FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups: Thursday May 24 Early Only

Welcome back to the FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups column. This is the Thursday May 24th 2018 EARLY ONLY edition. We’re a fantasy baseball column focused on helping you build a DFS MLB optimal lineup for each slate.

There are only eight games on the MLB schedule today, so only 16 teams to pick through for the FanDuel MLB All-Day slate. However, we’re only going to focus on the Early Only and Main slates in our TWO columns today.

In the Early Only slate, we have only three games, or six teams, with six fairly ugly starting pitchers to consider. That bodes well for offensive stacking, as we’ll have plenty of options with ownership likely spreading the percentages to a thinner result. However, finding the right pitcher will be tricky for this afternoons games. We’ll cover the Main slate later, but the pitching gets better.

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: Great news! There are currently no weather related threats creating PPD or cancellation concerns. So have at those lineups without worry about rain or thunderstorms on Thursday. With weather-related considerations addressed, let’s get to the top pitching options…

FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Early Slate

This won’t give you confidence about our pitching pick for the Early Only FanDuel MLB slate today, but we’re being frank…the decision wasn’t easy. Ivan Nova ($8,000) has the best xFIP, 3.70, of any pitcher in the Early Only slate.

Nova is also giving up only 1.28 home runs per nine innings, unfortunately pretty good compared to the rest of the starters this afternoon, and has a decent 1.31 WHIP. But Nova’s 17.8% K rate makes us cringe, especially considering his he only had eight total in his last two starts. Also, Nova’s WHIP is lower mostly due to his low walk rate, he’s giving up too many hits. Pass!

Luis Castillo ($7,300) has an intriguing 22.1% K-rate, but he’s facing a solid Pirates offensive lineup, and Luis has a high 1.5 WHIP and 1.75 home run per nine rate. Castillo is also famously inconsistent. No thanks. In fact, we may have to revisit his home run rate for our offensive stacking.

Lucas Giolito ($6,500) may be a top pitching prospect for the Chicago White Sox, but he’s having a horrendous year so far. On the bight side, Giolito is the starting pitcher for the Early Only FanDuel MLB slate who isn’t giving up more than one home run per nine innings. However, he has the worst xFIP, 6.89, walks more than he fans, 15.5% walk rate to 12.3% K-rate, and Lucas has a high 1.57 WHIP, the worst of all SP’s for this slate. Pass!

Nick Tropeano ($7,000) and the Angels are facing Marco Estrada ($7,700) and the Blue Jays in Toronto. Estrada is giving up nearly three home runs per nine, and faces a tough Halos offense. Meanwhile, Tropeano appeared to have promise earlier, but he been dreadful in his last two starts.

That leaves us with Dylan Bundy ($8,500), the most expensive pitcher for this slate. But, one thing to keep in mind, his price is fairly cheap compared to most FanDuel MLB slates we’ve seen this season.

Bundy is giving up over two home runs per nine innings, which is typically a big red flag. However, as you look at the details of his game log, many of those home runs came over a three week period.

Also, in his last two starts, against the Rays and Red Sox (in Boston), Dylan has 15 K’s in 13 innings, and only gave up a total of four runs in that time. Against the White Sox, Bundy should have  a good day.

So that’s how we landed at Bundy for our pitching pick. We cringe a bit at the long-ball risk, and Bundy has struggled mightily this season, but he’s also set up better than any other starting pitcher for the Early Only FanDuel MLB slate.

FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Early Slate

For the same reason the pitching pick was difficult, we also struggled to find our more comfortable offensive stacks for the Early Only FanDuel slate today. In theory, all six offenses have potential to explode with runs this afternoon. But as we said earlier, that could help us flatten ownership on our offense today.

While we have plenty of pitchers giving up many walks, hits, and runs, we decided to focus our offense on hitters who can get the ball over the fence, and pitchers who allow the ball to go over the fence consistently, and most often in a game.

Therefore, that lead us to target Luis Castillo and Marco Estrada on the mound for the Early Only slate. So that means, we can grab fairly affordable Pirates to stack with a little more expensive set of Angels bats.

Given all the ‘value’ we get from the pitcher pick, the fun thing about this slate is that we can easily afford someone like Mike Trout ($4,800), while also grabbing very productive hitters like Gregory Polanco ($3,500) and Corey Dickerson ($3,400) from the Pirates.

In fact, for these stacks, we’re recommending you pay up for the top bats in each lineup, and use a cheaper pick from another lineup for affordability. We’ll get to that next.

FanDuel MLB: Summary and Example Lineup

So with Dylan Bundy the best of the worst list of pitchers we’ve seen in one slate for quiet some time, we have plenty of money to stack our offensive lineups with top hitters. We’ve decided to go with the Angels and Pirates, although practically any lineup is a good idea for this slate.

We have so much salary left over, we’re going to grab many of the top Halos and Pirates bats for our offensive stacks, and see if we can dig for some value with our last offensive pick to afford it all. On bat jumped out at us while looking for value, Kendrys Morales ($2,400).

The switch-hitter has a low average which will likely scare off many FanDuel MLB players, but Morales has been quite hot lately. Kendrys has six hits in his last four game appearances, including a home run and three RBI’s. Facing Tropeano, if in the lineup today, Morales could continue his hot streak under many FanDuel MLB player radars.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the EARLY FanDuel MLB slate on Thursday, May 24th:

FanDuel MLB Early Only Slate Sample Lineup:

P            Dylan Bundy ($8,500)

C/1B     Albert Pujols ($2,700)

2B          Josh Harrison ($3,100)

3B          Colin Moran ($3,200)

SS          Andrelton Simmons ($3,400)

OF          Mike Trout ($4,800)

OF          Corey Dickerson ($3,400)

OF          Gregory Polanco ($3,500)

UTIL       Kendrys Morales ($2,400)

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.

Next: MLB DFS Picks and Pivots

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!