FanDuel Tips and Thoughts for 9/8/15

I will be updating this blog throughout the day with my thoughts and tips.

Daniel Murphy is 20 for 59 with 4 homers against Jordan Zimmermann.

Bryce Harper is 0-17 with 7 strikeouts against Matt Harvey.

David Ortiz is 9-28 with 3 homers against RA Dickey.

Jay Bruce is 1 for 18  vs. Liriano.

Melky Cabrera is 7 for 15 vs. Carrasco with a homer.

Jason Heyward is 9 for 16 vs. Hammel

Johnny Peralta is 9 for 23 with two homers off Hammel.

Starlin Castro is 8 for 17 vs. Wacha

Anthony Rizzo is 7 for 17 off Wacha with one homer.

Albert Pujols is 10-23 off Kershaw but no homers.

Logan Morrison is 10-25  vs. Cole Hamels

Pitcher Report:

Kershaw is $13,700 so this means you would only have $2663 left on average for your eight hitters. Is Kershaw worth his price tag tonight?

Kershaw did throw 132 pitches against the Giants in his last outing.

Gausman has a 6.28 ERA on the road.

Sonny Gray has lost his last four starts and gave up six runs to the Angels in his last start.

Hot Bats:

Mookie Betts  11 for last 21

Buster Posey 12 for last 24

Kyle Seager 10 for last 20

Cespedes 16 for last 33

Adam Eaton 13 for last 27

Cold Bats:

Adam Jones 3 for last 23

Brian Dozier 4 for last 28

Edwin Encarnacion 3 for last 20

Melky Cabrera 5 for last 30

Troy Tulowitzki 5 for last 30

Anthony Rendon 6 for last 29

Miguel Sano has struck out 14 times in his last 24 ABs

Bargain hitters:

Brandon Guyer $2400

Guyer mashes lefties and I like him at his price tag going up against a lefty.

Domingo Santana $3200

Santana isn't cheap but I will roster him in some LUs over Braun since Braun is $4800.

Santana is 9 for his last 21.

Jean Segura is $2600 and is 11 for last 30 and gets to face an average lefty tonight.

Angel Pagan is $2900 and is 9 for his last 25 and gets to hit in a hitters' ballpark in Arizona tonight.

Matt Duffy is also $2900 and is 9 for his last 30 and faces an average pitcher at Chase Field.

Johnny Peralta is only $2200 and has had good numbers against Hammel. It might rain in St Louis tonight though.
UPDATE: Peralta is out of the LU for today.

Mikie Mahtook is a Rays outfielder who is $2300 and batting 2nd tonight. I have him in some of my LUs with Kershaw.

Aaron Altherr at $2900 vs. a Braves rookie seems like a good pick as well.

Pitchers I like:

I got LUs with Kershaw, Raisel Iglesias, Aaron Nola, Matt Harvey, and Cole Hamels.

FanDuel MLB Thoughts and Tips for September 4th

I will be updating this throughout the day with more thoughts and tips.

Last night Carlos Gonzalez had two homers but was 1 for 17 lifetime against Ryan Vogelsong. This shows you that the whole batter vs. pitcher angle doesn't mean that much sometimes.

It's good information to have but you have to use it wisely. Don't pick a player just because a hitter did well in small sample sizes.

Batter vs. Pitcher

Brian McCann is 10 for 16 vs. Jake Odirizzi with two homers. How many of you will roster McCann because of these stats?

Bryce Harper is 9-21 against Julio Teheran with two homers and Jose Lobaton is 7-13 with two homers.

Jose Bautista is 2 for 29 against Ubaldo Jimenez. Does this mean you shouldn't roster Jose tonight?

Josh Donaldson is 2 for 15, Edwin Encarnacion is 6 for 30, and Justin Smoak is 2 for 20. Russell Martin is no better and is 9 for 37 against Ubaldo.

Jay Bruce is 11 for 30 with 3 homers off Matt Garza and Todd Frazier is 6 for 19 with 3 homers.

Skip Schumaker is 8 for 19 off of Garza but Schumaker is such a bad hitter right now.

Brandon Moss is 6 for 8 lifetime vs. JA Happ and Mark Reynolds is 0-16.

Gregory Polanco is 8 for 11 against Carlos Martinez.

Charlie Blackmon is 5 for 9 vs. Chris Heston with two homers and DJ LeMathieu is 6 for 9.

Best stacks:

Which game will be the highest-scoring game tonight? I'm looking at hitters' ballparks and I see a lot of runs being scored in Cincy when Garza of the Brewers takes on Sampson of the Reds.

You can make a case always in Coors where Heston of the Giants goes up against De la Rosa.

