DFS MLB Lineups for April 23, 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. We nailed it all yesterday en route to a big, profitable day so let’s try and replicate that success today.

Another thing to remember outside of making sure your guy is in the lineup, 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!

4/23/17 MAIN SLATE TOURNAMENT RUNDOWN

DraftKings Nifty Fifty: $50 buy-in, $300k guaranteed  
DraftKings Four Seamer: $4 buy-in, $125k guaranteed (20 entry max)
DraftKings Perfect Game: $333 buy-in, $175k guaranteed 
FanDuel Rally: $7 buy-in, $100k guaranteed
FanDuel Grand Slam: $44 buy-in, $200k guaranteed
FanDuel Squeeze: $3 buy-in, $100k guaranteed

DFS MLB START TIMES, STARTING PITCHERS & GAME TOTALS FOR TODAY’S GAMES

1:10p: Astros (Musgrove) @ Rays (Andriese): 8.5
1:10p: Cubs (Lackey) @ Reds (Arroyo): 9
1:35p: Yankees (Montgomery) @ Pirates (Nova): 7.5
1:35p: Red Sox (Rodriguez) @ Orioles (Gausman): 9
1:35p: Braves (Foltynewicz) @ Phillies (Eflin): 8.5
2:10p: Tigers (Fulmer) @ Twins (Gibson): 8.5
2:10p: Indians (Salazar) @ White Sox (Holland): 8.5
2:10p: Cardinals (Leake) @ Brewers (Nelson): 8.5

Best DFS MLB Pitchers for April 23, 2017

Danny Salazar @ CWS ($11.3k DraftKings, $10.1k FanDuel)
While he comes with plenty of risk, Salazar also has tremendous upside in this matchup. The White Sox have scored the second-fewest runs in the Majors so far this season, while ranking 29th in wOBA versus righties. They’ve also go the 4th highest K% against RHP and the current White Sox are sporting an absurd 42.8% K-Rate with 36 strikeouts over 84 career at-bats against Salazar. The hard-throwing righty is off to a great start from a DFS perspective with 27 K’s over 3 outings, 11 of which came against the Northsiders, and he’s certainly capable of mowing them down again on the road this Sunday. Kluber crushed. Carrasco crushed. Now it’s Salazar’s turn.

Ivan Nova vs. NYY ($8k DraftKings, $7.3k FanDuel)
After a rare blip in his sustained string of solid performances, Nova got right back to it with a Quality Start (8 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 K’s) while taking a hard luck loss in St. Louis this past Monday. Now he’ll return to PNC Park to face his former team. Nova has really enjoyed the spacious confines of Pittsburgh’s stadium, a place where he posted a 2.45 ERA with a .238 BAA over six appearances last season. Nova has a healthy ground ball rate which could help to hold down this surging Yankees offense. Given his price point and everyone wanting Salazar, Nova will likely be next highest owned pitcher on the slate so a tournament fade could also be in play.

Mike Leake @ MIL ($7k DraftKings, $7.9k FanDuel)
Of course, they don’t hand out CY Young Awards for performances in April, but if the season ended today, Leake would be a top contender for that honor. He’s been nothing short of stellar with a 0.84 ERA and 0.84 WHIP over 3 starts and is limiting opposing bats to very little hard contact. His sinker is working wonders, as he’s drawn 36 ground ball outs at a 57% GB Rate. Tonight he faces a Brewers team that leads the Majors with a 25.5% K-Rate, so he has a little more upside than usual given the matchup.

