Welcome to the FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups column for Saturday, June 9th 2018. We’re a fantasy baseball column focused on helping you build a DFS MLB optimal lineup for each slate.
We weren’t able to get a FanDuel MLB column out in time for yesterday’s Main slate. However, for the day we had two lineups, one with Justin Verlander and another with Chris Sale. Sale threw a tremendous game against the White Sox, fanning ten in eight innings and earning a quality start.
Due to the lack of offensive production, Chris didn’t earn the win, but he still piled up 55 FanDuel MLB points for our lineup. In the Sale lineup, we stacked mostly Cardinals and Blue Jays, and they had a combined 12 runs. Kevin Pillar ($2,800) and Yairo Munoz ($2,600) were the top offensive picks of the lineup.
Still, for the Main slate, you needed a solid 150+ FanDuel MLB points in cash and more in GPP, so winning money in that slate was difficult. However in the Express slate, we had nine strikeouts in just six innings from Verlander. Justin also received great run support and earned the win with 46 FanDuel MLB points.
We also happend to stack the Astros with Verlander, which was surprisingly affordable with and Angels stack, Jon Jay ($3,400), and Robbie Grossman ($2,300). Jay lead off for the D-Backs and gave up 6.2 points, and Grossman gave us 18.7 FanDuel MLB points with a home run batting fifth in the lineup. We’ve touting Robbie a few times lately, as a cheap bat in a great lineup spot.
For the Express edition, we were able to pile up 158.7 Fanduel MLB points and easily won in both GPP and Cash for the slate. For Saturday, June 9th, we have another split slate scenario, and we’re going to cover both slates in this article.
The Early Only starts at 12:05 EDT in Washington, D.C. with the Nationals hosting the Giants again. The slate ends with the Pirates facing off against the Cubs in Chicago. There’s a total of five games in the slate, so plenty of options to consider. With some games in the middle of the day, the Main slate is played in the evening, starting around 7:15pm EDT and has four games, almost similar to the Early 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: Unfortunately, there appears to be showers, heavy rain, and thunderstorms in the Washington, D.C. area starting around 2pm EDT. However, that may be just late enough to get this game in. Still, there is definitely some weather-related risk with playing the Giants and Nationals in your lineup today.
But, the D.C. area is on the fringe of a weather system, and the forecast seems tricky. It’s possible they could stay dry most of the day. So, for the time being, we’re going to consider the Giants and Nats will play a full game.
There is some rain and storm risk in the Minneapolis and Philadelphia area as well, but for each game the weather would impact the area toward the end of the game time. So we think the Angels, Twins, Phillies, and Brewers should stay dry.
With weather-related considerations addressed, let’s get to the top pitching options…
FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Early Only Slate
Jon Lester ($8,400) is a lefty who hurled a great game against the Mets in his last start. But, the Mets have a low 63 wRC+ and high 26.1% K-rate against LHP’s this season. So their offensive lineup is getting buzz-sawed by southpaws. So the match up is ideal for Lester.
Unfortunately, the Pirates are a different scenario for Jon this afternoon. Pittsburgh has a 112 wRC+ against LHP’s this season, fifth best in baseball, and their low 19.5% K-rate is tied with the Angels for fourth lowest in baseball. Several FanDuel MLB players may bite on Lester because of his recent success, but he’s a hard fade today.
In the same game, there’s another trap play with Nick Kingham ($7,900). With an awesome 25.4% K-rate, Nick has one of the highest K-rats of the slate. But the Cubs have one of the best wRC+, 107, against RHP’s this season, and their K-rate is low, around 20%. Kingham may seem like a sneaky value play, but he could be disastrous against a hot offensive lineup.
Dereck Rodriguez ($6,000) is another play that seems like sneaky value but also could be terrible. Rodriguez only has two starts for the Giants, and with ten K’s in just 9.1 innings, his FanDuel MLB value already seems decent. But the Nats have a 20.8% K-rate against RHP’s, one of the lowest in baseball, so his 23.3% K-rate is muted today.
So who do we like? Kevin Gausman ($7,500) will likely be over looked against the Blue Jays. With a modest 96 wRC+ against RHP’s like Gausman, and high 24.1% K-rate, the Blue Jays are vulnerable in this scenario.
