FanDuel Lineup and Picks for Tuesday, May 15

Phillies at Orioles

Phillies Probable Starter – Nick Pivetta, RHP

4.15 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 9.69 K/9

Vs LHH – .301 average, .365 wOBA, 37.9 fly ball percent and 29.3 hard contact rate

Vs RHH – .215 average, .252 wOBA, 35.4 fly ball percent and 19.2 hard contact rate

I’m not sure if I’m going to use him in cash games, but Pivetta might be a golden GPP option tonight. He’s all the way down at $7,100 but he could really have a great game tonight. The Orioles are righty heavy, which Pivetta has owned so far this season. The lefties they are going to throw out there aren’t the scariest. The ghost of Chris Davis lurks as does Pedro Alvarez, but I’d favor Pivetta in those matchups. Baltimore can hit for power but they also rank 11th in baseball with a 24.1 strikeout percentage against righty pitching. Manny Machado is the only hitter from the Orioles that I’d target.

Orioles Hitters to Target

Elite Options – Manny Machado

Secondary Options – None

Orioles Probable Starter – Andrew Cashner, RHP

4.84 ERA, 1.50 WHIP and 8.06 K/9

Vs LHH – .267 average, .383 wOBA, 51.7 fly ball percent and 27.9 hard contact rate

Vs RHH – .253 average, .341 wOBA, 33.8 fly ball percent and 35.5 hard contact rate

Cashner has a high score of 28 FanDuel points over the last month, so I certainly won’t be using him tonight. The first batter that really jumps off the page here is Odubel Herrera. He’s been smashing righties with a .379 average and .437 wOBA. He’s hitting  fly balls over 30 percent of the handedness and that’s a really bad matchup for Cashner in Camden Yards. Carlos Santana has been on an absolute tear since the start of May and even though his price reflects it, he’s an excellent play tonight as well.

Phillies Hitters to Target

Elite Options – Odubel Herrera, Carlos Santana, Rhys Hoskins

Secondary Options – Cesar Hernandez, Aaron Altherr

Home Run Pick – Odubel Herrera

Yankees at Nationals

Yankees Probable Starter – Masahiro Tanaka, RHP

4.66 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 8.74 K/9

Vs LHH – .236 average, .232 wOBA, 37.5 fly ball percent and 28.1 hard contact rate

Vs RHH – .229 average, .319 wOBA, 36.5 fly ball percent and 38.7 hard contact rate

For a monster slate, pitching isn’t all that attractive tonight. Tanaka is at a very reasonable price tag at just $8,300 tonight and could even enter into the cash discussion. Typically I don’t play Tanaka almost at all and certainly not in cash but the price and the matchup make it interesting. Two of the biggest power threats in the Nationals lineup hit from the left side of the plate and Tanaka can strike batters out. The range of outcomes is pretty wide for Tanaka and I won’t target a ton of bats on this side of the game because of that.  The Nationals aren’t quite as good as the Angels, Astros and Red Sox which is who Tanaka has faced in his last three starts.

Nationals Hitters to Target

Elite Options – Bryce Harper

Secondary Options – Trea Turner, Mark Reynolds, Matt Adams

Nationals Probable Starter – Gio Gonzalez, LHP 

2.22 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and 10.07 K/9

Vs LHH – .192 average, .213 wOBA, 35.5 fly ball percent and 22.6 hard contact rate

Vs RHH – .252 average, .312 wOBA, 28.0 fly ball percent and 33.3 hard contact rate

When I first started looking this slate over, I misread the game for a second and thought Gonzalez was pitching against the Mets, not Yankees. I was pretty bummed when I saw it was the Yanks because I virtually refuse to use pitchers against that lineup. Gonzalez is a very underrated pitcher but the Yankee lineup is too good to risk him tonight. On the flip side, I won’t be chasing the Yankees in anything other than GPP’s. The righty bats are most attractive but even then it’s not the easiest matchup for the Yankees either.

Yankee Hitters to Target

Elite Options – Giancarlo Stanton, especially in GPP’s

Secondary Options – Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez

Home Run Pick – Giancarlo Stanton