Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top MLB DFS Value Plays – Friday, March 29th

Are you ready for Daily Fantasy Baseball? Opening day is now behind us, and whether you play on DraftKings, FanDuel, Yahoo, or Fantasy Draft, this article is designed to help you find the best value plays across the board for today’s slate. These low salary targets are players to help you roster your stud bats and pitchers.

Welcome to FantasyCPR! If you are a regular reader, welcome back for baseball! If you are new we are glad to have you, and we certainly hope you make us your first source of your Daily Fantasy Baseball research everyday. We will have plenty of articles every day here at FantasyCPR, and no matter where you play, we are likely to have you covered.

What separates us from others, is that we have a solid team of writers all tackling different areas to write about. This allows us to hone in our content, and you give our best plays possible, as early as possible. We are without a doubt the leader in first-look articles for DFS, so if you just found us, welcome, and I hope you come back for more.

While most of our content is site specific, whether it be for hitting or pitching, this article is going to be different. What I will do here, is evaluate potential value plays for that particular day, across the four major DFS sites.

So the plan of attack here is, first I will highlight my top value plays for Yahoo and Fantasy Draft. I will dig up certain plays that I think fit their scoring systems, and possible flaws in pricing. I will then do the same for FanDuel, and then for DraftKings.

Finally after I break down my favorites from each site specifically, I will then finish up with top overall multi-site value plays. These are the top players viable across the industry, who are in line to out produce their respective salary, no matter what the site. All of these plays are just simply the best cheap plays that stand out, regardless of site.

If it does not make sense yet, it will. And it’s going to be unique, and I hope useful, as you start your Daily Fantasy Baseball research for today. Without further ado, let’s get into it. Click the bar below after each page to continue!

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – Yahoo!

C – Alex Avila – Arizona Diamondbacks – $7

Another day, another punt catcher on Yahoo. Well that wasn’t the case yesterday as I opted to write-up and play Willson Contreras here instead, but you get the idea. Thankfully, Contreras was able to swipe a base yesterday in the Cubs rout of the Rangers, and post a respectable 7.1 YP. Things were not as nice on the other catcher site, but that comes later.

In Arizona, we are likely to see a platoon once again this year, between John Ryan Murphy who can hit lefties well, and Alex Avila who hits righties well. If you want to save and want a shot a cheap home run, Avila should start tonight against Ross Stripling and the Dodgers, but as always, confirm lineups before lock.

Avila is aging, and doesn’t hit quite as well as he used to, but who is really worth paying up for on this slate? The 32-year-old backstop only left the yard six times last year, but he did have a promising spring training, including a two-homer game against the White Sox, and an overall .304 batting average.

Get used to this part of Yahoo value to be the catcher position, because spending up on a catcher for me is something that happens maybe once a week, and it all depends on the slate and what we are working with. Things may change when lineups start dropping, but for now, I am looking at Avila on Yahoo.

3B – Brandon Drury – Toronto Blue Jays – $7

Never thought there would be so much madness on opening day waiting for a starting lineup, but hey thanks Blue Jays! Many a tout including myself expected Billy McKinney to start the season in the leadoff spot, but as it turned out, he wasn’t even in the starting lineup, and lineup changing chaos ensued across the industry. Some of us saw it is a gift, as we were able to get a cheaper Brandon Drury leading off instead.

Toronto will face a lefty tomorrow in Matthew Boyd for Detroit, who actually progressed into a decent pitcher last season. After not scoring any runs yesterday, I would not be surprised if Drury does not lead off again, but I think he may be better off that way.

This is a pretty brutal lineup, but they will continue to be a solid source of value against mediocre pitching. If you need another punt, I have faith Drury will be a decent hitter in spurts this season. He is also very much in play on FanDuel.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FantasyDraft

OF – Jay Bruce – Seattle Mariners – $6,300

I am only going to give one value play for Fantasy Draft specifically, but truthfully it is because I do not see the need to go under $7K more than once today. There is another outfielder who I believe is under priced here, and on DraftKings, so keep an eye out for that in the next few sections. But if you want to go low, Seattle’s offense had little trouble with Chris Sale yesterday, and will now get a crack at a hard throwing right hander in Nathan Eovaldi.

Eovaldi had a solid bounce-back season after a long injury rehab, and consistently throws a heater in the high-90’s. Bruce on the other hand, had terrible 2018 after a solid 2017, and while it seems he has been around awhile, he is just a few days shy of 32-years-old. The dip in production was huge, but a change of scenery in Seattle could do him some good.

In 2017 Bruce smashed 36 home runs, but he missed some time last year, and while the at-bats were way down as a whole, he only managed to hit nine home runs. He hit clean-up yesterday against a lefty in Chris Sale, so I am guessing the Mariners have some seriously high hopes for Bruce.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FanDuel 

2B – Ian Kinsler – San Diego Padres – $2,900

FanDuel late to the price bump party… What else is new? While other sites adjusted Padres bats to the level of the opponent at the very least, it is a different story here. Kinsler is in the latter stages of his career without a doubt, but has always hit lefties well, and is a great cheap lead off hitting option, at a not very deep position here today.

He started his Padres career going 1-for-4 with a double, and was one of the few bright spots in their 2-0 victory, along with veteran slugger Wil Myers and rookie phenom Fernando Tatis Jr. He is a little steep on DK at $4,000 with a better cheaper option that will get to on the final slide, but I love this price here on FanDuel, and he is also a bargain on Yahoo at $10.

OF – Franmil Reyes – San Diego Padres – $2,800

Same story here and back to the Michael Brantley pricing situation. While Brantley is great on DK and a little higher priced here, young Padres power-hitter and lefty crusher Franmil Reyes sits at $2,800 here, and is priced up to $4,200 on DraftKings. Honestly I believe him to be playable pretty much everywhere, as I love these Padres right-handed bats against Derek Holland tonight.

