MLB Daily Fantasy Helper: Tuesday 6/2/15
If you’ve never played daily fantasy baseball before, it’s time to start. Unlike traditional leagues, you’re able to select the players you want on that specific day only, giving you a different squad to root for each and every day.
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As for today's lineups -- those can be found here. The information below is to help you understand why particular players are being picked, because we don't want you going into the things completely blind. We want to help you. Keep in mind, however, that things often change up until the games start, so make sure you're refreshing the optimal lineups as close to the start of games as possible.
Top Pitchers
High-Cost Pitcher
Max Scherzer – Scherzer is the most expensive option tonight for obvious reasons. He has a 1.77 FIP so far this year, a 10.67 strikeout per nine rate, and a home run rate that borderline doesn't even make sense. He's been brilliant. But tonight, things are a little more difficult. Scherzer gets the Blue Jays, a team with the second best wOBA in the bigs, and fifth-best against right-handed pitching. Scherzer's been able to take advantage of bad offenses this year -- a quick look at his matchups show just that -- so there's a little hesitation in going all-in with him tonight. And because of that, I think going all-in assumes risk that's not needed given the other options available, which you can find below.
Alternative Options: Johnny Cueto, Lance Lynn, Noah Syndergaard
Cost-Effective Pitcher
Clay Buchholz – Note: This blurb is from yesterday, but the game was postponed. On single-pitcher sites, I wouldn't recommend fading a high-cost pitcher in cash games tonight. But if you need a second pitcher on a site like DraftKings, our algorithm doesn't totally mind Clay Buchholz. Over his first five starts this year, Buchholz gave up 16 runs in 25 innings of work. He was pretty dreadful. But over his last five, he's gone at least six innings in each outing, surrendering three or fewer runs in all but one contest. And over his last three games, Buchholz has given up a total of five earned runs. His ERA isn't strong at 4.33, but his FIP, which is a better indicator of earned run success, sits at a really favorable 3.06 this year. To make things even better, his strikeout per nine rate is at a career high 9.25. The Twins, his opponent, have hit lefties relatively well this year, but they're hitting to a .299 wOBA against righties, which is sixth worst in baseball.
Alternative Option: Ian Kennedy
High-Cost Hitter
Joey Votto - Adrian Gonzalez is the all-around best value among higher-cost players at first base tonight, but don't sleep on Votto. The Reds will be in Philly -- still a good park for hitters -- against Sean O'Sullivan, who's been dreadful against left-handed bats this year and over his career, allowing lefties to hit to a .382 wOBA against. Votto has a career .414 wOBA against right-handers, with an ISO of .231. If the weather looks OK, Votto should be in your lineup tonight, especially on FanDuel where he's just $3,600.
Jason Kipnis - It may be a little difficult to fit Kipnis in your lineup given his cost, but if you can, definitely do it. His mug has been all over numberFire.com recently because he's been on fire, and he gets right-hander Jeremy Guthrie tonight, giving Kipnis the platoon advantage. Against righties over his career, Kipnis has a .352 wOBA, far above his .298 wOBA against righties. Guthrie sees pretty extreme splits as well -- left-handers have hit to a .357 wOBA against him over his career, which drops to .308 against righties. Kipnis is certainly in play tonight, as is other Indian lefties.
Alternative Options: Paul Goldschmidt, Freddie Freeman
Cost-Effective Hitters
Andre Ethier - I don't want to go overboard with Dodgers, because they're obvious plays again tonight against David Hale. But play Dodgers. More specifically, play Ethier, who's one of the cheaper bats you can get in that lineup. He homered last night during their first game at Coors, and has been a pretty big splits guy over his career, with a .382 wOBA and .204 ISO against right-handers. Both of those numbers are nearly 100 points better than what he's seen against lefties.
Pablo Sandoval - Sandoval is just $100 over the minimum price on FanDuel right now, making him a great value over there. He's a switch-hitter, but still hits right-handed pitching much better than left-handed pitching (.364 wOBA versus .300 wOBA). And that's what he'll get tonight versus Mike Pelfry, who's as mediocre as they come with a 4.24 career FIP. Don't touch Sandoval on DraftKings, but definitely roster him on FanDuel tonight if you're looking to save some cap space.
Alternative Option: Jace Peterson
