Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top MLB DFS Value Plays – Monday April 22nd
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.
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – Yahoo!
OF – Mike Tauchman – New York Yankees – $12
Kicking things off today on Yahoo is Yankee outfielder Mike Tauchman, who had his third solid game in a row as he is one of many filling in for injuries. After homers in back-to-back games, Tauchman worked his way up to the five-hole in the order yesterday afternoon in the series finale against the Royals, and responded with another solid game going 2-for-4 with a double, and finishing with 14.2 YP.
Prices are getting tight over here on Yahoo, and it is a really good thing we do not have a ton of pitching to pay up for. No matter where I am making lineups tonight, I am going to want as much exposure to this lineup as possible, as the Yankees head to Los Angeles to face Matt Harvey and the Angels.
There isn’t a whole lot of value here under $15 on Yahoo anywhere until we see some lineups and get some surprises, and for Tauchman, this is cheap compared to the price bumps he got on FanDuel and DraftKings.
P – Yonny Chirinos – Tampa Bay Rays – $35
It always seems like a gamble with the Rays, as I know a few of us got “Yarbrough’ed” the other day. But today, after Emiliano Pagan it will be Chirinos, and I can only say I believe that 100%, is because the four previous times it was him this season, he did in fact enter the game early. And in three out of four of those games, he was lights out.
With the lack of value at the hitter positions here on Yahoo, I am seriously considering paying down at both pitcher spots, and Chirinos is a guy who could easily pop at less than 5% ownership and help you win a GPP. The home screen will only show the starters, so it will list Pagan for the Rays, but just type in “Yonny” in that search bar and you will be good to go.
Chirinos is coming off a five-inning outing against the Orioles, in which he picked up his third win of the season, only allowed one-hit, and struck out five. He finished that game with 27.2 YP, and it was his third game over 25 YP which is pretty darn impressive. I hate messing with Rays pitchers, but this like the site and the start to give it a shot.
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FantasyDraft
SP – Joe Musgrove – Pittsburgh Pirates – $16,000
It’s only a ten-game slate no matter where you look, but man, Fantasy Draft looks like a ton of fun once again. There is always that awesome position flexibility, and now today we see one of my favorite arms on the slate priced down as the seventh most expensive pitcher on the slate. Than my friends is some tremendous value, as Musgrove matches up really well here at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Musgrove has now put together three straight quality starts, and in 20.1 innings in that span, he has only allowed two earned runs. His best start in that span came at home, when he struck eight Reds in seven shutout innings, and finished with a stellar 32.75 FDP.
For a comparison, Musgrove is $9K on FanDuel making him the third most expensive pitcher on the slate, and $8,100 on DK which also puts him in play. Here on Fantasy Draft though, you can lock in Musgrove, and another top arm, then look at this next stack and do as will.
Yankees Stack (1,2) (4-6)
There is always that one team priced too low…… Um. Yeah the Yankees have a AAA lineup for the most part out there, but this is Matt Harvey. I am pretty sure if Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams were hitting one-two here against Harvey at their current ages I would probably lock and load.
Before I lay out this stack quick, I should say there really is a ton of value here opposed to other sites. Look real close once again at that $8K range, as guys like Michael Conforto or Brandon Lowe are just simply too cheap here, and are other more than viable options tonight.
IF – D.J. Lemehieu – $7,200
IF – Luke Voit – $8,400
IF – Gleyber Torres – $7,300
OF – Clint Frazier – $8,500
OF – Mike Tauchman – $8,200
The only Yankee I do not really care for although he has been swinging a decent bat as of late is Brett Gardner. I feel like he was a much better value under $8K, and he would be the one guy in this stack I would probably pass on.
Voit and Lemehieu are probably who I would leave out if I decided to stack this one lightly, as I think the 3,4,5 spots look ready to do the most damage against Harvey. Plenty of ways to go tonight of course, but Yankees versus Harvey at these prices looks too tasty to pass up too much of.
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FanDuel
SP – Manny Baneulos – Chicago White Sox – $5,800
This is just a spot start for Banuelos, but the once top Yankees prospect will be on the hill in Baltimore to face the Orioles at Camden Yards. Banuelos has pitched in relief thus far, and has pitched three innings in each of his last three outings. My worry here is that he will be limited to around 80 or 90 pitches, but that could be all he needs against this offense. He will just need ome offense from his own team as well.
