Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top MLB DFS Value Plays – Thursday April 18th (Main)

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.

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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 across the industry, regardless of site.

Today we will cover just the main slate, which for the most part is a six-gamer. DraftKings is the only site that scrapped the 5:35 CST start game between the Yankees and the Royals, so they will run as a five-game main tonight, and lock time there will be 6:10 CST. Without further ado, let’s get into today’s value.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – Yahoo!

SP – Domingo German – New York Yankees – $33

So we have a six-game slate here on Yahoo as the Yankees/Royals tilt is on the slate here, and the first thing I noticed today is that we have some serious price discrepancies across the industry when it comes to pitching today. You are going to see more pitchers than we have in the past with this article today, in an effort to make sense of why it looks like I will be playing different pitchers on different sites.

Let’s start here on Yahoo with German. The Royals have a pretty solid offense so far and Yankee Stadium is of course a hitters park, so I am guessing that logic was taken into effect when pricing out this slate from the guys at Yahoo.

So does German have the best match-up? No. That honor would go to cover-boy Christopher Paddack of San Diego who is priced correctly as the highest priced pitcher on the slate by far at $45, and correctly I might add. Here at $33 where we need an SP2, this is a gift in my opinion with the lack of quality starters in action, especially when you consider German is the highest priced pitcher on the slate over on FanDuel.

Did FanDuel probably get it wrong? I think so. Paddack is cheaper there than German by $500 so I think that is wrong. However, the gap in price here on Yahoo between the two made it really easy to plug both in my lineup.

German will likely not rack up the strikeouts here, but he has been very efficient thus far to start the season on an otherwise struggling Yankees staff. In two starts and a relief tune-up, he is 3-0, has notched one quality start, and has a 1.38 ERA in 13 total innings.

2B – Garrett Hampson – Colorado Rockies – $7

Coors Field is on the slate tonight, and since we only have six games to sort through, you have to give it some serious thought. The Rockies will host the Phillies, and we will see lefty Kyle Freeland squaring off with Zach Eflin.

I don’t want to necessarily load up on this game as there are some other great spots, but Yahoo and Fantasy Draft do not price up Coors Field like the FanDuel and DraftKings do. Hampson is pretty hot though for a guy at minimum price here at a position that lacks studs at the top. He is playable on Fantasy Draft as well at $7,200.

Hampson is not a power bat, so don’t expect a big power surge here after his first homer the other night at PetCo Park. However, after a very slow start, he has now hit safely in eight straight games, and has a pretty solid grip on the starting second base spot for the Rockies for the moment.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FantasyDraft

IF – Brandon Lowe – Tampa Bay Rays – $8,300

Moving onto Fantasy Draft for today, it is hard not to take a good look at some of these red-hot Rays, who will be facing Andrew Cashner and the Orioles at home tonight. Lowe is mashing, and while he is a nice bargain here tonight, he is the most expensive second baseman on the slate on FanDuel, and he is way up there at $21 on Yahoo.

It has been hard to roster the Rays since they starting ripping off wins and getting price bumps, but thankfully we can still get Lowe on the cheap here in a good match-up. This 24-year-old just laces the ball, and has already hit some long bombs in his young career. He has started the 2019 campaign hitting .300 with five home runs and 13 RBI’s through 17 games.

OF – A.J. Pollack – Los Angeles Dodgers – $7,400

The Dodgers keep scoring runs, but the one guy in this lineup who is off to a slow start bringing down his price is A.J. Pollack. He is pretty cheap everywhere and in play for a guy who should in the middle of a stacked lineup, and it is starting to look like he is picking it up with the bat. My guess is, one more multi-hit game or another bomb, and Pollack is right back up there price wise close to Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger again where he should be.

Pollack is hitting just .243 to start the season, but after a day off on Tuesday, he returned to hit fifth in the lineup yesterday against the Reds. It turned out he was the hero as well, as his two-on, two-out homer in the sixth was the difference in a 3-2 Dodgers win. Zach Davies will be on the bump for the Brewers tomorrow, so this is an offense I will be targeting without a doubt.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FanDuel

OF – Mike Tauchman – New York Yankees – $2,500

The Yankees have so many injuries that they may have a few players in their starting lineup that you might not have even heard of. Clint Frazier was cheap when he came up, and I definitely do not want to compare the two here because Frazier is much higher touted, but Tauchman is forced into action, and the lefty couldn’t ask for a better match-up tonight than the one he has at home with Homer Bailey and the Royals.

Tauchman really just got off the snide on Tuesday, as he recorded hit first multi-hit game as a Yankee with a double and his first home run of the season. He should get at least a couple of opportunities to drive in some runs tonight with the guys hitting in front of him, and this could be the final cheap piece to a nice three or four man stack here. Tauchman is pretty viable everywhere value wise, and he is another minimum price hitter over on Yahoo if you really want to stack some bats up.

SP – Christopher Paddack – San Diego Padres – $8,500

OK I have to cheat a bit to call this a value play, but let’s just break this down. Instead of me just finding a cheap hitter with a good match-up that likely everyone will be on, let me just give you the chalk pitcher here on FanDuel instead, since he actually does represent great value on this slate with all things considered.

