FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups: Wednesday May 30 Early Only

Welcome back to the FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups column. This is the Wednesday, May 30th 2018 Early Only edition. We’re a fantasy baseball column focused on helping you build a DFS MLB optimal lineup for each slate.

With 15 MLB games played on Wednesday, MLB is back to a full 30 team schedule. But three of the games start around 1pm EDT, allowing FanDuel MLB to create another Early Only slate. You can play all 30 teams in the All-Day slate, but we recommend fading that option given the uncertainty of the lineups throughout the day.

For this article, we’ll focus solely on the FanDuel MLB Early Only slate, following up with a Main slate column later in the day. The Main slate consists of more games, ten in total, but each slate has plenty of great pitching picks, and some juicy offensive stacking options.

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: There are several rain and storm chances on Wednesday. However, the vast majority of the risks are later in the day, impacting the Main Slate. For the Early Only FanDuel MLB slate, we should keep an eye on the weather in Cleveland.

We’re not expecting any postponements, but we could experience a delay while the Indians host the White Sox. With weather-related considerations addressed, let’s get to the top pitching options…

FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Early Only Slate

One of the features in a small Early Only slate that often draws FanDuel MLB players away is the low number of player options. That’s odd, because I actually fine the lower number of player options to be easier, and often more fun, to play. When researching players, the top picks jump off the page quicker.

For this Early Only slate, some of the pitching picks are quite obvious, but there are also several sneaky plays at pitcher as well. Corey Kluber ($11,200) facing the White Sox in Cleveland is the slam dunk play of the slate. Kluber is averaging almost 46 FanDuel MLB points per game, has a ridiculously low 2.84 xFIP, and maintains a 26.1% K-rate.

But the intriguing part about the pitchers in this slate, is that Kluber only has the third highest K-rate. Eduardo Rodriguez ($7,700) and Sam Gaviglio ($5,800) are each fanning hitters over 28% of the time. Also, Kluber actually has the highest home runs per nine innings of all the starters, at 1.26 per nine.

So while Kluber seems like the obvious best option, from a metrics perspective, we have a conundrum. The key with Corey is his total innings pitched average higher than the other starters. It’s more likely the veteran Kluber will last six-plus innings, compared to the other, younger talented pitchers.

Let’s start crossing some pitchers off our list. Sam Gaviglio only has two starts and two relief appearances this season for the Blue Jays. During that time, Sam developed an impressive 28.1% K-rate and low 0.96 WHIP. Gaviglio has seen the Red Sox in two relief appearances already, fanning six hitters in just 4.1 innings, giving up only two hits, a walk, and a run.

Gaviglio is a great GPP option, but he’s nowhere near safe for a cash game play. Yes, he’s looking great in his few appearances on the mound, and yes, he’s done well against the Red Sox so far. But, Sam has a small population of data for us to begin trusting him. Also, the Red Sox hitters likely get better as they learn Gaviglio’s style.

Alex Reyes hasn’t pitched yet this season and has a tough Brewers offense to contend with. Reynaldo Lopez has high K-potential, but is streaky and can collapse on the mound, at times, with a lack of control. Oh, and Lopez has a red-hot Indians offense to face this afternoon.

So, you can pay up for Corey Kluber, or you can grab value with Eduardo Rodriguez or Junior Gerra ($7,300) against the Cardinals. Among all of these options, we like the 25-year-old Venezuelan the most. E-Rod is averaging over 30 FanDuel MLB points-per-game and has a 28% K-rate.

The Blue Jays have a sub-100 wRC+ against lefty pitchers this season, and are averaging a 22% K-rate at the plate against south paws. It’s hard for us to fade Kluber, but you’re getting nearly $3K in salary back to stack some juicy offensive weapons with a high-upside Rodriguez in your lineup.

FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Early Only Slate

For the very reason pitching was hard to pick today, finding the right offensive stacks for the Early Only FanDuel MLB slate is unfortunately difficult. However, we do have the Red Sox, Brewers, and Indians lineups to consider. All three lineups have some of the best FanDuel MLB offensive production in baseball this season.

When we were first building our lineup, we strongly considered the Red Sox. They’re pricey, but we’re expecting the BoSox to pick up on Gaviglio’s pitching style. However, considering Sam has the highest K-rate of all starting pitchers today, and one of the lowest WHIP’s, there is a lot of risk with this play, considering how pricey the picks are.

So after playing around with the Red Sox in our lineup for a while, we ended up fading the BoSox and jumping to another pricey option, the Indians. Lopez was off to an impressive start for the White Sox this season. The young right-handed fireball pitcher has maintained a low ERA and WHIP.

However, Reynaldo has a tendency to lost control on the mound, as we saw with the Nationals much earlier in his career. Also, Lopez now has the lowest K-rate of all starting pitchers in the Early slate, while his walk rate has crept above 10%. Lopez can also giving up too many long balls with his hard throwing.

With that in mind, we had to pay up for super-hot Jose Ramirez ($4,500) at 3B, and added Francisco Lindor ($4,500) at the shortstop position. They’re expensive, but the combination could add 30+ FanDuel MLB points to our roster. Finding value in the Indians lineup is tricky, but we like switch-hitting Melky Cabrera ($2,300) if he’s in the lineup today, along with Yonder Alonso ($3,200), who also has long-bomb potential.

With a little more value in it’s lineup, we’re also looking at the Brewers against a starting pitcher we haven’t seen yet this season, Alex Reyes for the Cardinals. Ryan Braun ($3,300) is back off the disabled list, and his DFS value is better than people realize. Jonathan Villar ($2,900) should be back on the field after a day off, and Christian Yelich ($4,200) is pricey but an awesome option if you can find a value pick within the Brew-Crew today.

FanDuel MLB: Summary and Example Lineup

We spent too much time trying to afford the Red Sox in our lineup for the Early Only FanDuel MLB slate today. After considering the risk against a pitcher whose done well against the BoSox this season, we finally decided to fade the Sox and move to the Indians as our top offensive stack.

From there, we’re looking at more value from the Brewers stack against a pitcher we haven’t seen on the mound yet this season. At least in the big leagues. Reyes hasn’t seen a major league field since 2016, so this is going to be interesting. There’s some risk with this play, but the Brewers offense is heating up.

With those two stacks entrenched into our lineup, the pitcher pick is honestly a hard place to land today. Core Kluber is an obvious top play of this slate, but he’s also incredibly expensive compared to the other options. We prefer to grab value in this slate, and we like Eduardo Rodriguez among all the value plays at pitcher today. In fact, Rodriguez should be a solid 40+ FanDuel MLB play, on a very modest salary.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the Early Only FanDuel MLB slate on Wednesday, May 30th:

FanDuel MLB Early Only Slate Sample Lineup:

P            Eduardo Rodriguez ($7,700)

C/1B     Manny Pina ($2,300)

2B          Jonathan Villar ($2,900)

3B          Jose Ramirez ($4,500)

SS          Francisco Lindor ($4,500)

OF          Christian Yelich ($4,200)

OF          Melky Cabrera ($2,300)

OF          Ryan Braun ($3,300)

UTIL       Yonder Alonso ($3,200)

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.

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!