Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top MLB DFS Value Plays – April 3rd
Daily Fantasy Baseball is in full swing, 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 my top 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, 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 value plays that stand out, regardless of site.
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – Yahoo!
3B – David Freese – Los Angeles Dodgers – $7
We will have to keep an eye on this one, because Freese was not in the lineup last night against lefty Madison Bumgarner, as Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger both started in rare move by manager Dave Roberts. Freese isn’t a young buck anymore though, and playing back-to-back nights is probably going to happen a lot less often than often. Tonight however, the Giants will throw another lefty at Los Angeles, in veteran Derek Holland, and I expect Freese to be back in the lineup.
1B – Tyler White – Houston Astros – $8
There aren’t really a whole lot of cheap spots to attack on this main slate. The Braves are priced up a bit against Jon Lester, and most of the Red Sox are just too expensive as well. One spot I do think could be worth attacking in GPP’s that could save you a few bucks, is the Astros bottom of the lineup, as they will face veteran lefty Matt Minor.
I will say I really love Yuli Gurriel in this spot for $4 more if you can afford it. If not, I don’t mind any combination of this six through nine as a source for salary relief. There will be more about this stack later, so let’s continue.
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FantasyDraft
Early Slate:
IF – Maikel Franco – Philadelphia Phillies – $7,400
Now we are into the first of three sites with evenly split five game slates. Some weird afternoon start times have given us the luxury of two ugly slates instead of one good one, but with a really early start and plenty of early games, it certainly makes sense.
One team I am looking at here in the early slate is the Phillies, and my favorite value play from this group is Maikel Franco. Franco has been on fire to start the season, as he is now 6-for-11 after a 2-for-2 outing with three walks last night. He also hit his third home run, and has now driven eight.
I seriously might go five deep with the Phillies on this slate. Bryce Harper is a lock, and Andrew McCutchen is another guy I would consider a value play here at $8,300 that is off to a great start. Rounding out the stack would be a too cheap at $8,700 Rhys Hoskins, and another value play in Odubel Herrera, who is $7,200
OF – David Dahl – Colorado Rockies – $8,100
I am going to need a couple of one-off’s to go with my Phillies, and another guy I see that could put up some points that might be a hair too cheap is David Dahl. The Rays are hot, and the Rockies are struggling on the road to start the season as they normally do, and while he hasn’t connected on a long ball yet, Dahl is hitting the ball well. He has started the 2019 campaign 8-for-18, with two doubles and a triple.
Main Slate:
Los Angeles Dodgers Stack:
We are going back to a stack here for value for the main slate, and like I mentioned with Freese, we are back on the Dodgers, and picking on Derek Holland here. I really want to use these right handers, but I don’t mind Cody Bellinger and even Max Muncy should he play again, but those two are a little more on the expensive end.
Justin Turner has been cold to start the season, but he is too cheap against a lefty at $8,300. Kike Hernandez got a nice price hike, but I will still pay $8,400 for him. I will likely also play A.J. Pollack at $9,100 as he continues to hit well, but one more value play I like is catcher Austin Barnes. Nobody will likely be on him as he is a catcher and they do not need to be rostered here, but he should be back in the lineup after resting yesterday, and is also off to a hot start at the plate.
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FanDuel Early Slate!
OF – Odubel Herrera – Philadelphia Phillies – $2,200
Back on the Phillies here for the early slate, as we move on over to FanDuel. It has been a slow start for Herrera, but he finally got off the snide a little bit last night, as he roughed up Max Scherzer for a 3-for-3 night. All three hits were doubles, and that was good for a 24.4 FDP day. With Anibal Sanchez on the mound for the Nats, I want as much exposure to the Phillies lineup as possible.
2B – Jonathan Schoop – Minnesota Twins – $2,200
In the same sense as Herrera, it has been slow going for new Twins second baseman Jonathan Schoop. He started the season 0-for-5 in the first two games, but broke out slightly with a 2-for-4 game, and followed that up with a hit last night.
Truth is, this is a stretch, and nothing more than a punt. The guy hits bombs, and the fact the hasn’t hit one yet means one is probably coming is soon. It’s still pretty cold in Minnesota, and Schoop may not be used to the scenery quite yet, but his price is really tasty down here.
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FanDuel Main Slate!
1B – Yuli Gurriel – Houston Astros – $2,800
Moving on to the main slate, we are now back on that Astros bottom of the lineup again. It has been a slow start for most of the Astros offense, including Yuli Gurriel. One good thing to come out of the slump thought for us DFS players though, is some value.
Now we get this right-hand heavy lineup tonight in the best hitting ball park on the slate in Texas at Globe Life Park, as they finish up a series with the Rangers. Gurriel is 2-for-9 with a double thus far in this series, and I like him just a tad better than cheaper first-baseman and likely designated Tyler White.
