DFS MLB Lineups for April 22, 2017 at Draftkings.com & Fanduel.com
For this baseball season, each day there’s a good slate of DFS MLB games, we’ll be writing up a group of pitchers and hitters that we’re considering for our cash and GPP lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel. We’ll also provide a list of stacks to consider, MLB start times, starting pitchers, and game run totals to give you a good idea of where the fantasy goodness might come from on a given night. As with any DFS sport, the advice below is relevant for fantasy purposes. A player or team might be better or worse from a fantasy perspective than they are in real life due to matchup, price, park factor, etc. This is important when constructing a roster.
The best advice we can give this early in the season is to remember that baseball is a game of variance. You can make a really solid lineup and still fall short of the cash line. Even the best pitchers have horrible starts, and the best hitters in the game can still go 0 for 4. Baseball is funny like that. Trust the process and know that if you’re playing quality lineups, you’ll be a winner in the long term.
Another thing to remember is to always check the weather. Always. Make this something that is part of your basic routine. Baseball games can get postponed! Your players receive no points from postponed games!
4/22/17 MAIN SLATE TOURNAMENT RUNDOWN
DraftKings Saturday Slugfest: $40 buy-in, $250k guaranteed
DraftKings Four Seamer: $4 buy-in, $115k guaranteed (20 entry max)
DraftKings Perfect Game: $333 buy-in, $150k guaranteed
FanDuel Rally: $7 buy-in, $77k guaranteed
FanDuel Monster: $333 buy-in, $100k guaranteed
FanDuel Squeeze: $4 buy-in, $175k guaranteed
DFS MLB START TIMES, STARTING PITCHERS & GAME TOTALS FOR TODAY’S GAMES
7:05p: Red Sox (Wright) @ Orioles (Aquino): 9
7:05p: Braves (Garcia) @ Phillies (Eickhoff): 8
7:10p: Indians (Carrasco) @ White Sox (Pelfrey): 7.5
7:10p: Cardinals (Lynn) @ Brewers (Anderson): 8.5
8:05p: Royals (Kennedy) @ Rangers (Martinez): 9
8:10p: Giants (Moore) @ Rockies (Senzatela): 11
8:10p: Dodgers (Maeda) @ Diamondbacks (Ray): 9
8:40p: Marlins (Straily) @ Padres (Weaver): 8
9:07p: Blue Jays (Lawrence) @ Angels (Skaggs): 9
Best DFS MLB Pitchers for April 22, 2017
Carlos Carrasco @ CWS ($10.9k DraftKings, $10.3k FanDuel)
Carrasco is going to be the mega chalk and when a pitcher is going to be 40%+ owned, there is always merit to fading them in tournaments. That said, he’s going to be the mega chalk, despite his high price tag, for good reason. The White Sox are a complete disaster right now. They don’t walk (6.5%), strikeout a ton (22.8% total, 25.1% vs RHP), 28th in wOBA and 20th in ISO. Corey Kluber just destroyed them last night with a 9 strikeout, complete game shutout worth 44.25 DK points. Carrasco is a strikeout per inning guy as it is, then add in the White Sox factor, and we could easily see 8-10 strikeouts over 7 innings and a win bonus. He’s a must play for cash and I’ll have very few, if any, lineups that don’t have Carrasco. Again, game theory players will tell you the correct play is to fade any pitcher that will be as highly owned as Carrasco will be tonight, however he’s by far the best option taking the mound while also possessing the highest upside.
Jerad Eickhoff vs ATL ($8.3k DraftKings, $8.3k FanDuel)
Despite giving up a bomb in each of his first three starts of 2017, Eickhoff has managed to post three quality starts in those outings. Those QS came against the surprisingly good Reds offense, the Mets, and the definitely good Nationals. Today he draws the Braves, a one man offense made up of Freddie Freeman. They did get Matt Kemp back, but he’s striking out at a 29% clip in his limited ABs this season. Eickhoff isn’t flashy with the K’s, but he’s great at limiting damage. If he can give us 7 innings, strikeout 5-6, and get the win, he’s a great option as your SP2 to pair up with Carrasco.
Other pitchers to consider: Dan Straily, Robbie Ray, Lance Lynn
Best DFS MLB Hitters for April 22, 2017
Mike Moustakas @ TEX ($3.5k DraftKings, $3.2k FanDuel)
As long as the sites keep underpricing Moustakas, we’ll keep writing him up when he’s in a good matchup. Moose is doing this year what he’s done his whole career to righties. In our short season so far, he’s got a .411 wOBA, .317 ISO, is only striking out at a 13% clip, and has hit 4 of his 5 homers against RHP. Bonus: Nick Martinez isn’t even a decent right handed pitcher! He gives up right at 2 dongs per 9 innings pitched (even more in home starts), doesn’t strike anybody out, and last season allowed LHB a wOBA over .425. That’s not good. Third base is loaded with options tonight like Nolan Arenado at Coors, Jake Lamb vs Maeda, and Joey Gallo against fly ball prone Ian Kennedy. Moustakas is cheaper than all of them is likely where to land in cash and I personally, will have tournament shares as well.
Other hitters to consider: Rougned Odor, Matt Carpenter, Hanley Ramirez, Eric Thames, Chris Davis, Brandon Moss, Cesar Hernandez, Justin Smoak, Nomar Mazara
4/22/17 DFS MLB STACKS
Coors Field
The Rockies are facing the Giants and Matt Moore, a team and pitcher they faced just a week ago. That was in San Fran, at a pitcher’s park, and they still touched up Moore for 10 hits and five runs in 5 2/3 innings. Of course, this is at hitter friendly Coors Field where the Rockies will enter with a slate high 5.5 implied run total. The usual suspects are all in play here with Arenado, Story, and LeMahieu all popping as fantastic tournament plays. On the other side, Senzatela has been great so far for the Rockies, including a 7 inning gem at Coors (it was against the Padres). The Giants have a healthy total as well, but Senzatela just hasn’t allowed a lot of fly balls and has limited hard contact as well. Considering the Giants inflated prices and the fact that they don’t have a ton of power anyway, I’ll probably have very limited exposure.
Chase Field
Only putting in a couple lineups? Wanna dodge some of the crowd? Chase Field is easily the second best hitting environment in all of baseball, and tonight we’ve got two pitchers on the hill that most people are going to look to avoid. Robbie Ray could definitely succeed here. He’s a southpaw and the Dodgers are loaded with lefty bats and when they go RHB heavy, they lose a lot of talent. But Ray is no stranger to the blowup. Last season we saw several occasions where Ray gave up 4-5 runs in 3-5 innings. Also, his command has been suspect in his last two starts, walking 5 in 6 2/3 innings and 4 in 6 innings. The Dodgers are likely to insert Scott Van Slyke ($2.8k DK) and Kike Hernandez ($2.8k DK) into the lineup and make for nice, cheap, one off plays. On the other side, the Diamondbacks get Kenta Maeda who has had a rough start to 2017. Maeda has yet to go more than 5 innings, has given up a homer in each start, and gave up 4ER to this very D’backs team last week in just 4 innings. I very much like the Diamondbacks as a pivot off of Coors and the Rockies/Giants.
Other stacks to consider:
Indians vs Mike Pelfrey
Red Sox vs Jayson Aquino
Marlins vs Jered Weaver
