Fanduel MLB Lineup for 06/01/17

*Chris Durell*

Fanduel MLB Lineup for 06/01/17

Welcome back to another day of daily fantasy baseball. Thursday, as always, gives us a split day/night slate and today we get four early games and four evening games. If you are playing on FanDuel beware that the early slate only includes three games and if you want exposure to the Rockies/Mariners you will have to play the all-day slate.

Put your favorite stacks from the article below in our lineup optimizer and hit calculate. You can let it fill in the rest of the spots for you or choose your personal favorites from the MLB Player Lab.

**STARTING PITCHERS**

Early Slate

Corey Kluber
Opponent – vs. OAK
Park – Progressive Field(Hitter Positive)
Vegas Favorite (CLE -220)
Vegas Total (8.5)

The Indians come in as the biggest favorites on either slate as Corey Kluber makes his return to the mound after a month on the disabled list. He was pretty much dominant in his rehab start and will look to shut down the A’s offense this afternoon. He comes in with a healthy 9.9 K/9 and 11.5% swinging strike rate on the season and while the ERA is less than attractive (5.06), the xFIP (3.68) suggests he has been pitching much better. He gets a great matchup to build on his strikeout and overall numbers as the A’s sit mid-pack when looking at team wOBA and wRC+ vs. right-handed pitching but has been striking out over 24% of the team. Things have been even worse for the A’s over the last week as they sit with low .286 wOBA and ridiculous 35% K rate over the last seven days. Load up on Kluber in all formats on the early slate.

Main Slate

Zack Greinke
Opponent – @ MIA
Park – Marlins Park(Pitcher Positive)
Vegas Favorite (ARI -117)
Vegas Total (8.0)

I will ride with Greinke tonight who, despite allowing 4+ ER in two of his last three starts, is having a great start to his season. Through 11 starts he sits with a 10.5 K/9 rate and a career high 14.3% swinging strike rate. Even with those two bad starts recently he still sports a 3.44 ERA and xFIP (3.08) that nearly 40 points lower meaning better things to come. Tonight he faces a red-hot team in the Marlins who rank second in wOBA over the past seven days. Don’t worry too much, however, as looking into the season long splits they have been much better against southpaws. It is a lot to pay tonight, especially on DraftKings so if you are looking for more of an affordable way to get bats in your lineup, Marco Estrada makes a fine choice. He also has a tougher matchup vs. the Yankees but comes at a near $3K discount on DK.

**OFFENSIVE STACKS**

Early Slate

Cleveland Indians vs. Jharel Cotton (OAK)
Park – Progressive Field (Hitter Positive)
Vegas – (CLE -220)
Vegas Total (8.5)

The pitching on the early slate of games, especially on FanDuel, is half decent making it tough to find an option to stack against. If you are playing the early slate on DraftKings, it makes sense to stack either the Rockies or Mariners in a game stack scenario but on FanDuel we are going to pick on young Jharel Cotton of the A’s. He flashed some upside in his brief five-start stint in 2016 but has struggled in his first eight starts in 2017. He comes into tonight with a 5.56 ERA and 5.05 xFIP that suggests things won’t get much better anytime soon. He has strikeout upside with a swinging strike rate above 10% but has been getting hit hard when not missing bats and has given up six home runs in his last three starts. The Indians offense started the year off slow but have been heating up since the return to health of Michael Brantley and Jason Kipnis. Over the past seven days, they sit with a Top 10 wOBA (.44) and wRC+ (115) and have hit nine home runs. Today they will throw out a lefty-heavy lineup to face Cotton and have the most upside of any team on the early slate.

Main Stack – Jason Kipnis, Francisco Lindor, Michael Brantley, Carlos Santana

Secondary Options – Jose Ramirez, Bradley Zimmer

Main Slate

Toronto Blue Jays vs. C.C. Sabathia (NYY)
Park – Rogers Centre (Hitter Friendly)
Vegas – (TOR -135)
Vegas Total (9.0)

First of all, I am really excited to have the opportunity to write about my favorite team smashing the ball once again. It was a rough April that saw the Jays score just 89 runs which was third-worst in the entire league. What a difference a month can make as going into Wednesday night’s action they have already scored 143 total runs and sit second in the league with 47 home runs. They also went into Wednesday night’s game (writing this Weds afternoon) having won eight of their last nine games while scoring an average of six runs per game in that stretch and that’s with Josh Donaldson hitting just .250 since his return. He is going to heat up with more at-bats and the good news is that he hit a home run on Tuesday going 2-4 on the day. Speaking of heating up, Jose Bautista has been on a tear over the past few weeks hitting .429 with a .548 wOBA and six home runs since May 13.

Main Stack – Kevin Pillar, Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Kendrys Morales

Secondary Players for Stack – Troy Tulowitzki, Justin Smoak