MLB

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Thursday 5/24/18

The Kansas City Royals aren't an offense we flock to often, but they're in a superb spot tonight. Where else should you look?

Every day is unique for daily fantasy baseball, which is both a blessing and a challenge. Although we can’t simply plug and play our favorite studs day in and day out, each slate presents us with a chance for a new gem to vault us up the leaderboards.

Through the use of numberFire’s tools, we can better identify the players primed to succeed each day, making the process of filling out a lineup just that much easier. In addition to our custom optimal lineups, you can check out our batting and pitching heat maps, which show the pieces in the best spot to succeed on that slate. Put on the finishing touches with our games and lineups page to see who's hitting where and what the weather looks like, and you'll have yourself a snazzy looking team to put up some big point totals.

Which names stand out for today on the DraftKings main slate? Let’s check it out, starting with the pitchers.

Pitchers to Target

High-Priced Pitcher

Charlie Morton ($11,400 on DraftKings): Charlie Morton has been a beast for the Houston Astros this season. He was great last season, too, but he has improved his strikeout rate from 26.4 percent to 32.1 percent. Morton also bettered his xFIP from 3.58 to 2.70. He does have a difficult matchup against the Cleveland Indians, but given the slate and lack of many good arms, Morton is hard to overlook.

Low-Priced Pitcher

Blake Snell ($8,000): Here we have another solid pitcher in a difficult matchup. Snell takes on the Boston Red Sox, which is obviously not an easy task. However, Snell has a 26.2 percent strikeout rate, 1.04 WHIP and 3.75 xFIP. He also has the lowest average exit velocity on the slate at 85.8 miles per hour. While it may be difficult to pick up the win given that the Rays don't have the best offense, his strikeout upside could still give him a solid score.

Hitters to Target

High-Priced Hitters

Lorenzo Cain ($4,700): Lorenzo Cain and the Milwaukee Brewers are taking on left-hander Steven Matz of the New York Mets. Cain has smashed lefties this season, putting up an elite .496 weighted on-base average (wOBA) and .300 isolated power (ISO) in the split. Matz has had a huge home run issue this season, giving up a brutal 24.3 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate. Matz also has a 35.3 percent hard-hit rate, which doesn't bode well for him.

Carlos Correa ($4,600): Carlos Correa has had plenty of success against right-handed pitchers. In 2017, he crushed them to the tune of a .380 wOBA and .239 ISO. Tonight he's going to be taking on Mike Clevinger, who gave up a 34.2 percent hard-hit rate and 24.1 percent line-drive rate in 2017. Clevinger also had a pretty brutal 87 mile per hour average exit velocity and a 184-foot average batted-ball distance, although he can get whiffs.

Value Hitters

Salvador Perez ($4,000): It is rare to want to target the Kansas City Royals, but tonight is one of those spots, and Salvador Perez is certainly in play. KC will be up against Austin Bibens-Dirkx of the Texas Rangers. He gave up a .345 wOBA to right-handed hitters last season, and Perez was solid versus righties with a .333 wOBA and .221 ISO in the split.

Jay Bruce ($3,700): Jay Bruce is off to a tough start to the season as he has a .233 average, 3 home runs and just a .667 OPS. However, he has had a lot of success against right-handed pitching in the past. Last year, Bruce smashed righties with a .369 wOBA and .273 ISO. He's taking on Zach Davies, who was solid in 2017 but struggled so far in 2018. He's got a brutal 41 percent hard-hit rate and a 4.56 xFIP.



Ryan Sheppard is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ryan Sheppard also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username donkshow_. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.