Paddack is somehow not even the most expensive pitcher here, and as you can probably tell, I am a little bothered. I already explained the massive gap in price on Yahoo with German, and since the Yankee game is not on the slate over on DraftKings, let’s dig into another price discrepancy.

On DK, Paddack is $9,100 and the next highest pitcher on the slate is Julio Urias at $8K. When you look here at FanDuel with German being priced up so high, how can you pitch anyone else and be comfortable with it? PetCo is not the pitcher’s park it used to be statistics are showing, but the Reds are struggling to hit anything, and this really the only high K upside spot for an SP on this slate. If Paddack throws strikes, he should be able to finally grab his first win.

He is just three starts into his young career, and we have already seen that he can get a little wild. Paddack walked four in his second start against the Cardinals and could not make it out of the third inning, and in his other two, he threw at least five while striking out five. I do not expect much more than 30 FDP, but I honestly do not really expect that much from any other SP on the slate.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – DraftKings 

1B – Chris Davis – Baltimore Orioles – $2,600

Well Chris Davis SZN continues for at least one more day for me it looks like, that is if he can crack the starting lineup. FanDuel has discontinued the whole $500 free square game and has bumped his price up to $2,600 for tonight, so he is 100% out of play there. In fact, Eric Hosmer is a much, much better play on FanDuel for $200 less at $2400.

However, here on DraftKings, comparatively speaking, $2,600 is pretty much a free square. Davis was scratched from his last start with an illness, so again we need to confirm he is back in the lineup, but he finally went deep and got all of the monkey’s off of his back, and he is even up to four total hits now!

Even with a bad game, playing him here at this price opens up just as much as it did on FanDuel earlier in the week if you think about it and break it down. I can really stack up some hitters with Davis in my lineup, and I will be running him out for tournament play if he is back.

OF – Kole Calhoun – Los Angeles Angels – $3,600

More dirt cheapness here as DraftKings has finally broken the habit of having every single starting outfielder $3,900 and above. It was rough there for a bit, but we are finally getting some price breaks in certain spots with hitters who are struggling a bit, and considering he has gotten a little price bump everywhere else, DK looks like the perfect fit for Kole Calhoun tonight.

Calhoun has been terrible in his career against Seattle starter Felix Hernandez over many match-up’s, so the BvP truthers may not agree with me today on this one, but one aspect possibly overlooked when it comes to BvP is where we are in each players career. Sure King Felix was a dominant pitcher in his heyday, and just seven hits in 58 plate appearances is downright awful, but Hernandez just is not the guy he used to be.

Once a once dominant ace pitcher is at the latter stages of his career and maybe does not have the stuff he once did, are the previous match-up’s really relevant? Something to ponder because I do not know the answer.

Calhoun is struggling as always as his batting average sits below the dreaded mendoza line, but he has connected on three home runs so far in 16 games. I will take a shot on him here in cash games if I need the salary relief. The value from a leadoff hitter at this price is always in play.

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.

2B/3B/SS – Scott Kingery – Philadelphia Phillies – ($4,000 DK, $3,500 FD, $10 Y!, $7,200 FantasyDraft)

Kingery and the Phillies will face left-hander Kyle Freeland tonight at Coors Field, and with his recent move up to the top of the lineup, and his hot bat following him there, the only thing that has not caught up quite yet is his positioning updates, and a big salary bump.

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This kid was highly thought of as one of the best young hitting prospects in all of baseball not too long ago, but he just hasn’t been able to crack the everyday lineup up to this point in his career. Now some injuries have given Kingery another shot, and now that he is surrounded by talent with all the offseason additions, it seems to be having a positive effect on him.

So about this game. FanDuel priced up Coors as usual, but Kingery is still very affordable at $3,500. With Paddack locked in my pitcher spot, not much value is needed there tonight. On the other three sites, just lock this in and move on. He still has dual position eligibility on DraftKings at 2B and 3B, and he is a SS on FanDuel on Yahoo. In my opinion, he is a must play everywhere, but way, way too cheap on Yahoo and Fantasy Draft.

He will probably be chalky everywhere as well, but you are going to want to just eat it in cash games I think. Kingery is now hitting .480, and homered in back-to-back games. He followed up his near 50 FDP, slate breaking 47.9 FDP effort on Tuesday with the everyone’s favorite bailout score of 18.7 FDP yesterday, with his solo shot in the fifth inning.

1B – Justin Bour – Los Angeles Angels – ($3,800 DK, $2,700 FD, $11 Y!, $7,700 FantasyDraft)

A lack of options. A three-hole power-hitter signed to hit bombs and offer some protection for Mike Trout. And here we are, 12 games in for Bour, and he still has just one home run. A high batting average was probably not expected so the .188 batting average isn’t even the issue here. Bour has only driven in five runs, as this Angels offense just is yet to click. Every day I say I am giving up on Bour, then I look at my other options and here we are again.

Bottom line here is, we have another small slate, and it is Mike Trout day after all as his BvP against King Felix will never be ignored simply because he is the best hitter in baseball. Trout has taken Hernandez deep eight times in 96 plate appearances against him, and driven in 20 runs in their match-up’s.

Bour has hit safely in six straight games now with his double yesterday, and this is just a great spot against an aging veteran in a game that offenses should be targeted in. The Vegas total is 9.5 runs in this game, so it looks like a great GPP pivot game away from the always popular Coors Field action.

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.

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