FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups: Saturday June 16

Welcome to the FanDuel MLB Daily Lineups column for Saturday, June 16th 2018. We’re a fantasy baseball column focused on helping you build a DFS MLB optimal lineup for each slate.

Yesterday’s FanDuel MLB Main slate didn’t work out the way we planned, depending on the pitcher you landed on. Kevin Gasuman, Zack Godley, and even Chad Kuhl (whom we’ve touted a few times this season) were better picks than James Paxton.

Paxton had a great match up, and looked fantastic through the first two innings. But the Red Sox bats opened up in the third inning, and Paxton was promptly pulled, giving us a measly four Fan Duel MLB points.

That was a disappointing result, considering how well our offense performed. We liked the Padres value against McCarthy last night, and Freddy Galvis ($2,400) was our favorite pick in the shortstop spot. Galvis had three singles, a double, and a home run with a run and four RBI’s. In total, you got 44.2 FanDuel MLB points on a super cheap salary.

While the Dodgers stack wasn’t as impactful as we hoped, Matt Kemp still smashed a home run and gave us 21.7 FanDuel MLB points. The Pirates had some modest results, but the Diamondbacks were a solid play as well.

Once again this Saturday, FanDuel MLB is rolling out a new way to split up the slates. Instead of having an Early Only to start the day, they’re calling the first three games the ‘Very Early Only’ slate. That leaves us with an Early Only in the afternoon, and Main slate in the evening. This is preferable, because we get more lineup options in the later two slates, which is what we’ll focus on for this article.

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: For the most part, weather should not impact the Early Only and Main slates across the MLB schedule, with the exception of Cleveland. The Indians and Twins game has decent risk of a delay, mid-game, or ending early. About an hour or two into the game, the odds of thunderstorms currently appear to spike, making that game a decent fade to consider.

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

FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Early Only Slate

There is a list of strong arms as options for the starting pitcher slot in the Early Only FanDuel MLB slate. But frankly, the top pick is obvious. He will be chalky of course, but Max Scherzer ($12,000) take the mound around 4pm EDT in Toronto, and he should be in most of your lineups in most formats.

Even when Mad Max loses a game, like his last outing, you’re winning with his pick. Scherzer has an insanely high 38.8% K-rate, which is ideal for DFS MLB optimal lineups. Max’s ridiculously low 2.21 xFIP is easily the best of all starting pitchers this afternoon. And Mad Max is averaging over 50 FanDuel MLB points-per-game. Even if you find a cheaper pick for some SP value plays, you need Max in some of your lineups in order to win any money today.

That being said, there are some Mad-Max-Fade options. Carlos Carrasco ($10,300) is red-hot after ten-plus K’s in his last two starts, but we don’t like his match up against the Twins. In fact, Carrasco faced the Twins bats on June 1st and he gave up six runs in just 3.2 innings. No thanks.

Instead you have two better value picks in Sean Newcomb ($8,900) and Zach Eflin ($8,000). There is some danger in the fact that the Padres have already seen Newcomb this season and the Brewers already saw Eflin this year.

But both teams struggled against each pitcher. Also, Newcomb and Eflin are both capable of a six to nine K outing. And each team struggles against this pitching scenario. I prefer Eflin over Newcomb because of the ballparks, but you could go with either one for a SP value play lineup.

FanDuel MLB: Top Pitcher Main Slate

The Main FanDuel MLB slate for Saturday night, which actually starts after 8pm EDT, has a similar situation at the pitcher spot. There are some tempting good starting pitchers on the mound like Madison Bumgarner ($8,500) and Carlos Martinez ($7,900).

But Martinez has a tough match up against the Cubs, and Bumgarner is fading a surging Dodgers offense. Also, while we’re big fans of Bum for DFS MLB optimal lineups, we need Madison progress more after coming off of the disabled list.

We’ll get to a value flier play in a minute, but that brings us to the obvious, and likely chalky, top pick at the pitcher spot, Patrick Corbin ($9,500). I’m honestly baffled by Corbin’s salary in this situation, but we’re not going to complain and simply take advantage.

The Mets are absolutely horrendous against left-handed hitters. They have a 62 wRC+, easily the worst in baseball. The second worst against LHP’s are the Brewers, but they’re 18 better, at 80. That’s quite a difference! The White Sox have the worst K-rate against lefties, 27.7%, but the Mets aren’t far behind with a 26.4% K-rate.

In fact, I check to see if the Mets lineup is playing a lefty every day this season, because it’s almost a lock that pitcher will take the top spot in FanDuel MLB points. So this morning, my heart skipped a beat when I saw Corbin, with his 31.8% K-rate, facing the Mets in Chase Field. This is the ideal play at pitcher. Patrick should be owned in your lineup in all FanDuel MLB formats.

Now, for a value play. Frankly, there aren’t many great options outside of Corbin. Playing Eflin or Newcomb in the Early Only slate is a fair pick. In the Main slate, grabbing for value at the pitcher spot is reaching with big risk potential.

The only flier we would consider for GPP, is Steven Wright ($6,900) against the Mariners. Unfortunately, the Mariners lineup has a low 20.7% K-rate against righties like Steven. Worse, they have a good 107 wRC+.

