FantasyScore Daily Fantasy Baseball Primer: Thursday 4/23/15
Season-long fantasy baseball can be tough to keep track of. As an alternative, why not give daily fantasy baseball a try? More specifically, why not play over at FantasyScore.com?
FantasyScore has tons of games to choose from -- including regular freerolls going on now -- and compete in for real cash prizes. And the best part is that you have zero season-long commitments -- you can draft a new team tomorrow if you want.
With an interesting slate going on tonight in baseball, it's a perfect time to try it out. And to help you, we're giving out our FantasyScore optimized lineup, which you can find below.
| Player | Salary | FP |
|---|---|---|
| Max Scherzer (SP, WSH) | $9,200.00 | 11.51 |
| Bartolo Colon (SP, NYM) | $4,100.00 | 10.24 |
| Mike Trout (LF, LAA) | $6,400.00 | 4.74 |
| Miguel Cabrera (1B, DET) | $5,900.00 | 4.54 |
| Matt Kemp (CF, SD) | $5,200.00 | 4.75 |
| Dee Gordon (2B, MIA) | $4,700.00 | 4.12 |
| Charlie Blackmon (RF, COL) | $3,700.00 | 4.33 |
| Jimmy Rollins (SS, LAD) | $3,500.00 | 3.73 |
| Derek Norris (C, SD) | $3,300.00 | 3.45 |
| Chase Headley (3B, NY) | $3,200.00 | 2.57 |
As usual, let's focus on the pitchers first. Max Scherzer is bound to be one of the most heavily used hurlers today, as he's facing a decent Cardinals lineup in an average pitcher's park. In other words, the matchup is very mediocre. But Scherzer is more than capable of striking out a lot of batters, as evidenced by his silly-good career 9.61 strikeouts per nine rate. Vegas sees the Cardinals scoring under three runs, and when you combine that with Scherzer's strikeout upside, he becomes an obvious top play.
Bartolo Colon, the other pitcher in the lineup, isn't as obvious. FantasyScore has him priced as the 14th most expensive pitcher on the day though, which makes him a pretty strong value considering our algorithm has him as the fourth-best pitching option. He's facing a Braves lineup that's been doing a good job of not striking out this year (bottom five in K rate), but the team is a middle-of-the-road one. Like Scherzer, Vegas doesn't see this game scoring a lot of runs (seven run over/under), which is also enticing when it comes to Colon. But in all, this is most definitely a cost play -- you're getting an incredibly cheap pitcher who, per our numbers, really should produce.
Rather than going through the big bats in the lineup, let's take a look at two of the more cost-effective players: Chase Headley and Derek Norris.
Now, I couldn't blame you if you opted for other players at these positions, because both Norris and Moose don't have the platoon advantage today. However, Norris is still playing at Coors Field, and regardless of handedness, he's been killing the ball there in the Padres' series against the Rockies. Do keep in mind though that Norris has pretty extreme lefty-righty splits -- he would be the ideal play against a lefty, but he's just a pretty good one against right-hander Jordan Lyles. It's not a bad idea to load up on Padres bats once again, as this game has a very high 10.5 run over/under.
Chase Headley's splits are favorable when he's facing a right-handed pitcher, which he will today in Detroit as he goes against Anibal Sanchez. Over his career, Headley hits to a .340 wOBA against righties (.318 against lefties), while his ISO remains nearly identical depending on the split. The Yankees won't do what they did yesterday, but the lineup is capable of scoring runs, and Headley's a fairly cheap way in getting some exposure to it.
Enter the lineup now over at FantasyScore.com!