I am not going to over think this one today. It seems as though there always is a handful of cheap values to choose from as lineups become public, especially outfielders, and even opening day was a bit of a scramble. I came off of one of my recommendations yesterday in Corey Dickerson who ended up hitting a home run, and it probably cost me a few bucks. Today, Reyes is locked in on FanDuel without a doubt, and I will not be changing it this time. Remember me when he hits his first home run tomorrow.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – DraftKings

OF – Michael Brantley – Houston Astros – $3,500

Brantley started off his Astros career with a bang, going 2-for-4 and belting a home run off Rays stud left-hander Blake Snell. This is one of them weird price discrepancy spots I mentioned yesterday, and also the other guy I talked about in the Fantasy Draft section to consider.

The oft-injured former Cleveland Indian is quite the bargain on DK here for a guy who should hit clean-up again, and he is also a very nice option on Fantasy Draft at just $6,700, but when you flip that to FanDuel, it looks like a bad play at $3,500. It is very funny how DFS pricing works sometimes and the way to back this up is with another guy who will be featured later in the FanDuel section.

C – Austin Barnes/Russell Martin – Los Angeles Dodgers – $3,200/$2,900

Got my catcher wrong here on DK yesterday with the Martin Maldonado punt, but I did end up staying on Contreras as I said I may, and dodged that bullet, I will be looking for redemption at this spot today with whoever starts behind the plate for the Dodgers.

With the departure of Yasmani Grandal to Milwaukee, Austin Barnes will get his crack at the starting role, and head coach Dave Roberts was quoted as saying this will be about a 60/40 time share. I fully expect Barnes to start again tonight against left-hander Robbie Ray, and he started 2019 with a bang.

The Dodgers hit eight home runs yesterday at home against Arizona, so my guess is we will see a lot of people chasing those points again today. However, other than the Padres who got a mighty price bump mostly everywhere, there might not be a better spot here than the Dodgers righties are in. Ray still will get his strikeouts, but he also gave up more solid contact last year than he has in the past. Barnes finished 3-for-4 yesterday hitting one of those home runs, and scored two runs.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – Across the Industry!

Welcome to the most important, and final page of the article. On most days, certain value plays will line up well on 2 or three, or even all of the sites covered in this article. I will likely shorten this up in the future, but for some reason on opening day here, there is some serious overlap.

From the looks of it, I have a piece of every player coming up here on at least two sites in my early lineups, so just because you did not see somebody yet on another site specific slide from earlier, he could be coming up right now.

1B – Justin Bour – Los Angeles Angels – ($3,600 DK – $2,900 FD – $11 Y! – $7,700 FantasyDraft)

This Angels lineup and most importantly Justin Bour will benefit greatly once Shohei Ohtani returns to his DH role, but for now, it looks like Bour will hit third after Mike Trout, while Andreton Simmons is given the clean-up hitter role. It was a rough start at 0-for-4 against Mike Fiers and company, but tonight the Angels will face a pitcher who gives up plenty of long balls in Marco Estrada tonight, so I expect a solid bounce back from this Los Angeles offense.

I thought Bour would end up a little more popular yesterday as we all know he has pop in his bat when healthy, and it seems pairing him up with Trout will be a popular fantasy option if his salary remains low this season. The price is a little high on Fantasy Draft compared to some other options in my opinion, but I will have shares of Bour everywhere else with this match-up with Estrada, and this is my dong of the day call.

OF – Kike Hernandez – Los Angeles Dodgers – ($3,700 DK – $2,400 FD – $13 Y! – $7,600 FantasyDraft)

I didn’t get into too much with the Dodgers catchers over on DraftKings, but these right hander hitters are in a really good spot against Ray, so this is likely one of my top stacks depending on the lineup. No matter what the site though, I am locking in Kike.

This is a flat-out steal on FanDuel (shocker) and while the other three sites are fair, they are still a little low to me. Hernandez crushes left-handed pitching, and Ray gives up bombs to righties. While I don’t use BvP stats often, this one is close to being considered, as Hernandez is 8-for-29 in his career against Ray, with three home runs, a double, and a triple. He homered in the seventh inning last night along with Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger, and should be another popular value play across the industry tonight.

P – Joey Lucchesi – San Diego Padres – ($7,900 DK – $7,600 FD – $28 Y! –  $15,500 FantasyDraft)

Is it just me or does it seem that there are a ton of bad starting nines right now? The Blue Jays and Tigers struggled to hit the ball against average pitching. The Marlins and Rays lineups looks like there might be a handful of minor league squads that may be able to win one game out three game series against them. And then there is the Giants.

Five teams failed to score a run yesterday, and while some were surprising like the Indians and Angels, the Giants only had five hits, and made Eric Lauer look extremely effective. He threw just 70 pitches in 6 innings in the 2-0 victory, and with the Giants core bats obviously aging, and the bottom of the lineup looking like trouble, I am going to be targeting this team with pitchers early and often.

The 25-year-old lefty was on-and-off as rookie last season, but certainly had some really good outings, and is proving to have better than average strikeout stuff. Lucchesi struck out 145 batters in 130 innings, and he is shaping up to be my overall favorite value play on the slate. I have him locked in on the two pitchers sites, as I will be skipping Gerrit Cole in favor of German Marquez, and locking in some top bats.

That is all for today’s edition of MLB DFS Top Value Plays. I hope you like the format, as I think this is the best way to talk about which cheap bats and pitchers to consider, no matter what site you play on.

Give me a follow on Twitter with the link at the top of the page, and always feel free to fire away Daily Fantasy Baseball questions. See you next time!