FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball (DFS) Picks for Thursday, September 17: Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Justin Smoak, 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.

I generally like to avoid the Thursday games because of a more limited selection; the early slate contains only two games, and the late one contains only seven. But if a fantasy owner wants to play today, some things stick out. In particular, Matt Moore is returning from Tommy John surgery and is having a very rough go; Moore's ERA sits at 8.42 while his FIP sits at 6.40. Right handed batters have been most responsible for these poor results, hitting him to a .382/.462/.584 slash line. Moore is walking RHB at a 10% rate and is not missing bats; he's running a significantly below average 12% K% vs RHB.

A righty in Baltimore's lineup that is priced affordably and likely has a good chance at production is Adam Jones ($2,800). Jones has hit LHP to a 116 wRC+ and .215 ISO and hits in the middle of the order. Manny Machado ($3,800) has hit LHP to a 120 wRC+ and .201 ISO and usually hits at the top of the order, giving him extra cracks at more PAs. Another guy who is worth considering based on lineup slot is Nolan Reimold ($2,800), who hit leadoff yesterday against a lefty and has been an above average hitter vs LHP the last two years. If Reimold is hitting leadoff again, playing him vs Moore as a (probably) low owned play and salary relief option is worth considering if a fantasy owner needs more cap room to spend elsewhere.

Matt Wisler has been ineffective this year with a 5.60 ERA and 5.16 FIP and faces the high scoring Blue Jays offense in Atlanta. Looking at his splits, Wisler has actually been effective vs righties, posting an above average .246/.288/.401 slash line with a 3.03 FIP, but lefties have destroyed him to a .342/.449/.618 slash with a 7.70 FIP. Justin Smoak ($2,900) is a lower cost lefty 1B option that can hit for power; Smoak has hit RHP to a .227 ISO, although it comes with an average 99 wRC+. The speedy Ben Revere has hit RHP to a 106 wRC+ and has hit leadoff lately. Revere also poses a SB threat.

At the time of writing this, I am undecided on which starting pitcher I plan on playing. Corey Kluber ($11,000) makes his first start back from a hamstring injury against a Royals offense that doesn't strike out much vs RHP (15.5% K%, which is lowest in baseball), and I don't know how sharp he will be coming off the hamstring problem. Yordano Ventura looked to possibly be turning a corner in his development with 5 straight high quality starts but has performed poorly in his last two.

Rookie stud Lance McCullers ($8,700) is a tempting play against the Rangers, although I have some reservations. The Rangers offense contains some dangerous hitters, particularly lefties, including Prince Fielder (140 wRC+ vs RHP), Shin Soo Choo (141 wRC+ vs RHP), Mitch Moreland (136 wRC+ vs RHP) and Rougned Odor (114 wRC+ vs RHP). On the season, though, the Rangers have a mediocre team offense vs RHP, and McCullers takes a very strong 24% K%, 3.10 ERA and 2.96 FIP into Arlington. He also provides salary relief to spend on hitting. (McCullers did get destroyed by those Rangers in Arlington in early August, but the sample size is way, way too small to draw any conclusions from that).

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