DraftKings priced Banuelos up to $7,000 so I think he is off-limits there, but I think a lot of the attention in this game will be on the other side with David Hess who is even cheaper. Although the White Sox offense has been terrible, Hess is not a good pitcher and I will rather take the K upside with Banuelos.
Hess got rocked by Tampa to the tune of six earned on eight hits in just two innings, and that is just one more reason to lean towards Banuelos. This is just a tournament play to stack up some bats, and if he has a couple quick innings it could be a good day.
2B – Danny Santana – Texas Rangers – $2,900
When I did my FanDuel price scan for this slate, I was surprised to see the value really starting to thin out at the bottom. Coming up with a couple good value hitters under $3K was a challenge, but one that stuck out pretty clearly was Texas second baseman Danny Santana.
Santana has been filling in admirably for the injured Rougned Odor, as he has seemed comfortable at the plate settling in the two-spot for now. In six starts now, Santana is hitting .308 with a home and five runs batted in.
Texas will face Oakland right-hander Chris Bassitt, so other than Harvey, this might be my favorite spot to target. Santana and Nomar Mazara are dirt cheap, and Joey Gallo is on fire right now. That is one stack I will likely key in on
Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – DraftKings
2B/SS – Gleyber Torres – New York Yankees – $3,900
DraftKings also isn’t very impressed with this Yankees lineup, as Torres has slipped below the $4K mark. He should be fresh after a day off yesterday only making a pinch-hit appearance, and he should return to clean-up spot in this banged up lineup.
Truthfully, this could be the game we see Torres move up to the two-spot which wouldn’t be bad, or flip spots with red-hot Clint Frazier who could slide up from the five spot. Either way, Torres under $4K versus Matt Harvey looks like a lock to me.
Torres isn’t hitting for average per se as his sits at just .253, but he has left the yard four times. A slight slump at the plate could keep his ownership down, and a date with Harvey looks like it could be a slump buster.
OF – Brandon Nimmo – New York Mets – $3,700
The Mets will face Jake Arrieta and the Phillies tonight, and Arrieta is not someone I necessarily want to attack, but the Mets are priced way down. He is having a solid season thus far, and just shut down these Mets for eight innings last week, only allowing an eight inning homer to Conforto. Nimmo missed that game, as the game before is when he left early with a neck injury, and he is still in fact nursing it a little bit.
Nimmo missed a couple of games total, but he has been back for two now since the injury. However, an 0-for-6 start has brought his price down a little too far for a leadoff here. If any Mets are to do some damage here it should be the lefties. Robinson Cano is too cheap as well, but he could miss tonight’s game after injuring his hand yesterday. All in all, I like slotting in Nimmo if I need some salary relief for cash games tonight.
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.
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OF – Nomar Mazara – Texas Rangers – ($3,700 DK, $2,700 FD, $12 Y!, $7,200 FantasyDraft)
Mazara has struggled his way into the value zone, and anytime you can get a guy this cheap hitting in front of player as hot as Joey Gallo, against a bad pitcher like Chris Bassitt, you have to give it some thought. I already mentioned I like this as part of stack with Gallo and Santana, but Mazara will have to get it going again.
Mazara has traditionally been a somewhat streaky hitter throughout his career, and the fact that is 0-for-15 in his last three starts is certainly worrisome. However, if there is ever a guy to back on track against it could easily be Bassitt, who is making is first start of 2019. Mazara is hitting just .200 homers with three homers on the young season.
SS – Cole Tucker – Pittsburgh Pirates – ($3,600 DK, $2,500 FD, $12 Y!, $7,600 FantasyDraft)
My days of contemplating playing Wilmer Difo are over for the time being, as FanDuel has finally joined the party in adding electric Pirates rookie Cole Tucker to their player pool, and kept him nice and cheap. The secret will be out I am sure today, but I guess you heard it here first? Maybe?
Tucker was just called up, and has now made two starts. He has hit lead off in his first two major league starts, and went 1-for-3 with his first major league homer in his debut on Saturday. He followed that with a 1-for-4 game with a double yesterday.
Tucker is just 22-years-old, so he is on the fast track here. He has speed as he has proven with five stolen bases in 13 AAA games thus far this season. If he keeps up his solid play, he could very well be in the bigs to stay. The Pirates offense needs a spark, and they certainly were not getting it from Erik Gonzalez.
Next. DraftKings MLB DFS Picks - Monday, April 22. 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.
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