OF – Jake Marsinick – Houston Astros – $2,200
Speaking of Astros, it looks like it is going to be hard to fade Gerrit Cole on this slate. There are just not any more pitchers on the slate that I would consider safe enough. With that said, we will really need some cheap hitters, and I am still down here at the bottom of this Houston batting lineup as well.
Marsinick has started three of four games, and although he is hitting in the nine-hole, he is producing. He has already connected on a home run which his pretty rare for him, and in all three starts he has hit safely. He should see some RBI opportunity tonight, and my hope is he can build on his early .364 batting average.
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – DraftKings Early Only!
C – Tucker Barnhart – Cincinnati Reds – $3,300
Moving on to DraftKings for today, we have the same set-up as everywhere else except Yahoo, with two evenly split slates of five games. For the early slate, I am considering paying up for catcher, and that means going all the way up to J.T. Realmuto, but if I do decide against it, It is looking more and more like Barnhart is my guy. There is a possibility he could sit this one being it is a day game after a night game, so if he does, my cheap punt pivot is Roberto Perez.
SP – Kyle Gibson – Minnesota Twins – $6,300
One way to get all of these Phillies in my lineup for this early slate, is to save a ton of salary by rostering Twins right-hander Kyle Gibson on the road in Kansas City. The Twins were able to pull off the victory in extra innings despite a shaky start from ace Jose Berrios last night, and now before you glance over Gibson, I better back this one up.
I will freely admit I am not much of an advanced stats guy. I look at and weigh some heavily, but I am more interested in match-up’s, park factors, and splits. I will leave the advanced stat talk to Thunder Dan here, but I will try to impress him with this one.
Being a Twins fan, I know two things from the eye test, which is my most important test if we are being honest. Gibson was good last year, and prior to that in his career, he was never fully 100%. Not only does he pitch better in day games versus night games, he is also a better pitcher on the road. On top of that, the early months of the season, (March/April) over his career have been his best months as far as K per nine innings go, as he averages an even ten.
I want to pay up for some bats so there is no way to make two stud pitchers work here. I will be locking in Gibson, as this sets up as solid value.
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – DraftKings Main Slate
C – Austin Barnes – Los Angeles Dodgers – $3,900
Anything under $4,000 is considered cheap now on DK, and as we start to get into the flow of the regular season, we are starting to see pricing catching up. It used to be the decent catchers were much cheaper back in the day, but it seems those days are over. Since you usually have to spend around $3,300 or so for a viable punt, I am going to do what it takes to squeeze in Austin Barnes for the main slate tonight at my catcher spot.
Again, Barnes and the Dodgers will face lefty Derek Holland, so this is my favorite stack on this slate. Barnes sat last night in favor if Russell Martin, but he is on fire to start the season in his three starts thus far. He is currently hitting .455, and has already left the yard twice.
1B – Mitch Moreland – Boston Red Sox – $3,800
Man it was tough to find value on this slate, and there is definitely not a pitcher I want to pay down for, so enter Mitch Moreland. Every Astros hitter is priced up over $4K so although they get to face my top gas can on the slate in Mike Minor, I will have to settle for more Red Sox over here on DK.
Oakland starter Marco Estrada is a near extreme splits starter, meaning right-handed hitters actually hit him a little better, but don’t be fooled by that stat either, because he gives it up to both sides of the plate. Moreland has now hit safely in five straight games, and this looks like a spot where he could pick up his second homer.
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. 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.
Main Slate Favorite:
2B – Eduardo Nunez – Boston Red Sox – ($3,800 DK, $2,300 FD, $11 Y!, $7,400 FantasyDraft)
Since the value is thin as a whole today, it was even harder to find players that graded out across the board. Because of this, I chose my absolute favorites from each slate, and my early slate favorite is Eduardo Nunez.
Nunez got the night off yesterday in favor of Brock Holt, but I would bet he is back out there tonight against Estrada. His price has hit near rock bottom here, but it is warranted with his slow start. He has just two hits in four starts, but the plus side is that he has stolen two bases. I want to do whatever I can to get some Red Sox bats, and since this position is awful unless you spend up, Nunez makes a ton of sense as a punt.
Early Slate Favorite:
OF – Scott Schebler – Cincinnati Reds – ($3,900 DK, $2,300 FD, $7,600 FantasyDraft)
Finishing things up today, I am taking a long look at another guy who is struggling to start the season, but his salary has hit the point where it is time to take notice. It isn’t great play per se on DK or Fantasy Draft, but there really aren’t many cheaper options on either site either.
However, $2,300 on FanDuel really helps me out elsewhere, so if he hits lead off again, I think you have to lock him in cash games. Schebler doesn’t have a hit yet as he is 0-for-14 to start the season, but this is just a case where a good hitter needs to get the monkey off his back.
Next. FanDuel PGA: Top Picks – The 2019 Valero Texas Open. dark
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 value 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