Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top MLB DFS Value Plays – Tuesday April 23rd

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 across the industry, regardless of site.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – Yahoo!

2B – Brian Dozier – Washington Nationals – $13

Well as we dig into today’s value, let me tell you, this has been the toughest slate without a doubt to write this season for so many reasons. Any time Coors field is in play, you can usually expect that game will have the highest game total of the night, and obviously there is never much value to go around.

However on Yahoo today, the best play I can find really anywhere at a cheap price is Nationals second baseman Brian Dozier.

Dozier is not the home run threat he was early in his career with the Minnesota Twins, but he got ahold of one last night off Tyler Anderson in the fourth inning last night for a three-run job that put the Nats up 5-2 at the time. It was Dozier’s fourth bomb on the season.

So why is this slate so tough again besides the fact that there is little value? I am still not 100% who the Rockies are pitching tonight. It was supposed to be Kyle Freeland, but he landed on the IL yesterday.

Then it was supposed to be Chad Bettis, but he made a relief appearance last night so that nixed that. For now it appears Jeff Hoffman will take the hill for Colorado, and either way, it sounds like a good day to target whatever Nats bats you can afford here.

SP – Frankie Montas – Oakland Athletics – $30

Part of the reason the value bats are not there today, is because we once again have a group of lackluster pitchers to choose from.

I am starting to think that the price of bats is being bumped up around the industry a little bit on days like today where we lack top starting pitching options. If that is the case, I think that is ultimately a good idea. I would rather overpay for a bat than a pitcher, and here is why.

Even the best hitters in the game go 0-for-4 and have zero fantasy point days. I am not saying if you get a couple hitters wrong on a given day that you can make up for it with the right pitching, but what I am saying is that if you choose the RIGHT pitchers, it really makes ALL of the difference on whether or not you cash probably 90% of the time.

Now about Montas. The Oakland right-hander has been better than solid to start the season, and while this may not be the best match-up with these Rangers left-handed bats, there really aren’t any must-have pitchers here. Montas has started the season 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA, and is currently averaging 7.71 K/9, making him one of the better arms on the slate statistically.

However, Yahoo has him priced way, way down here, considering he is one of the most expensive pitchers on the slate elsewhere. The Rangers are not as good on the road, and they struggled to hit Oakland starter Chris Bassitt yesterday. The metrics may say Texas hitters have an advantage here, but I will take the hotter pitcher tonight.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FantasyDraft

IF/OF – Kris Bryant $7,600 / IF – Anthony Rizzo  $7,300 – Chicago Cubs

We got value galore once again today on Fantasy Draft. There are certainly some arms to attack on this slate, but it seems most of the glaring value today will take Wrigley Field today, as the Cubs and Jose Quintana will face the Dodgers and Kenta Maeda, both of whom are pitching pretty well to start the season.

The reason I brought up all of the mediocre pitchers to attack today, is because this might be the most overlooked game on the slate as far as hitters go. The Cubs offense is struggling, but this little mini-stack of two of the best overall hitters in the game today under $8K is absurd.

Rizzo and Bryant are both underachieving to start the season, and Maeda is not a guy I want to attack here per se, but if you start with these two bats, and grab your two pitchers in the mid-to-low range, you can almost do whatever you want from there. These two will break their slumps, and the key is being on them at the right time.

IF – Matt Carpenter – St. Louis Cardinals – $7,200

Cardinals veteran third baseman Matt Carpenter is another guy whose price has been doing the slow dip on every site, all season long. He broke out a bit yesterday as the St. Louis offense roughed up rookie Adrian Houser and company, and exploded for 13 runs. We could see more of the same today, as veteran Kyle Davies will look to slow these guys down.

Carp went 2-for-4 yesterday with a double, and also added a walk. That brought his season average up to .226, as he starts to finally round into form at the plate. This is another perfectly cheap one-off today to load up on your stud bats.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – FanDuel 

SP – Trent Thornton – Toronto Blue Jays – $6,700

I am seeing a theme here, and I am falling for it again, but first let’s talk about Blue Jays rookie Trent Thornton, who will take the mound tonight against maybe the worst offense in baseball, the San Francisco Giants.

Thornton started the season on fire, as got to face another horrible offense in the Detroit Tigers in his major league debut. He struck out eight in five innings in that start, and followed that with a great start in Cleveland striking out seven in 5.2 innings. Then he faced the Rays and the Twins in starts three and four, and the results were not like the first two as you can imagine.