Also, while Kevin is struggling with 1.67 home runs per game and a high 4.63 ERA, he has a very solid 3.67 xFIP, third best on the mound today. Gausman’s 22.2% K-rate is solid, and he’s already fanned seven Blue Jays in a 40 FanDuel MLB points win this season. There’s risk, but Gausman is a sneaky solid play of the Early Only slate.
We have another sneaky play, but with more value from Brent Suter ($6,800). I initially skipped over Suter several times, considering Brent to be an offensive target later in my lineup. But when you look at the advanced metrics, things get interesting.
Suter has a high 4.55 ERA, but solid 1.27 WHIP. His 20% K-rate is modest, but his xFIP is below four (3.91). But, Suter is one of several lefties starting on the mound in the Early Only slate, and the Philles have struggled in this scenario. Their 23.4% K-rate is tenth highest in baseball against southpaws, and their 84 wRC+ is fourth worst in baseball. Suter is a rock-solid 30 to FanDuel MLB point play on a cheap salary against the Phillies this afternoon.
Finally, our top two options appear to be Gio Gonzalez ($9,200) against the Giants and Tyler Skaggs ($8,700) against the Twins. Both are lefties, and each have a 30 to 40 FanDuel MLB point average with potential for over 50 points.
But, between the two pitchers, Skaggs may have the better match up. Gio is facing a Giants offense who has a high 23.5% K-rate against LHP’s this season, but their wRC+ of 102 is 12th best in baseball. With Skaggs, we’re getting a 23.9% K-rate scenario, and have the 12th worst run production against LHP’s this season. So save $500 in salary, and grab Skaggs of Gio.
FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Main Slate
Frankly, the top pitching pick for the Main FanDuel MLB slate is quite obvious. The Texas Rangers are at home in Arlington, Texas. But the Rangers are facing a right-handed pitcher, and they’re fanning against righties 26.1% of the time, fourth worst in baseball.
Meanwhile, we have Charlie Morton ($10,000) on the mound for the Astros, facing the Rangers. Charlie has carried a very hot season, last year, into this year. With a low 2.84 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and very high 31.2% K-rate, Morton is the clear best starting pitcher for the Main slate today. Morton’s 2.84 xFIP is significantly better than any other pitcher option. Morton should be your starting pitcher in all formats.
The only major problem with Charlie tonight, is the $10K price tag to play him. Unfortunately, if you’re looking for a value play in the Main slate, the options are horrendous. The xFIP drops from 2.84 with Morton to 3.42 for Alex Wood ($7,800) against the Braves. While Wood seems like a decent option, against the Braves he’s not.
The Braves have a 115 wRC+ against left-handed pitchers this season. That is third best in baseball, behind only the Yankees and Astros. That’s quite a group to be apart of for offense. The Braves also have a low 18% K-rate against left-handed pitchers, the best in baseball.
In fact, the only value play we’d even consider is Domingo German ($6,700), and frankly we’d only use German is a GPP flier. The Mets offense is struggling, but they’re still providing a 110 wRC+ against right-handed pitchers, and have a low 20.5% K-rate in this scenario.
German’s 24.6% K-rate gives him a slight edge against the Mets lineup, but he could also get shelled tonight. Your best bet is to simply stick Morton in your pitcher pick, and focus the rest of your research in the offensive spots.
FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Early Only
With Gonzalez, Skaggs, Gausman, and Suter all considered solid options at the pitcher spot, we can cross off the Giants, Twins, Blue Jays, and Phillies from our offensive stacking list. Although that may depend on who you grab for your pitcher pick.
While we really like Suter today, the Phillies hit better in Citizens Bank park, and his pick has risk, meaning the offense could be a viable offensive stacking option.
Still, we have better offensive targets today. Aaron Sanchez is only giving up just over one home run per nine innings for the Blue Jays this season, but he has the worst xFIP (5.07) of any starting pitcher on the mound in the Early Only slate.
With a 4.48 ERA and high 1.49 WHIP, thanks to a nearly 13% walk rate, we know offenses will typically be productive against Sanchez right now. The Orioles offense isn’t one of the best on the board today, in terms of advanced metrics, but they’re dripping with talented hitting we’re expecting to heat up this summer.