Heston relies on a sinker though and he could be effective in that ballpark with his pitches. De la Rosa pitches well at home too.

Orioles at Toronto sounds like a duel between great home run hitters on both teams.

Which pitchers do you want to stack against?

I am looking at Pelfrey of the Twins, Hutchison of the Blue Jays, and Sampson of the Reds.


As vs. Mariners:

I would target Valencia, Phegley, and Lawrie since they all hit lefties very well. Marcus Semien is also a good batter vs. lefties.

None of the Mariners have ever hit against Aaron Brooks.

Indians vs. Tigers

Michael Brantley, Francisco Lindor, Jerry Sands, Giovanny Urshula, and Jason Kipnis are good hitters to roster against average lefties like Lobstein.

Ryan Raburn and Carlos Santana might be good hitters to have tonight as well.

Alex Avila has two homers off of Tomlin, Miggy Cabrera is 4 for 9 with a homer, and Ian Kinsler is 5 for 10.

Pirates vs. Cardinals

Randall Grichuk, Mark Reynolds, Brandon Moss, and Johnny Peralta are your targets here against Happ. Peralta has 9 homers against lefties already this season.

Phillies vs. Red Sox

Rusney Castillo, Xander Bogarts,  and Mookie Betts are the best bets against a lefty like Morgan.


Giants vs. Rockies

You can't go wrong with Buster Posey, Andrew Susac, and Marlon Byrd when they take on lefties. Matt Duffy hasn't hit well against lefties but he's getting better at it. Angel Pagan is back from his injury and he has a proven track record vs. lefties as well.

Heston doesn't pitch as well against  left-handed hitters so target the Rockies who bat from the left side here. 

White Sox vs. Royals

Lorenzo Cain smashes lefties so he is in play tonight as one of your three outfielders.Kendrys Morales, Eric Hosmer, and Cain are the top three in hits against lefties in 2015.




Rangers vs. Angels

Mike Trout is a good target here at $4300. CJ Cron is also a good hitter against lefties this season.
Aybar has 38 hits vs. lefties. Shane Victorino is 3 for 3 against Perez.

Hottest hitters:

DJ Lemathiu   14 for 30

Didi Gregorious  14 for 24

Ryan Zimmerman 13 for 28 with 5 homers

Nolan Arenado 13 for 34 with 4 homers

Buster Posey 12 for last 25

Kyle Seager 12 for last 26

Joey Votto 11 for last 20

Charlie Blackmon 12 for last 34

Stephen Piscotty 12 for last 27

The pitchers I am starting tonight are Jacob degrom, Josh Tomlin, Aaron Brooks, Colin McHugh, and Mike  Bolsinger. I also have some rosters with Luis Severino. 

FanDuel GPP Tournament Thoughts and Tips for 8/28/15

I won about $33  in the early GPP tournament yesterday morning but lost $10 in the evening tourney even though I had Joe Ross as my pitcher in most of my LUs.

Clayton Kershaw is $13,000 tonight and that means you would only have $2750 left on average for the eight hitters you have to roster.  The Cubs just lost to another stud lefty in Bumgarner and now they have to face Kershaw.

I have Kershaw in one of my LUs already and my most expensive hitter is Choo at $3200.

There's a bunch of aces going tonight and I don't want any hitters from the opposing teams.

Do you really want any Braves against Tanaka or any Marlins against Scherzer?

I'll be reluctant to have any Giants' hitters against Wacha or any Cubs against Kershaw.


Batter vs. Pitcher

If you are into ownage and batter vs. pitcher stats, Austin Jackson is 23 for 52 with 3 homers lifetime against John Danks!

Marlon Byrd was 14 for 33 against Dan Haren with a few homers and Byrd hit a 3 run homer against Haren yesterday afternoon.

Byrd is 0 for 13 against Wacha. Does this mean we should not roster Byrd?

FanDuel MLB tips and thoughts for 8/27/15

Six games tonight.

How many will be on Andrew McCutchen? I hate having players with high ownership but I love it when these star players don't play well and go 0-4 and an obscure and cheap player gets two homers such as Kris Davis.

I like Trayce Thompson of the White Sox at $3000 since he has mashed lefties since he has arrived from the minors.

Adam Eaton is at $3400 and I feel his salary should be about $2800 because he is just not a good hitter this season. Eaton only has 10 homers and 33 RBIs.

Jason Heyward and some of the other lefty hitters of St.Louis will be hitting against Rubby De La Rosa tonight and Rubby has given up a lot of hits and homers to lefties all season. I like Carpenter and Wong tonight as well.