But Wright has a low 1.04 WHIP and very low 1.21 ERA. Along with a 20%+ K-rate, we could see Wright finding a way to give us around 30 to 40 FanDuel MLB points, while spending more on offense. Again, this is GPP only!

FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Early Only

When looking for top hitting stacks, we focus on obvious metrics like ERA and WHIP. The higher of each metric, the better odds the offenses will pile up some runs before that pitcher is yanked. But one of our favorite stats to target is home runs per nine innings.

The higher the rate, the quicker you can pile up FanDuel MLB points with your offensive stacks. All it takes is one swing of the bat, and you can have as much as four players get points. Fortunately, we have plenty of high HR rates from our pitchers in the Early Only slate.

Before we get there, keep in mind we lose a lot of salary by playing Scherzer in the starting pitcher slot. At best, we’re only allow to have around $2,700-$3,200 to spend on each player. Or, we need to find some value picks.

We got lucky today. Luis Castillo is hurling toward the Pirates today, and Wei-Yin Chen is pitching against right-handed bats in Baltimore. Both the Pirates and Orioles are also fortunately cheap. While Castillo has a decent 23.4% K-rate, he’s also giving up 1.85 home runs per nine innings. Even better, that metric has been climbing recently. Meanwhile, Chen is giving up nearly as much, 1.82 per game.

We can get most of the top five from each lineup comfortably. Although, playing Jordy Mercer ($2,700) at shortstop gives us some more money to make sure we can still afford a more expensive play like Francisco Cervelli ($3,000) at the C/1B spot, or Josh Harrison ($3,200) at the 2B spot.

If you decided to build a lineup with Newcomb or Eflin, there’s some more expensive smashers for you to consider. Manny Machado ($4,200) is a great play from the O’s lineup, but you should also consider stacking the Nationals against Marco Estrada‘s 1.78 home run per nine rate. The Nats bats even have some value mixed in their lineup, for a mini-stack with Scherzer.

FanDuel MLB: Top Hitting Stacks Main Slate

Once again, for offensive stacks in the Main FanDuel MLB slate, we’re going to focus on home run rate. Unfortunately, the home run per nine innings rate isn’t as easy to find in this slate, compared to the Early Only slate, which had a plethora of options.

Still, we have at least two targets to consider. Sticking with the game in Chase Field, Steven Matz is giving up around 1.7 home runs per nine innings for the Mets and faces a productive Diamondbacks offense in their own park. Also, Matz is a lefty, and the D-Backs have some right-handed batting options who smash lefties, like Nick Amed ($3,200) and Chris Owings ($2,400).

Meanwhile, the Cubs will have Kyle Hendricks on the mound against the Cardinals. Hendricks is a decent 3.90 xFIP pitcher, but he’s struggling with his home run rate this season, giving up over 1.5 home runs per nine. That bodes well for great picks like Matt Carpenter ($3,600) and Marcell Ozuna ($4,000), which we can still afford with Corbin.

A third stacking option to consider is the Red Sox against lefty Wade LeBlanc and the Mariners. The problem with the BoSox is affordability. With so much top offensive talent in their lineup, and given their popularity, they’re expensive to own.

So we may need to do mini-stacks of the Red Sox with someone like Eduardo Nunez ($2,800). Also, given we’re stacking the D-Back with Corbin and the Cardinals, we’ll need to grab at least one player from a third team.

FanDuel MLB: Summary and Example Lineup

For the Early Only slate, we have to play Scherzer in all formats. But if you want to build a value SP lineup for FanDuel MLB, you can use either Eflin or Newcomb in the pitcher spot. Mad Max limits your spending, but we fortunately have a very affordable Pirates and Orioles offensive stacking option. Also, the Nats bats are great with the SP value play, or a mini-stack with Scherzer.

For the Main slate, we can’t help but play Patrick Corbin in the pitcher spot. We dug for another value play at pitcher, but the only pick we’d consider is a risky reach grabbing Wright against the Mariners.

For offensive stacks in the Main FanDuel MLB slate, we’re focused on the D-backs and Cards, with plenty of big bats and affordable picks to choose from. However, we need at lest one more team in our Main slate lineup, and we’re going to look for a value bat in the Red Sox lineup tonight.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at sample lineups for the MAIN and Early Only FanDuel MLB slates on Saturday, June 16th 2018:

FanDuel MLB Early Only Sample Lineup:                          FanDuel MLB Main Slate Sample Lineup:

P              Max Scherzer ($12,000)                                        Patrick Corbin ($9,500)

C/1B       Francisco Cervelli ($3,000)                                   Yadier Molina ($2,800)

2B            Josh Harrison ($3,200)                                          Daniel Descalso ($3,200)

3B            Danny Valencia ($3,200)                                       Matt Carpenter ($3,600)

SS            Jordy Mercer ($2,700)                                            Nick Ahmed ($3,200)

OF            Mark Trumbo ($2,700)                                           Marcell Ozuna ($4,000)

OF            Adam Jones ($2,900)                                              Chris Owings ($2,400)

OF            Trey Mancini ($2,500)                                            David Peralta ($3,500)

UTIL        Corey Dickerson ($2,800)                                      Eduardo Nunez ($2,800)

Remaining Salary: $0                                                              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 Game by Game Breakdown

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