If you grab a value option at pitcher, you can easily afford Manny Machado ($4,500), one of the top offensive shortstops in baseball. Jonathan Schoop ($3,000), Adam Jones ($3,000), and Mark Trumbo ($2,600) have been hotter lately, and have a better pitching match up this afternoon.
While the O’s offensive stack may not seem sexy, we’re using their top bats as a value play to also afford a Cubs stack against Nick Kingham. The Cubbies have already seen Kingham this season, fanning only four times in 5.2 innings, and putting ten runners on base with eight hits and two walks. They also piled up three earned runs in that time.
With a pitcher like Suter, and the Orioles offense, we can still afford Anthony Rizzo ($4,500), Kris Bryant ($4,300), Ian Happ ($2,600), and Willson Contraeras ($3,200). If you don’t like the O’s offense with the Cubs, consider swapping in several Nationals value plays against Dereck Rodriguez.
FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Main Slate
For the same reason you have to go with Morton as your pitcher pick tonight, there is a long list of offensive stacking options. Frankly, you could stack any team who isn’t the Rangers. But, the problem with the Main slate is the top two stacks are the Astros and Yankees.
Steven Matz and Mike Minor are each giving up over 1.5 home runs per nine innings. Both pitchers have an xFIP north of 4.00, and while Matz has a decent 3.42 ERA, Minor is giving up nearly six runs per game. Between the two, the Astros are a better stack, and likely more affordable. I would love to stack the Yankees with Morton, but the FanDuel MLB pricing for the Yankees is incredibly difficult for this slate.
With that in mind, we’re going to look for value picks from the Astros lineup, like Evan Gattis ($2,900), Marwin Gonzalez ($2,600), and Josh Reddick ($2,700). Assuming they’re in the lineup, they allow you to start an Astros stack with Morton, and you still have enough salary to target an average of around $3,400 for each of the remaining players.
But, to really complicate things on the offensive side, the Diamondbacks and Rockies are in Coors Field. The Rockies, of course, are super expensive when playing in Denver. Both offensives are viable options. We like the Diamondbacks more than the Rockies, mostly because of pricing.
Daniel Descalso ($3,800) is a pricey pick at second base, but you can afford him with Jon Jay ($3,500) and David Peralta ($3,500) as long as we find another value pick in our lineup like Johan Camargo ($2,600) at third base. Believe it or not, this still leaves us plenty of salary to grab a solid bat in the utility spot, like a red-hot Brett Gardner ($3,400).
FanDuel MLB: Summary and Example Lineup
For the Early Only slate, our top pitcher is Halo’s hurler Tyler Skaggs. But we think value picks like Brent Suter or Kevin Gausman could be nearly as good as Skaggs today. Along with a cheap Orioles offensive stack, you have plenty of salary to load up on the Cubs top bats for the Early Only FanDuel MLB slate. If you’re not sold on the O’s bats, consider swapping in the Nats offense.
For the Main slate, we’re stuck playing Morton. There just aren’t any other solid pitching options outside of Charlie tonight. That ma seem to cap of offensive stacking options, but we can still afford a three-to-four man Astros lineup. Also, we have enough cash to to stack the D-Backs in Coors field, and grab a Yankee or two.
With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineups for the MAIN and Early Only FanDuel MLB slates on Saturday, June 9th 2018:
FanDuel MLB Early Only Sample Lineup: FanDuel MLB Main Slate Sample Lineup:
P Brent Suter ($6,800) Charlie Morton ($10,000)
C/1B Anthony Rizzo ($4,500) Evan Gattis ($2,900)
2B Jonathan Schoop ($3,000) Daniel Descalso ($3,800)
3B Kris Bryant ($4,300) Johan Camargo ($2,600)
SS Manny Machado ($4,500) Marwin Gonzalez ($2,600)
OF Mark Trumbo ($2,600) Josh Reddick ($2,700)
OF Adam Jones ($3,300) Jon Jay ($3,500)
OF Ian Happ ($2,600) David Peralta ($3,500)
UTIL Willson Contreras ($3,200) Brett Gardner ($3,400)
Remaining Salary: $200 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.
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