If you want to load up on a stack of Pirates, I like Marte, Cutch, and Cervelli.

I am taking Bryce Harper in my LUs instead of Cutch though because I feel Cutch will be owned more.


Gerritt Cole and Joe Ross will be my top two pitchers in LUs tonight. Cole faces the lowly Marlins and Ross is at home against the Padres.

You might not go wrong with Carlos Rodon as your starter since he has been striking out a lot of hitters lately and has had success against the Mariners' bats.

MLB FanDuel Thoughts and Tips for 8/27/15 Early morning GPP Tournaments

There's 5 games scheduled this morning and I love morning/afternoon GPP tourneys. The reason I like them so much is because I have found a lot of success playing these tourneys with 3 to 6 games.

There will be high ownership on a lot of hitters and pitchers unlike when there are 15 games scheduled.

What other pitcher are you going to take besides Bumgarner or Greinke? It seems too obvious but your pitcher decision is basically deciding which pitcher to select.

I tend to like to go with the pitcher playing at home.

If you want to be contrarian, Randy Wolf is at 4700.

I expect the Dodgers to beat the Reds, Angels to beat Detroit, Giants to beat the Cubs, Toronto to beat the Rangers, and the Orioles/Royals game could go either way.

I want to load up on hitters on teams that I think will win that day.

Josh Donaldson has been at 6200 lately on FanDuel and that's just too expensive for most DFS players.

If you are into Batter vs. Pitcher stats, here are some hitters that you should target.

Joey Votto is 12 for 27 against Greinke with 3 homers

Albert Pujols is 12 for 42 vs. Wolf with 3 homers

Starlin Castro is 10-24 vs MadBum

Troy Tulowitzki is 11-24  vs. Gallardo with a homer

Marlon Byrd is 14 for 33 vs. Dan Haren with 3 homers


Here's my thoughts on some of the other starters -


Matt Shoemaker at 7600: Shoemaker is not an ace like MadBum or Greinke but he pitched well in his one start in the minors and his confidence should be high coming into this start.

Shoemaker also has a lot to prove after being demoted. I could see him going 7 innings and striking out 7 hitters and getting the win in Detroit. How many will have Shoemaker over Greinke and MadBum? Not many.

Dan Haren is at 6600 and is going up against MadBum. Haren doesn't strike out too many batters and he's been struggling of late. Haren has had good success against the Giants in the past and I am sure he enjoys pitching at AT&T Park.

Yordano Ventura is very reasonable at 8200 and he is at home where he pitches a lot better and going up against the Orioles who can strike out a lot.

Randy Wolf is the cheapest pitcher at 4700 but he will give up some runs and won't get that many strikeouts. You can pick up Bautista and Donaldson and Encarnacion with Wolf as your pitcher but is that really smart?


Hitters: Mike Trout at 5000 and I expect him to be about 45% owned in GPPs. He's going up against an average lefty in Wolf and he could hit a homer or two. Should you fade him? I might in some LUs and hope he doesn't get a homer or two.

Troy Tulowitzki at shortstop might be 50% owned! Buster Posey at catcher could be the same.

FanDuel Lineup Construction tips and how to win a GPP Tournament

I have won a few GPP tournaments on FanDuel and I am here to help out DFS players with tips and info regarding tonight's games.

An advantage goes to the teams that don't  have to go on the road today as many teams such as the Giants, Twins, and Diamondbacks had to travel overnight and their batters will be tired and not fresh.

The Braves go from San Diego to Chicago and a new time zone tonight.

Max Scherzer and Jake Arrieta are two of the most expensive pitchers in today's slate.

My sleeper pitcher pick for tonight is Ivan Nova of the Yankees at $6700 as well as Patrick Corbin vs. the Reds.

Nick Tropeano of the Angels is only $5600 and you can load up on pricey power hitters thanks to Tropeano's cheap salary. Tropeano will be facing the slumping White Sox bats and he will also be pitching at home.

Nova will be going up against the Indians and the Yankees' bats should smash Josh Tomlin at home.

Which games should you stack tonight?

I love a stack of players in the Phillies/Marlins game and the Twins/Orioles game.

As far as team stacks go, I love a four player stack from the Nationals, Yankees, or the Diamondbacks.

The Red Sox have been on fire with the bats lately too and I like to have a four-man stack vs. Danny Duffy in Fenway with righties such as Mookie Betts, Hanley Ramirez, and Xander Boegarts.

My favorite catcher is Buster Posey vs. Charlie Morton at $3600. Wellington Castillo batting cleanup at Cincy is a nice play too.

A sneaky stack might be the Rangers since Alfredo Simon is liable to blow up at any moment.