineup each day. Use the suggestions as guidance. Also, make sure you follow final lineup thoughts throughout the day on our twitter account @FantasyCPR or me @mattymcmatt17 look for late breaking lineup news.
Weather Note: While weather still isn’t great in the north and eastern part of the US today, we’re mostly not worried about any possible delays or postponements. However, as another storm system exits the east coast, we can expect chilly conditions places like Philadelphia, and the wind will be impacting offense in places like SunTrust Park in Atlanta as well.
So, with weather-related considerations addressed, let’s get to the top pitching options…
FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Main Slate
Two immediate thoughts come to mind when I look at the pitchers in the FanDuel MLB Main slate for Thursday night. First, Zack Greinke ($8,900) is an obvious play, so he’s likely chalky. And Jameson Tailllon ($9,300) is risky, but an attractive play against a Phillies team who struggles against right-handed pitchers this season.
However, the Taillon play could be a trap. Yes, the Phillies have the third highest K-rate of all teams against right-handed pitchers this season. But their strikeout rate drops by almost 4% when facing RHP’s in Citizen’s Bank Park.
Also, the Phillies have the 12th highest wRC+ against RHP’s in their own stadium. We also saw Taillon surprisingly struggle against the Marlins last outing. So there’s tons of risk for the most expensive starting pitcher in this slate. Therefore, we’re fading Jameson tonight.
Jake Arrieta ($8,300) has been OK for the Phils so far this year, only giving up four total runs in 10.2 innings among two starts. However, Jake isn’t fanning many hitters right now, and a good game from Arrieta against a solid Pirates offense is likely 30 to 40 FanDuel MLB points. We want out of the pitcher pick tonight.
Chase Anderson ($7,900) is an interesting value option, but again, we can’t expect more than 30 to 40 points from that pick. Matt Harvey ($7,500) is in a dangerous spot against a good Braves lineup in SunTrust Park, a hitters paradise lately. We can’t go with Nick Tropeano ($6,300) against the red-hot Red Sox, and Ty Blach ($6,000) and Dillon Peters ($5,600) are very unlikely to have good nights.
That leaves us with Eduardo Rodriguez ($7,100), who looked very good starting for the Red Sox last season, and Rick Porcello just shutout the Angels yesterday. However, there’s a big problem with this play. The Angels are crushing lefties, and Rodriguez still appears to be working on his control since his injury last season.
We’ll likely see some FanDuel MLB players stack Angels against Rodriguez, lefty bats, and for good reason. So Rodriguez is an interesting GPP option, but after reviewing every pitcher in this slate tonight, Zack Greinke is your best pitcher pick, has the best value, and the highest ceilings. Especially for cash games, you have to have Greinke in your FanDuel MLB Main slate lineup for Thursday.
FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Main Slate
As we’ve already mentioned, the Angels lefty bats are a great option against Eduardo Rodriguez and the Red Sox tonight. The Red Sox bats are hot too and Nick Tropeano should get a wake-up call today. But we’re not stacking either offenses today.
The Angels do have some risk if Rodriguez pitches a solid game, and Tropeano will cap the Red Sox potential. Also, we think they’re each potentially chalky plays. However, we may slip at least one Angels bat into our lineup, like Ian Kinsler ($3,700), whose heating up since his DL release.
We mentioned how we’re completely avoiding Marlins starter Dillon Peters in Milwaukee today. That’s mostly because we’re stacking Brewers bats tonight. Since early last season, Peters has a 1.65 WHIP, tied with Matt Harvey for the highest WHIP of any of the starters on the mound tonight, over the last 12 months.
That’s because Peters is giving up a .287 batting average and has a high 12.1% walk rate. Dillon also has a low 17% K-rate, but is only giving up 1.17 home runs per nine innings. Still, we can expect the potential for a home run tonight, and we know there will be runners on the base-path for the Brew-crew. Because Peters is a lefty, we’re mostly focused on the right-handed bats like Jonathan Villar ($3,200) who’s a switch-hitter and Lorenzo Cain ($3,200) in an OF spot.
We mentioned Harvey’s horrendous WHIP since early last season, and after a decent start against the Phillies in early April, Matt has struggled again this season. Along with the wind blowing out to left field, we love the Braves bats tonight. If playing, Freddie Freeman ($4,400) is a great play as long as you can afford him. Otherwise, we think Ryan Flaherty ($3,100), Dansby Swanson ($3,500), Ender Inciarte ($3,300), and Nick Markakis ($3,300) each provide great value tonight.
We’re mostly staying away from the Marlins, but we do love J.T. Realmuto ($2,700) potentially back in the Marlins lineup again tonight. Realmuto was a fantastic offensive player in the spring of last season. In his first game of 2018, on Tuesday, Realmuto slugged a home run, among his two hits, knocked in four RBI’s and scored two. With a 35.4 FanDuel MLB point total, he’s was a steal. If in the Marlins lineup again tonight, we’re playing him.
FanDuel MLB: Summary and Example Lineup
Pitching is a little tricky tonight, but aside from using Eduardo Rodriguez in some GPP plays, we’re fading all other pitching options, including Jameson Taillon, and using Zack Greinke in most of our lineups. He may be a little chalky, but we think Taillon will help reduce his ownership, increasing his value.
For offense, we’re going to grab J.T. Realmuto for the 1B/C spot if he’s in the Marlins lineup. We also like Ian Kinsler, even though we’re not stacking the Angels tonight. For our stacks, we’re going to use any combination of Brewers and Braves tonight. We’ll let the rest of the FanDuel MLB players play the chalky Red Sox and Angels tonight. It’s also likely the Diamondbacks are used often. With that summary in mind, here’s a look at the sample lineup for the Main FanDuel MLB slate on Thursday, April 19th:
FanDuel MLB MAIN Slate Sample Lineup:
P Zack Greinke ($8,900)
C/1B J.T. Realmuto ($2,700)
2B Jonathan Villar ($3,200)
3B Ryan Flaherty ($3,100)
SS Dansby Swanson ($3,500)
OF Ender Inciarte ($3,300)
OF Lorenzo Cain ($3,200)
OF Nick Markakis ($3,300)
UTIL Ian Kinsler ($3,700)
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!