Other pitchers to consider: Michael Fulmer, John Lackey, Jordan Montgomery 

Best DFS MLB Hitters for April 23, 2017

Mookie Betts @ BAL ($5.5k DraftKings, $4.4k FanDuel)
It’s certainly tough to afford Betts on either main DFS site, but it might be worth using him along with a couple of value plays in the OF and it’s certainly possible to save at SP with guys like Mike Leake available. Betts and the Sox face an inconsistent RHP in Kevin Gausman, who was just lit up for 8 ER over 2.2 IP in Cincinnati and has generally looked vulnerable with a 7.23 ERA and 2.04 WHIP over 4 appearances this year. Betts is 9-for-21 with 2 HR in his career against the young righty and he brings even more upside to the table due to his elite speed. Betts might be best utilized in some sort of stack, because when Gausman is bad, he’s real bad, and it’s best to take advantage with more pieces.

Edwin Encarnacion @ CWS ($4.6k DraftKings, $3.6k FanDuel)
Like SP Danny Salazar, Encarnacion comes with a high ceiling and a low floor in tonight’s matchup. The Indians are worth stacking against southpaw Derek Holland, who pitched around 4 walks to limit the Indians over 6 IP in a meeting last week, but could struggle in a rematch. Encarnacion is 7-for-18 with 2 doubles and 3 homers in his career against Holland and posted a .275 ISO mark against lefties last year, so he could find his power stroke in this matchup. Holland just doesn’t strikeout righties sporting a sub 14% K rate against them last year, so E5 is going to put the bat on the ball, and for our sake, let’s hope it goes a long way.

Miguel Montero @ CIN ($3.6k DraftKings, $2.6k FanDuel)
Even before glancing at his career splits against weak RHP Bronson Arroyo, I had the sense that Montero’s been very successful against a righty with a low arm angle and a tendency to struggle against the platoon. Sure enough, he’s 8-for-17 with 3 homers in his career against Arroyo, who appears completely showered at the age of 40, having given up 14 runs and 5 HR over 3 appearances so far this season. His 11% K rate and 11% walk rate to lefties makes this play even more attractive. The Cubs are a premier stacking option and Montero should draw the start behind the plate. They’ll be chalky, but it’d be a shock if they didn’t put up every bit of their 5 run implied total.

Other hitters to consider: Anthony Rizzo, Andrew Benintendi, Odubel Herrera, Victor Martinez, Corey Dickerson, Freddie Freeman, Aledmys Diaz 

4/23/17 DFS MLB STACKS

Cubs vs Bronson Arroyo
The top stack tonight is so obvious that it might be worth fading in GPP formats with Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber and Kris Bryant likely to see very heavy ownership. You can’t really afford all three of those sluggers if you roster Salazar, but you can target more power-hitting Cubs with mid-tier plays such as Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist. Javier Baez is one of my favorite plays to consider as a candidate to go yard off Arroyo and we covered Miguel Montero as an appealing value.

Tigers vs Kyle Gibson
Miguel Cabrera has hit the DL, which may cause some DFSers to ignore a Tigers stack, but the next men up could certainly tag a vulnerable RHP in Kyle Gibson. The Twins starter is 0-2 with a 6.91 ERA and a very weak swinging-strike rate while coughing up 4 homers already this season. He’s had trouble with the remaining Tigers thumpers in Victor Martinez and Ian Kinsler, while we could see a platoon specialist such as Tyler Collins step in at 1B with Cabrera out. Also consider Alex Avila as a lefty with upside against Gibson, who allowed LHB to post a .380 wOBA last season.

Rays vs Joe Musgrove
The Astros young RHP had a great rookie campaign but it appears that the MLB has a book on him now and it’s going to be tough for him to get outs consistently without a plus fastball. Musgrove’s given up 10 ER while walking 5 batters over three starts and failed to record a Quality Start in any of those outings. Now he travels to Tropicana Field, where the Rays can surprise with the occasional offensive explosion, so look at Corey Dickerson, Evan Longoria and Brad Miller as high-upside additions to a somewhat contrarian stack. You can also use Steve Souza Jr. and/or Kevin Kiermaier as value plays in the outfield and Tim Beckham is quite cheap as a shortstop.

Other Stacks to consider:
Red Sox vs. Kevin Gausman
Cardinals vs. Jimmy Nelson
Astros vs. Matt Andriese