So now, we have Thornton at home against a bad team once again. He put up 39 FDP against the Tigers in that first start, and 32 in the second against the Indians. Both of those totals came without the elusive win and quality start which equal 10 more points on FanDuel, so if this kid is stretched out now a bit, this could be his first chance to go deep in a game.

My theme here is, I am constantly finding a rosterable pitcher for tournament play under $7K. This is the magic number in my opinion if you want to stack up some bats, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will work out.

Last night I liked former top prospect Manny Banuelos a good bit as he was cheap here on FanDuel, and although he pitched well, he didn’t make it to the fifth inning to get the W. From the early looks of it, I will be firing up some Thornton again in tournament play this evening.

OF – Gregory Polanco – Pittsburgh Pirates – $2,900

The Bucs offense is struggling to start the season with all of the injuries that they have sustained, but we got a sort of surprise welcome back from Polanco yesterday. Although the Pirates ultimately got wrecked by their bullpen giving up 11 runs in the 7th and 8th inning, the offense got out to a 4-1 lead, led by Polanco returning to the middle of that lineup.

With electric rookie Cole Tucker in the fold, and Polanco back, once this team gets Starling Marte back this offense should be good. Josh Bell is heating up as he has brought his average up to .300, and Polanco finished 2-for-4 with a double and a walk in his return to the diamond.

Polanco is really only cheap here on FanDuel, but this is an offense I have a ton of interest in today everywhere, and I may play him elsewhere regardless. This one here is a cash lock though in my opinion, as the Bucs will face Luke Weaver at home.

Daily Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Plays – DraftKings 

2B/3B – Eric Sogard – Toronto Blue Jays – $3,600

Sogard has been an offensive surprise for the Blue Jays, and although this is an offense I generally stay away from, it is hard to overlook and ignore what Sogard has done to spark this team from the lead-off spot since sliding in there.

Sogard got bumped up to $3,100 on FanDuel, which over $3K seems absurd and makes him a fade in my book, but this price is on DK is worth a shot as it can allow you to do quite a bit more with your lineup.

Sogard has started his Jays days 9-for-22, has stolen two bases, and has driven in five runs in just six starts. He got Sunday off, but I fully expect him to return to the top of the lineup today.

1B – Chris Davis – Baltimore Orioles – $2,700

I know, I know. This guy can’t hit anymore and strikes out so ridiculously often that it pains me to recommend him, but this is just another spot where he could go deep and just crush that price tag.

We know he only has one homer to start the season, and I do not even want to look how many total hits he has because I know it is under five, but the Orioles no-name offense is sort of heating up as a whole, and after a day off yesterday, Davis should be back in the lineup against another pitcher I like to target in Ivan Nova.

This is just a tournament punt play at an awful position as a whole today. Take it with a grain of salt.

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.

1B – C.J. Cron – Minnesota Twins – ($4,000 DK, $3,100 FD, $15 Y!, $7,400 FantasyDraft)

How about this Twins offense lately? The Twins are hot on the road right now, as they continued the offensive rampage in Houston last night, beating the Astros 9-5.

While the focus will be on the hot bats like Eddie Rosario who is the hottest hitter in baseball, and Jorge Polanco who continued his torrid stretch with a 4-for-5 last night, I like pairing up those two with the newcomer Cron, who is starting to come around with the bat himself in his new everyday role with his new team, and the veteran slugger Nelson Cruz.

He is a little expensive on the main sites, but this is kind of where I am ending up at with salary at this position, where there just is not a stud I want to pay up for. The Twins will face veteran left hander Wade Miley, and although he has pitched fairly well this season, this red-hot offense should stay hot. I think both Cron and Cruz are going deep tonight.

SS – Cole Tucker – Pittsburgh Pirates – ($3,800 DK, $2,500 FD, $12 Y!, $7,700 FantasyDraft)

I was a wee bit disappointed when the Pirates dropped that lineup yesterday and my new favorite value darling was dropped down to the eight-hole. Not an ideal spot in the lineup for a cash play, but I stuck it out. I am not sure if Melky Cabrera will stick in that two spot in the lineup today like he did yesterday, but I hope not.

Tucker drilled a double in his first at-bat last night, and now hitting .300 in three starts with a homer. Regardless of where he is in that lineup tonight, I am going right back here on all sites.

The presence of Polanco back in that lineup should help, and a 1-4 of Adam Frazier, Tucker, Polanco, and Bell actually could be rather formidable in the very near future. Especially when Marte returns and slides in there somewhere.

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.