MLB

MLB Daily Fantasy Helper: Tuesday 8/13/13

It is our expert opinion that Miguel Cabrera is good at baseball, and you should play him in fantasy. It's not always hard being the numbers guys.

We know that people play all sorts of fantasy platforms, not just from from our friends at StarStreet but on other platforms such as FanDuel, Draft Kings, and Fantasy Feud as well. So once again, we have four optimized rosters, all for you, the numberFire reader. One is for free here; the others can be found in our Premium section.

As always, the full tables for today's action are available at our Daily Fantasy Projections page. Make sure to check it out to see where the best values are for your team.

Our baseball projections are updated throughout the day, so make sure to come back to double-check your optimized rosters for any last-minute lineup changes. Since most action happens later in the day, we will be ignoring the early games (if there are any) and focusing solely on the late contests. That way, you can use and tinker with our optimized rosters throughout the day.

Fantasy Feud Optimized Lineup

PlayerPositionProjected FPCostValue
Miguel Cabrera3B3.15$115,6480.03
Bartolo ColonSP6.22$98,8800.06
Gio GonzalezSP6.24$93,2800.07
Kris MedlenSP6.06$92,0000.07
David OrtizDH3.62$89,2320.04
Edwin Encarnacion1B2.66$84,8640.03
Robinson Cano2B2.95$71,7600.04
Troy TulowitzkiSS4.23$71,3440.06
A.J. PierzynskiC2.51$63,4400.04
Dexter FowlerCF3.05$60,5280.05
Jean SeguraSS2.41$60,3200.04
Giancarlo StantonRF2.21$48,0480.05
Matt TuiasosopoLF2.23$47,8400.05

Star Street, Draft Kings, and FanThrowdown Optimized Rosters

For the optimal rosters for the other main players, be sure to check out our brand new Daily Fantasy Optimized Rosters for our Premium members. We know that you're killing it with our picks; maybe now you'll help us continue to help you win each night, every night.

Access to the optimal rosters is immediate, and you'll have it constantly updated for the latest injury news and updates from around the league. The best news of all? For new subscribers, you can use the promo code WELCOME and get it 50% off what was already the reduced price. Think of the savings!

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The Top Three Pitchers

Bartolo Colon – You could basically scrape together a solid daily fantasy baseball season simply by starting whoever is pitching against the Astros. As a team, Houston ranks 29th in batting average, 29th in total WAR, 25th in runs scored and 1st in strikeout rate. Fortunately for you, you get to start Bartolo Colon today, and he’s significantly better than the run-of-the-mill guy who usually mows down the Astros. Colon’s 2.75 ERA ranks 6th in the AL.

Gio Gonzalez – In a lost season for Washington, the Nats’ pitching has remained nearly as good as it was in last season’s division-winning campaign. Gonzalez is still one of the better pitchers in the NL, with a 3.52 ERA and a 9.21 K/9 that ranks 8th in the NL. And tonight he faces the banjo-hitting Giants who effectively rank last in the NL in runs scored. (Yeah, they’re ahead of the Marlins, but those guys are basically a AAA team this year.)

Kris Medlen – Sure, he hasn’t been as insanely good as he was last year, but Medlen’s still been plenty solid. His 3.85 ERA and 7.04 K/9 are both fine fantasy value, and he hasn’t struck out fewer than four batters in a start since July 2, so he’s been fairly consistent. Plus, he’s facing the Phillies who rank just 12th in the NL in runs scored but 7th in K rate.

Top High-Priced Hitters

Miguel Cabrera – At this point, not playing Cabrera is like walking away from a hot blackjack table. Why bother? Dude is by far the best hitter in the majors right now, has homered four straight games and five of six, and this weekend became the first hitter ever to homer in consecutive appearances against Mariano Rivera. But Hector Santiago is going to be the guy to put out the fire? Doubtful. For his career, Santiago has allowed righties to slug 142 points better against him than lefties. And Cabrera is hitting .424 against lefties this season. Yeah.

David Ortiz – Todd Redmond has thrown all of 35 major league innings. Todd Redmond is a right-handed pitcher. David Ortiz is hitting .361 and slugging .674 against right-handed pitchers this year. David Ortiz is facing Todd Redmond tonight. This concludes your David Ortiz paragraph.

Cost-Effective, Mid-Range Hitters

Matt Tuiasosopo – Let’s play a game. Player A is hitting .283/.403/.517 this year. Player B hit .290/.361/.608 last year, his best season in the majors, before battling injuries this year. Player A is Tuiasosopo and Player B is Giancarlo Stanton, our other cost-effective hitter. The point is, Tuiasosopo is having a pretty darn good year. Oh, and he’s even homering more frequently than Stanton this year (about 20 Pas/HR versus about 24). Both have good matchups with Tuiasosopo getting a favorable matchup against Santiago and Stanton facing Bruce Chen.