Daily Fantasy Baseball Advice – 8/24/16
Chris Durell
Welcome back to another full day of daily fantasy baseball. It’s Hump Day and that means another split slate. The early slate gives us five games (only four on DraftKings) leaving us with a nice 10 game evening slate that kicks off at 7:00 PM et. Both slates look very viable today when looking at both pitchers and stacks. Let’s take a look a few top targets for each slate.
Pitchers
Kyle Hendricks FD 9200 DK 12900
Opponent – SD (Clemens) Park – @SD
FD – 37.02 DK – 24.12
If you are playing the early slate, and I highly suggest you do, Kyle Hendricks is your top option. The Cubs are big -250 favorites as they will try to sweep the Padres in Petco today. Hendricks has been good all season for the Cubs and even better lately with a 1.23 ERA in four August starts. He should have no problem cruising through the Padres lineup as they rank dead last in wOBA and second last in wRC+ when facing right handed pitching. Hendricks is safe option for cash games and has shown us the upside to be a viable option in GPP’s as well. I’m confident locking him in the mlb optimizer for several lineups in any contest format.
Zack Greinke FD 10000 DK 9600
Opponent – ATL (Teheran) Park – @ARI
FD – 32.67 DK – 21.66
Jose Fernandez and Yu Darvish both make great high end options on both sites with their respective K upside and matchups. But if you are looking for a viable pivot, take a shot with Zack Greinke. The park(Chase Field) isn’t the most appealing but the matchup is very appealing. He faces the Braves today who rank 29th in wOBA and 30th in wRC+ against right handed pitching. I am taking the Braves latest scoring surge with a grain of salt today as they have been facing the D Backs weaker arms. Outside of a few bad starts, Greinke has been solid this season with an above average K rate(7.84 K/9) and below average walk rate(1.74 BB/9) to go with his 3.67 xFIP. And of course, we know what he is capable of when he turns it on. He is a little over priced on FanDuel but is safe in all formats on DraftKings.
Stacks
Chicago Cubs vs. Paul Clemens (Padres)
Park – Petco Park
The early slate has Cubs written all over it. I mentioned Hendricks above as a top pitcher and the offense sits as a top stacking option as well. The Cubs are big -250 favorites and currently projected to score over five runs today. While Petco is known to be a pitchers park, the offense and the matchup are just too much to ignore. The Cubs will face Paul Clemens who has bounced between the bullpen and rotation this season and has not been very good with a 5.72xFIP and 20% HR/FB rate. He has struggled against both sides of the plate but especially against right handed bats as he is giving up a .434 wOBA and a .655 Slugging Percentage. The Cubs are loaded from top to bottom making almost all their hitters viable as stack options in the mlb optimizer. It will all depend on the lineup and where everyone is hitting today. Keep an eye on our mlb starting lineups page.
Minnesota Twins vs. Matt Boyd (Tigers)
Park – Target Field
The Twins make an excellent stacking option tonight as they face the Tigers at home in the highest projected Vegas total of the night. They will most likely be under owned as they are not your typical power offense but they do rank as a Top 10 option when facing left handed pitching with a 103 wRC+ for the season. They will face Matt Boyd who has been on cruise control lately but still has been disappointing overall with a 4.75 xFIP. He comes with just an average K rate(7.47 K/9) and can get into trouble with walks on occasion(3.01 BB/9). He tends to run his pitch count up early in most starts which limits him from going deep into games which also boosts the Twins as the Tigers relievers rank 24th in ERA overall. The top targets in the optimizer are Brian Dozier, Miguel Sano and Trevor Plouffe.