FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball (DFS) picks for Thursday, June 4: Jose Altuve, Mookie Betts, Mike Napoli, more

Reminder: Always double check the lineup card before rosters lock to make sure that a player you've chosen to roster is playing that day, and check the weather to make sure your players won't get rained out of their game.

Early

Red Sox (not Pablo Sandoval or David Ortiz) vs LHP Tommy Milone

The biggest eye opener tomorrow is Tommy Milone in Fenway Park. Milone is a soft tossing fly ball pitcher (41% career) who tosses from the left side. 41% of his BIP have been pulled, which is above average. Pulled fly balls from RHB in Fenway Park is a recipe for run scoring. The Red Sox have not hit LHP this year, but this is primarily because of ridiculously low BABIPs from some of their key hitters that should significantly improve as the season goes along. Mookie Betts (.190), Dustin Pedroia (.222) and Mike Napoli (.200) all should see large improvements in their BABIPs vs LHP. Specifically, Betts is ending 20% of his at bats vs LHP with a hard hit ball, well above the average of 15%, but hasn't had the results to show for it yet. Betts ($3,000), Pedoria ($3,000) (although I like Altuve a lot more at 2B, more below), and Napoli ($3,200) all are ending 19%-20% of their at bats with a hard hit ball vs LHP. Napoli's 148 wRC+ vs LHP from 2013-present is also 14th best in baseball.

Hanley Ramirez ($3,600) is one of the biggest lefty mashers in baseball, although the shoulder injury that he's been playing through has caused his production to drop off since the injury. Some reason for hope is that he's hit much better in the last week, but that sample is too small to draw any long term conclusions from. I will be rolling the dice with him, though, his numbers against LHP in recent years (178 wRC+ in 271 PA since 2013) are too large to ignore.

Astros RHB vs Wei Yin Chen

Chen has a below average FIP of 4.33 vs RHB and he's allowed an above average 41% FB% to RHB in his career, which is a good thing in Minute Maid park. Jose Altuve ($3,800) is a much better, although more expensive, 2B play than Dustin Pedroia. Since making a swing adjustment in 2014, Altuve is hitting LHP to a 181 wRC+ in 235 PA. George Springer ($3,600) has a career 132 wRC+/.214 ISO vs LHP and has been batting leadoff, giving him more cracks at fantasy points with extra PAs.

P- Dallas Keuchel, $9,800

Keuchel faces a bottom third Orioles offense vs LHP by wRC+ (95), and strong lefty hitting Adam Jones being hobbled recently is probably a plus for the matchup. Keuchel likely will not turn in a high strikeout total, but he's a ground ball machine who will go deep into games and prevent runs at an elite level.

Late

1B- Lucas Duda vs. Jeremy Hellickson, $3,900

Duda's 154 wRC+ vs RHP in 626 PA since the start of 2014 is 7th best in baseball. He gets a massive park upgrade in Chase Field and faces Jeremy Hellickson, whose 4.64 FIP vs LHB since the start of 2014 is 26th worst among starters.

3B- Evan Longoria vs. Roenis Elias, $3,200

Longoria's 148 wRC+ vs LHP from 2013-present is 15th best in baseball, and Elias' 4.38 career FIP vs RHB is below average. Longoria presents one of the best value plays on the night slate.

P- (high ceiling tournament play)- Carlos Rodon vs Texas Rangers, $6,800

Lefty masher Adrian Beltre is out injured, Shin Soo Choo has decided to play through a left finger injury that otherwise would require a pin inserted and a month on the DL, strikeout prone LHB Joey Gallo has been called up this week...this is not the same Ranger lineup. Don't start Rodon in a cash game, but in a tournament where you need a high ceiling roster that needs 70+ FanDuel points to take the tournament down, Rodon is capable of putting together a 16 point game and providing huge amounts of salary relief to spend on high quality hitters. Rodon's stuff is electric, and Arlington's park is playing much more pitcher friendly since having construction done that changed the wind patterns. FanDuel's scoring system is also favorable to strikeout pitchers like Rodon (ZiPS has him at 9.78 K/9 the rest of the season), because you aren't penalized for walks or hits. In a multi entry tournament, I'm using one of my entries on a Rodon lineup with stacked hitting.

Follow me on Twitter at @TimFinn521, I usually tweet out more good options as lineups are released.