FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups: Wednesday May 30 Main

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

Earlier, we address the benefits of playing in the shortened ‘Early Only’ FanDuel MLB slate. With only three games and six teams to pick through, we only had six starting pitchers to consider. However, all six pitchers has very similar qualities. The Main FanDuel MLB slate is different.

Ten of the days games are played after 7pm EDT today, so we have twenty teams of players to consider four our DFS MLB optimal lineups tonight. That means we have twenty starting pitchers to review, and boy do they vary across the board of good and bad pitching.

But, that creates a scenario where you can easily narrow down your top pitchers and offensive stacks. Also, there’s enough of each to create lower ownership for each of your positional 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: Unfortunately, the remnants of a tropical storm are spinning through the heart of the country right now. That scenario is creating weather related issues in a few ballparks across the eastern half of the U.S.

We should be mostly clear of postponement issues, for today, but the Cubs, Pirates, Angels, and Tigers all have decent delay risk, with some postponement potential in the Pittsburgh and Detroit areas.

There is also delay potential in Baltimore, Denver, and Atlanta. That means the Nationals, Orioles, Rockies, Giants, Braves, and Mets all have at least some delayed game considerations. The risk has more of an impact on starting pitchers than batters.

With weather-related considerations addressed, let’s get to the top pitching options…

FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Main Slate

Well, let’s get right to the obvious pitcher play of the Main FanDuel MLB slate. Max Scherzer ($11,800) has been displaying a dominate CY Award type of season so far. After 11 starts, Mad Max has a very low 2.76 xFIP, 0.91 WHIP, he’s only giving up 0.75 home runs per nine innings, and has a 38.2% K-rate.

The mind-boggling additional stat is that Scherzer’s BABIP suggests he could get better as the season progresses. Max is averaging 52 FanDuel MLB points-per-game. Some outings, all you need is Mad Max in your lineup with just three or four decent offensive plays to win cash games.

Scherzer has a great match up in Baltimore against a struggling O’s lineup. But he also fell very flat in Miami last outing, pitching six innings with only four K’s and giving up four earned runs in a win. We’re expecting much better today, but we think you’re OK to save money in both cash and GPP plays, and fade Max tonight. Still, you can’t go wrong with Max and the right offensive value picks.

Shohei Ohtani ($9,000) is going to be a hot play against the Tigers in Detroit. You’re saving $2,800 in salary while still getting a pitcher with a 30%+ K-rate average against a team who historically fans often against right-handed pitchers.

But, we think Max and Shohei will be the top owned pitchers in most formats, leading us to turn our attention to James Paxton ($9,800). Paxton is often overlooked for DFS MLB optimal lineups, for some reason. Maybe it’s west-coast bias, but Paxton is just as good, if not better than the other two starting pitchers tonight.

Against left handed pitchers this season, the Rangers have a very high 26% K-rate. That is the third highest strikeout rate against southpaws in MLB. The Rangers also have a sub-100 wRC+ in this scenario.

So with an ideal match up, we’re getting a lefty who is averaging 32.7% with strikeouts while pulling his WHIP down to 0.96. In fact, the only other starting pitcher on the mound tonight with a sub 1.00 WHIP and 30%+ K-rate is Scherzer.

Paxton has some struggles earlier in the season, which wasn’t that surprising as he’s coming off a mid-season injury from last year. But James is averaging over ten strikeouts per game since April 26th and has only given up more than two runs in a start once in his last six games.

Also, Paxton struggled earlier in the season against the Rangers, which may pull ownership down on the play. We love Paxton’s potential tonight, and think he’s a fantastic snag given the head-fakes to Ohtani and Scherzer.

FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Main Slate

So we’re saving some salary, nearly $2K, by picking Paxton over Scherzer. But James is still an expensive play at the pitcher position. So we’ll need to find some value in our offensive plays, and should consider offenses with value potential.

Unfortunately, the Rockies don’t bring a lot of value to the table, but they’re a great team to stack again tonight. We weren’t able to get an article out yesterday, but we were all over the Rockies against the easily crush-able Shark. Tonight, the Rockies get Derek Holland, who has performed better over the last few weeks, but is still a great stacking target.

Because the Rockies are expensive, and Paxton is expensive, we need to find value in other plays tonight. Two teams which have been dripping with value lately, and are great stacking targets tonight, are the Mariners and Nationals.

We talked about the great pitching from both of these teams, but their offense also has an ideal match up. The Orioles have David Hess starting on the mound against the Nats tonight. Hess is giving up over two home runs per nine innings, and the Nats have been crushing RHP’s this season.

Bryce Harper ($5,300) is a great play tonight, but affordability may be an issue.  So we’re going to stick with hot bats from the Nats, in a more affordable range. We’re expecting Wilmer Difo ($3,100) to start again. Michael A. Taylor ($3,200) and Juan Soto ($3,500) have each been ripping the ball lately. And Anthony Rendon ($4,000) appears to be settling into his three-spot.

The Mariners also have a great match up in Seattle. Matt Moore, who’s somehow still pitching in the majors, takes his 7.99 ERA and 2.05 WHIP to the hill tonight. Moore is only giving up 1.3 home runs per nine innings, but that’s still enough for someone like Jean Segura ($3,300) or Ryon Healy ($2,800) to give us tremendous point return on modest salaries.

FanDuel MLB: Summary and Example Lineup

We’re very tempted to go with Max Scherzer or Shohei Ohtani at the pitcher position tonight. They each have juicy match ups. But we think James Paxton will be overlooked, and could potentially be the best pitcher play of the night. Paxton is our guy at the pitcher spot for the FanDuel MLB main slate tonight.

For offensive stacking, we love the Rockies tonight. But the Rockies are expensive. We may only be able to grab a couple of Rockies, with value, and will turn our offensive stacking attention to the Nationals and Mariners. Between the two, you could play four of either team, while minimize the stack of the other with a mix of Rockies players.

Any combination of those three offensive stacks, with Paxton at pitcher, should be a winner in many formats tonight. With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the MAIN FanDuel MLB slate on Wednesday, May 30th:

FanDuel MLB Main Slate Sample Lineup:

P            James Paxton ($9,800)

C/1B     Mike Zunino ($2,300)

2B          Wilmer Difo ($3,100)

3B          Anthony Rendon ($4,000)

SS          Jean Segura ($3,300)

OF          Michael A. Taylor ($3,200)

OF          Gerardo Parra ($3,000)

OF          Juan Soto ($3,500)

UTIL       Ryon Healy ($2,800)

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 summery!